Abel - Atonement
This section covers a topic that most of us find hard to accept. That we are accepted despite all our imperfections. The price has been paid and that nothing can separate us from the love of God. What sort of picture does the word 'atonement' conjure up in your mind? Do people see it as another strange theological word, if so what is the danger in this?
Before commencing this next section, take time to reflect on the subject and think about what the following questions mean to you:
1. What is atonement dependent on? Explain your answer.
2. What does the word 'redemption' mean?
3. What does the year of Jubilee tell us about God?
4. How did the Israelites view the Day of Atonement - how do you think they felt?
5. What is a Kinsman-Redeemer? Give an example from scripture
6 .What does it mean when scripture says 'We are God's workmanship (Ephesians 2:10).
7. What does it mean when scripture speaks of us as a 'spiritual house'? (1 Peter 2:5)
8. What do you regard as clear evidence that Christ is working in His church - projects, plans or something else?
Abel embraced the way of atonement offered by another. He recognised that only God could provide the necessary means for him to find forgiveness of sin and reconciliation. Hence scripture says:
by faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did' Heb 11:4
Accepting that you are accepted, despite being unacceptable.
Paul Tillich.
Atonement
Atonement is all about what God has done. He is the One who makes atonement possible. He is the One who covers our sin.
In the atonement we see a perfect work of love between Father, Son and Spirit. We see awesome grace.We see God making Himself vulnerable in a hostile and rebellious universe.
The world is a place in which human sin and tragedy are real, but God's grace and providence are bigger, and it invites us to flee from moralizing to grace.
Prof John Goldingay in Models For Interpretation of Scripture, page 58
Despite being all-powerful, the pre-incarnate Son chose to enter the human race in the weakness of the flesh.
In doing so He opened the door to salvation and in so doing proved to the whole Cosmos, once and for all-time, that His way was the right and only way to live.
In paying our debt God clearly reveals that sin cannot destroy His love. In the life, suffering, death and resurrection of His Son, God reveals His willingness to pay an infinite price in order to restore fellowship with those who, because of sin, had become His enemies.
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:18-19
The meaning of the word 'Atonement.
The word 'atonement' derives from 'at one with another', 'to be reconciled.' It is the work most used to translate 'Kaphar' meaning 'to cover.'
In a general sense it is the word that was used in Genesis 6:14 to speak of covering Noah's ark, inside and out, with Bitumen. How does this speak to us?
Atonement (kaphar) is also the word used by the angel who came to Isaiah.
With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for" Isaiah 6:7
Atonement speaks of covering, yet it can also speak of purification.
He shall offer them before the LORD to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.Leviticus 12:7
The fall of man
The fall of man carried both physical and spiritual elements. Due to the fall man became physically imperfect and incomplete as well as a rebel.
All areas of life need to be related to the covenant, including the physical since they now reflect an imperfect fallen world. It is no longer the 'very good" of Genesis chapter one. God seeks the restoration of relationships and is the One who will create new heavens and earth.
Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Isaiah 65:17
God does all this because of His love for humanity
In all His dealings with us the Father is the judge, the judge is the Father, but the judge acts in the spirit and
for the ends of the Father.
Dr Lidgett, The Spiritual Principle of the Atonement, p238
In all respects atonement speaks of how reconciliation can come about between man and God, and in the Old Testament the Jewish sacrificial system always pointed to this: man brought God's provision back to Him.
In Israel there was never any grading of the value of the sacrifice based on the person bringing it. Whether it was the King of Israel, or the poorest of peasants, atonement depended on God's mercy alone and not on the value of the sacrifice or position of the giver.
David knew that, king or not, no sacrifice of his was adequate to erase his sin - only God's mercy could do that.
Dr C. Wright, O.T. Ethics For The People of God, p 295
If people were too poor to bring a blood sacrifice they were allowed to bring a sin offering from what they could afford
If, however, he cannot afford two doves or two young pigeons, he is to bring as an offering for his sin a tenth of an ephah* of fine flour for a sin offering. He must not put oil or incense on it, because it is a sin offering. He is to bring it to the priest, who shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. It is a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for any of these sins he has committed, and he will be forgiven. The rest of the offering will belong to the priest, as in the case of the grain offering. Leviticus. 5:11-13
* An ephah is circa 20+ litres of flour
As already mentioned, atonement depended totally on the mercy of God and not on the value of man's sacrifice itself. This must have spoken in a very powerful way to those who came in poverty of Spirit.
God is Holy and God is gracious and merciful; God is in the business of reconciliation. This is why today continues, because God is in the business of reconciliation.
Reconciliation speaks of being restored to favour, of being brought back into the environment of God's presence and of coming home. God is the wronged party and yet, because of His work (ultimately seen in Jesus), God can bring words of reconciliation through the prophets and not just condemnation.
I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Isaiah 43:24
- The metaphor 'blots out' is taken from the custom of keeping accounts where the debt is blotted out from the account book after it has been paid. The only one who could ever pay our debt is God and the only way this could be done was through the Son of God taking our place and so becoming our representative.
- The word of reconciliation is God's work from first to last. His love for us is not just couched in words, but overflows into the history of the human race.
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:11
Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
In the Old Testament the Day of Atonement was the once-a-year occasion when the nation of Israel, as a corporate group, came before God in repentance and faith.
The immediate effect of covering (atonement) was upon the sinful nature, in that it is covered and withdrawn from God's sight. However the sacrificial animal only provided temporary remission of sin.
The big difference in the N.T. when it comes to the supreme sacrifice is that the sinner does not make atonement - Jesus Christ makes it on our behalf
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:10
There is no reason found in sinners as to why God should justify a person - there is nothing that we have done that earns forgiveness; the reason our sins are atoned for is found solely in the goodness of God.
and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished' Romans 3:24-25
The Hebrew word for 'redemption' is 'pada' meaning 'to deliver, to sever.' It speaks of deliverance from sin and the dominion of the curse. It is deliverance from bondage and oppression, as in the case of freeing a slave or paying a price in order to get something back.
In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. Exodus 15:13
In the above verse the word redeemed is 'ga'al. It always referred to a next of kin who buys back a relatives property or buys them out of difficulty or danger. (Note the ideas behind kinsman redeemer, eg in Ruth).
Israel was always instructed to remember what God had done in taking them out of Egypt.
The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15), and God sent Moses in to tell Pharaoh,
This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.Exodus 5:1
They were then called to become in experience what they already were in position - God's people.
Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant - the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.' I said, 'Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. Jeremiah 11:3-4.
Note that Deut 5:15 speaks of 'let my people go," whilst Jeremiah 11:3-4 (speaking of the same time) says, 'you will be my people." Through God's work we can become in experience what we are in position. We are to reveal our position in the Lord in the way we live our lives in our families and community.
A society that obeys God is compassionate and forgiving. When it has to challenge others it is for the purpose of reconciliation, or where this is not possible, for the protection of the weak.
It does not operate in a vindictive way and as such things as the year of jubilee revealed, was not to exploit the failings of others.
The jubilee also functioned as a safeguard against another kind of 'taking advantage'; namely abuse of the legal
redemption procedure.the jubilee statute amounts to an economic system that started from a position of
broad equality, but recognised the fallen reality that some would prosper while others fell into poverty.
Prof C. Wright in Old Testament Ethics For The People of God, p 164
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23-24
The above verse states that believers are 'justified freely.' The root of this word (doreean) is 'to make a free gift.'
In John 15:25 the same word is translated 'without cause' speaking of people who hated Jesus. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for hating Him.
There is no reason found within ourselves why God should forgive us - it is free grace.
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2
We are God's workmanship and are 'loved by the Father and kept by Jesus Christ Jude 1:1
The word 'kept' is a perfect participle meaning that those addressed continue to be the object of God's care and protection. He's the One who watches over us attentively and by His Spirit we are able to continue to live out the life we have been called to.
Abel is with the Lord today because of God's gracious provision. He was a man who could accept that he was accepted, despite being totally unacceptable.
Please take time to review the questions and your answers in view of the information in this session.