Atonement (Remissions of Sins)

Meaning

God is a holy and just God. Therefore God cannot look the other way when we sin. The penalty for sin had to be paid. And because God is perfectly just, all sin must be punished. God cannot ignore small sins and only punish bigger sins. Moreover, God’s standard of being sinless means to be perfect in both thought and deed one-hundred percent of the time since birth. This is not because God only looks at our actions, but also the thoughts and desires behind those actions. God looks at the “real” reasons we do the things we do. God’s standard is that we truly love all others and place everyone ahead of ourselves always and without exception, even if it means our lives and our wealth. So our good behavior, our thoughts and acts of love and kindness are not something extra in God’s eyes. They are in reality the standard by which we are to live our day to day lives and the standard by which we are judged by God.

Lastly, sin cannot physically exist in the presence of a holy God. In other words sin cannot be in the presence of God’s perfect holiness without destruction. Therefore God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the Second Person of the Trinity stepped out of eternity and took on flesh. Through the incarnation, God Himself died on the Cross to pay the price for our sins which we could not afford to pay.

And this is the thought behind the word “Atonement.” Atonement refers to the way the death and resurrection of Jesus reconciles a sinful person back to a holy God. Only mankind can take the place of mankind. There is no amount of good works or types of animal sacrifices that can take the place of a human being. That is why God Himself had to step out of eternity and take on humanity through the incarnation of Christ. The incarnation allowed God to join His divinity with our humanity in the God-man Jesus Christ. Jesus faced the same trials and temptations we faced, but lived a sinless life, in both thought and deed. He did this for no other purpose than to take our place and pay for our sins. This is what the word atonement means. We have atonement for our sins through the blood of Christ, which was shed for our sins in order that we could have salvation by our faith in Him.

“‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.'” (Book of 1st Peter 2:24)