In my studies, I have found that there are many different views of what the atonement is. Many of these views focus on specific aspects of the atonement, but do not necessarily do justice the full width and length and depth and height of the atonement. As I studied, what struck me was just how big a thing the atonement really is. So, if you will allow me, I would like to offer you just a little slice of a big, big picture.

The are many different aspects of the atonement we could look at, but I chose five. They are the aspects of Christ’s work as sacrifice, as a propitiation, as paying the just penalty for sin, as renewing our relationship with God, and as victory.

Christ’s work on the cross was a sacrifice. Scripture makes it clear that without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sins. The Old Testament blood offerings, as we know, foreshadowed Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The sacrificial system was also God’s way of renewing the covenant. Christ’s sacrifice, however, was the final sacrifice; the ultimate atonement and the seal of the New Covenant. Christs says in Mark 14, as He instituted the Lord’s Supper, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” Eph. 5 tells us that Christ “gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” So, the atonement is Christ’s sacrifice for us on our behalf. He shed his blood for us. Now, most of us here are probably not that familiar with the sight, the smell, and the feel of blood. I’m not going to try to gross anyone out by offering a vivid picture of what Christ went through, but let us just not forget that Christ shed his blood for us. He was whipped with leather and bits of bone, he had thorns pressed down into his skull, spikes driven through his hands and feet, and his side pierced with a spear. Christ bled for you. The Atonement is a sacrifice.

The atonement is also a propitiation. In 1 John 4:10 we learn that, because of the Father’s love for us, He sent His Son to be “the propitiation for our sins.” The term “propitiation” means the “appeasing of God’s just wrath.” God, because of his nature, has a calculated, settled opposition to all things that oppose him, and he is righteously angry with our sin. Christ, we are told, bore the full brunt of that anger, and appeased God’s wrath on our behalf. Some modern scholars have attempted to downplay this concept, claiming that wrath is not a valid attribute of God. However, this is to do Christ’s work a disservice, for no mere creature can sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin, and redeem others from it. Think about this for just a moment; that God’s wrath against sin is so great, that it is completely and totally impossible for any mere creature to sustain its burden. I tried here offering an analogy of what I thought it might be like to sustain the burden of God’s wrath, but I am sorry my mind simply cannot fathom the totality of God’s burning opposition to sin resting on me, and in fact, it is so terrible a thought that it makes me physically ill, and leads me to cry out to God “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” Only Christ could have done that, and he did do it, for you, and for me. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The atonement is a propitiation.

The atonement also pays the just penalty for sin. Now, the wages of sin is death. What we are owed by God for our sin is death. Christ’s death on our behalf provided the just payment for that sin. In Romans 5, Paul explains that Christ died for the ungodly and that we are justified by His blood so that God might be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” You see, it would be unjust of God NOT to punish sin. But He is justified in not punishing our sin because He punished Christ on our behalf. For the unregenerate, God punishes sin with eternal death and separation from God in hell. For the redeemed, God punished Christ.

We have this terminology of Christ bearing the just punishment for our sins, and while that is true, I think that can make what Christ really did a little abstract or impersonal in our minds.

Christ. Was. Punished. For. You.

As his physical body was perishing on the cross, Christ cried out with a loud voice “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christ was separated from God the Father, the Father whom he loved, on your behalf. Any view of the atonement that does not take this seriously makes light of our sin, and makes light of what Christ really did for us. Christ payed the just penalty.

Because Christ did so, we are now redeemed, restored, to God. 1 Peter tells us that “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” Christ’s work is not only a sacrifice, it not only appeases God’s wrath, it not only pays the just penalty for our sin and justifies us before God; it also reconciles us to God, and makes possible a right relationship with Him. The prophet Isaiah says this “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” Praise God that now, through faith in Christ, when God our Father looks upon us, he no longer sees our iniquities; He sees Christ’s righteousness.

Ephesians says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Finally, in His work of atonement, Christ’s death and resurrection served as a victory blow against Satan, sin, and death itself. Christ triumphed over sin and death in the resurrection, so that all who trust in him are raised to new life. Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension reminds us that this present world is not all there is; soon we will live with and enjoy God forever in the new heaven and the new earth, where we will be forever freed from all sin. Praise God.

So, I hope I have left you with a slightly fuller picture of what the atonement is. There are other aspects, but in these last few minutes we have seen that the atonement is a Sacrifice, it is the Propitiation of God’s wrath, it has payed the just penalty for sin, has renewed our relationship with God, and has won the victory over sin and death. Let us glory in the width, and the length, and the depth, and the height of Christs work for us, that we may know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, and that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen.