Sermon Tone Analysis

The Atonement

When we gather around the Lord’s Table, we are commanded to remember His death until He comes.

Last time that we gathered, we reminded ourselves and we do well to be sure that we remember what the Scriptures teach and remind us what we need to remember.

Not only are we to remember to what we are to remember, we must remember accurately, that is scripturally.

We need to underscore this, the reason being that some Scriptural terms are gradually being redefined by some.

That is especially true with some aspects of the atonement.

For that reason, over the next months as gather around this table, we will allow the Word of God to affirm in our minds what the atonement and the other theological terms that are aspects of the atonement - ie redemption, justification &reconciliation mean

Before we begin, we do well to understand some of the subtle changes that are developing.

Most of you will be aware of the comparatively new hymn/song co written by Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty in 2001.

“In Christ alone my hope is found,

He is my light, my strength, my song

This Cornerstone, this solid Ground

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease

My Comforter, my All in All

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone!

- who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe.

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save

Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied

For every sin on Him was laid

Here in the death of Christ I live.s

There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain:

Then bursting forth in glorious day

Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory

Sin's curse…” (Stuart Townsend & Keith Getty - 2001)

Not that many years after it was written, some individuals and representatives of hymn committees, some of them denominational and broader evangelical, requested permission of the writers to edit part of the lyrics.

The section in question was,

“Till on that cross as Jesus died, The wrath of God was satisfied.”

The suggested revision was.

“Till on that cross as Jesus died/the love of God was magnified.”

STUART TOWNSEND AND KEITH GETTY REJECTED THE PROPOSED REVISION.

For that reason the hymn as we know it has been dropped from some newer hymnals.

Among those who proposed the change, there is discomfort with any reference to the wrath of God.

One of the theologians who have influenced these revisions expressed themselves this way.

“The cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse - a vengeful Father, punishing His Son for an offence that he has not even committed … If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes mockery of Jesus’ teaching to love your enemies … the idea that God was an angry deity, requiring a sacrifice to propitiate his wrath was surely more like an ancient pagan god than the Father of Jesus Christ.”

(Steve Chalke & Alan Mann - The Lost Message of Jesus)

I am very sure that these conclusions have been made with all sincerity.

They would say that we have lost Jesus message and have misunderstood Paul with regard to justification by faith - ie the new perspective on Paul.

Instead , I would commend to you J I Packer’s succinct definition of penal substitution - Jesus Christ by and in His death suffered in our place enduring the just wrath God for sinners.

“The notion which the phrase ‘penal substitution’ expresses is that Jesus Christ our Lord, moved by love that determined to do everything necessary to save us, endured and exhausted the distinct divine judgment for which we were otherwise inescapably destined, and so won for us forgiveness, adoption and glory.

To affirm penal substitution is to say that believers are in debt to Christ specifically for this, and that this is the mainspring of their joy, peace and praise both for now and for eternity.”

(Packer - The Logic of Penal Substitution, 1974, p 25)

In our remembering today, we will allow what the Scriptures record and teach us about atonement and the once and for all atonement secured by Jesus Christ.

Old Testament:

kapporet - usually translated - “atonement cover” or “mercy seat”

“Atonement, a word coined by the sixteenth-century reformer and Bible translator William Tyndale, describes the solution to the offense toward God caused by human sin.” - Gabriel Fluhrer

“reparation for an offense or injury” - Webster

Ex 25:17

Ex 37:

In the whole chapter was devoted to the Day of Atonement - for the children once in the year for all their sins.

Atonement for Aaron’s sins, atonement for the sins of the people, atonement for the Holy Place because of the sins of the people in the midst of whom the tabernacle was set up.

So similar to Isaiah’s later realization and confession.

Lev 16:1-

New Testament:

Two nouns:

hilasmos - atoning sacrifice or propitiation - Jesus himself is the sacrifice that atones for sin.

What is another word for propitiation?

“pacify, appease, placate, mollify, propitiate, conciliate mean to ease the anger or disturbance of someone for an offence” - Webster

1 jb 2:2

Our sins destroyed/severed our relationship with Go.

Christ’s shed blood purifies us from all sin and restores our fellowship with God.

All of this because of God’s love expressed in Jesus - given by Father - submitted to by Jesus - to be our atoning sacrifice for sin.

New Testament noun: ἱλασμός (hilasmos).

Hilasmos refers to “an atoning sacrifice” or “propitiation.”

This word occurs in and 4:10.

Jesus is himself the sacrifice that atones for sin.

Our sins have destroyed our relationship with God, but Christ’s shed blood purifies us from all sin and restores us to fellowship with God ().

We should never forget that the root of our reconciliation with God is his incredible love, expressed when he sent his Son to be our atoning sacrifice.

- the other NT word - ἱλαστήριον (hilastērion).

Hilastērion means “atonement cover” or “sacrifice of atonement” or “that which propitiates or expiates.”

In the Septuagint, it’s used almost exclusively for the atonement cover (kappōret) placed on top of the ark of the covenant.

“1.

In , hilastērion corresponds to the Old Testament use—the atonement cover on top of the ark.

That’s where God dwelt in all his glory.

2. The other use of hilastērion is in , where Paul writes that God has presented Jesus as a “place of atonement.”

This word must relate first to its Old Testament usage, so that Jesus is the person/place where God passes over our sins without punishing them because of his sacrifice.

Christ now occupies the very place the atonement cover inhabited in the Most Holy Place for the removal of sins on the Day of Atonement.

He’s also the One in whom God lives in the flesh, and the One through whom God’s wrath against sin () is placated, resulting in a renewed relationship between God and rebels.

Rom 3

When we put these two Greek nouns together, along with the verb hilaskomai, we see that Jesus is represented in the New Testament as the priest who performs the atonement sacrifice (hilaskomai), as the One who is himself the atonement sacrifice (hilasmos), and as the place where the atonement sacrifice occurs (hilastērion).

Everything we need for God’s forgiveness, for the removal of God’s anger, and for reconciliation with God himself can be found in Jesus.”

Having from the Word of God been reminded of what we need to remember with regard to Christ’s death in our place, we do well to also allow the Scriptures to remind us of what the Word of God says about the wrath of God.

For some today, a reference to wrath and or anger on the part of God wrangles the sentiments of some.

They ask:

- How can hell be just?

- Why would God demand justice?

- Why did God command the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites?

Some of those same folks need to remember other questions.

- If God is holy and just, why does he allow suffering without intervening to make things right?

If the holy wrath of God is pushed aside, is there no more sin, is there no more repentance and conversion as Peter preached on the day of Pentecost.

Acts 2:

Acts 3:

Acts 3:

How can we worship a God who is anything but warm and loving?