Monday, August 21, 2017

Atonement


Genesis 6:14 “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”

 I find literary devices fascinating, where one thing represents another.  A symbol is defined as something that stands for or represents another. That is why, when I read that it may be surprising to learn that God’s instructions to Noah concerning the Ark’s design contain the first reference in the Bible to the great doctrine of atonement, I immediately wanted to know more. The Hebrew word used here for pitch (kaphar) is the same word translated “atonement” in many other places in the Old Testament. But, what exactly is atonement?

The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “atonement” as: 1. Agreement; concord; reconciliation, after enmity or controversy. 2. Expiation; satisfaction or reparation made by giving an equivalent for an injury, or by doing or suffering that which is received in satisfaction for an offense or injury; with for. 3. In theology, the expiation of sin made by the obedience and personal sufferings of Christ. Jesus paid for our sins.

I read that while the New Testament word “atonement” implies reconciliation, the Old Testament “atonement” was merely a covering (with many applications). As the pitch was to make the Ark watertight, keeping the judgment waters of “the Flood” from reaching those inside, so, on the sacrificial altar, “it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” – Leviticus 17:11, keeping the fires of God’s wrath away from the sinner for whom the sacrifice was substituted and slain. The pitch was a covering for the Ark, and the blood was a covering for the soul, the first assuring physical deliverance, the second spiritual salvation. However, not even the shed blood on the altar could really produce salvation. It could assure it through faith in God’s promises on the part of the sinner who offered it, but “the blood of bulls and of goats” could never “take away sinsHebrews 10:4.

The article explained that both the covering pitch and animal blood were mere symbols of the substituting death of Jesus Christ, “whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (an acceptable substitute and sacrifice) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” - Romans 3:25. Through faith in Christ, our sins are “covered” under the blood, forgiven by God, and replaced by His own perfect righteousness, by all of which we become finally and fully reconciled to God. By faith, we find salvation in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone and eternal life in His resurrection. It is finished! Atonement is the gospel truth of the cross.
Romans 5:10 “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”


Blessings in Christ

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