A Wesleyan-Holiness Theology by Grider J. Kenneth

Author:Grider, J. Kenneth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beacon Hill Press
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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The Meaning of the Atonement

The word “atonement” translates the Hebrew Old Testament word kippur, but there is no Greek New Testament word for atonement. Hilasterion (“propitiation”) is sometimes translated “sacrifice of atonement” (Rom. 3:25). Cognates of katallage, “reconciliation,” are also sometimes so rendered. The Old Testament word's basic verbal meaning is “to cover.”1 This basic meaning of the Old Testament word has suggested to many interpreters that our sins are only covered over, without righteousness being imparted to us. But the word probably means that our sins are covered over as a wound is covered when it heals and new flesh takes the place of, say, an infected cut (see Ps. 32:1; Rom. 8:4).

God Planned the Atonement. Some writers have suggested that the Cross was not planned—that it intruded itself into the situation, and then God made use of it. Alan Walker, for example, says that the Father “did not intend” the Crucifixion, but that “once it happened … God seized upon the Cross and … made it the occasion of salvation.”2

Yet Scripture teaches that Christ's atoning death was in God's plan all along. It speaks of Christ as the “Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Some seven centuries beforehand, Isaiah had foretold that Christ would suffer death on our behalf (chap. 53). And Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45; see Matt. 20:28). Christ came to earth for the purpose of giving His life on our behalf.

Blood, in Atonement. Blood is significant for the Atonement. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” we read in Heb. 9:22. But Scripture says that “the life of every creature is its blood” (Lev. 17:14). So we are redeemed through Christ's death because a life was given—not because any given amount of literal blood was poured upon us. In Old Testament times the priest drew blood from animals until no life was left in them— and with that blood made atonement for the sins of the people.3 That blood represented the life of a perfect animal given for the covering over of sin—in the sense of healing.4

Necessity of the Atonement. There are two senses in which the necessity of the Atonement can be discussed. It can be necessary either as the only way in which God could have provided for an atonement, or simply as the one way in which He did indeed provide for it.

If we say that the Atonement provided is the only kind that was open to God, we get into an evangelical rationalism. If we say this, we restrict God, questioning His sovereignty and making Him subject to certain laws of necessity, as the ancient Stoics taught.

We can say only that some kind of atonement was necessary if the holy God was to forgive and cleanse us sinful human beings. We can speak of the appropriateness of the method of atonement that He chose.

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