Atonement, something we all need more than we like to admit. In Genesis 3:6-7 we read, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Let those statements in bold sit there for a moment. Pretend you don’t know the story…and yet we can’t because each of us, deep down inside, knows it is our story as well.
What did Adam and Eve do when they felt the weight of what they had done—when their brokenness cries out to them? Their solution shows us how deeply sin had already penetrated their hearts. They didn’t think of going towards the Father, who had said He would provide everything they needed. Instead, they sowed leaves, they tried to cover it up and they hid. What happens to you when your eyes are open to not only your brokenness but also the shame and guilt of failing that come with sin? Where do you go to get the nag to go away? You can’t fix the effects of rebellion by rebelling further it doesn’t work. It takes more than our own forgetfulness, or pretending or hiding to put away sin.
Here is the truth for us all—sin is not conquered in the darkness of hiding because it is there that it grows. And because sin aims at destroying creation and dethroning the Creator it inevitably leads to more and more brokenness. The only remedy to the disease of sin is found in the word and the action of atonement and the One who offers us the true atonement we each need.
By definition atonement is: 1: reparation for an offense or injury. 2: the reconciliation of God and humankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. We need atonement—the ability to rectify the wrong, to be able to fully put away sin and the guilt it brings. It means that you feel in every bit of your being the fracture in your relationship with God and you know things are not as they were meant to be and you desire for it to be made right and you come to the knowledge that this is only available in and through Jesus Christ as your atonement.
Atonement means that the sin debt has been paid for, God’s justice and not mans has been done, the sinner has been redeemed, the lost has been found, the wrong has been made right. Atonement also carries with it the sense of finality: “It is finished,” Jesus said as He hung on the cross for the sins we all have and will commit. And that’s what makes atonement absolutely necessary we need the finishing work of Christ on our behalf applied into our lives. Has His work been applied to your account to pay the debt of sin on your behalf?
Christ has made a perfectly sufficient atonement for all those who will trust in Him. His atonement is complete only when sinners, by faith and repentance, apply the sacrifice of Christ to themselves. Through our union with Christ, His death becomes our death and His life becomes our life. Self-atonement does not work. We can never pay for ourselves, just look to Adam and Eve, because self[1]sufficiency and self-reliance is part of the problem. We must learn from their lesson and look to God the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, and the atonement He offers to us. Only Christ could make the perfect sacrifice and we are only made perfect through Him. Receive Him today, don’t try and hide—turn away from sin and death and instead come to Christ and the true life He alone offers us.
Chaplain David Price
