THE REASON FOR THE ATONEMENT
The reason can trace its source to the free and sovereign love of God. It is with this thought in mind that we turn to the best known text in the Bible "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). It is in this verse that we see the ultimate divine revelation in the mind and heart of God. The scripture informs us that this love of God from which the atonement flows is the full expression of His love. It is a fact that the Apostle Paul gloried in this love "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He riot with Him also freely give us all things (Rom. 8:31-32). It is the same apostle who portrays for us the eternal counsel of God, which supplies the background of such an affirmation and defines for us the range within which such statements have meaning and validity. Paul writes "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom.8:29), Yet He becomes more explicit when he writes "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him; in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself according to the good pleasure of His will (Eph. 1:4-5). The love of God from which the atonement springs without royal honour, but it is a love that elects and predestinates. It pleased God to set His royal and everlasting love upon a countless multitude and in His determinate purpose that love is what secures the atonement. It is absolutely necessary that we underline this concept of sovereign love. Truly God is Love. Love is not something that God may choose to be or not choose to be. He is Love, and that necessarily, inherently and eternally! As God is spirit, as He is light, so He is love. Yet it belongs to the very nature of electing love that God should set. Yet it belongs to the very essence of electing love to recognize that it is not inherently necessary to that love which God necessarily and eternally is that He should set such love as issues in redemption and adoption upon utterly undesirable and hell-deserving objects. He chose a people to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ through His own love and good pleasure that came from the depths of His goodness. The atonement does not win or constrain Gods love. The love of God through the atonement is the means of accomplishing Sods purpose of Salvation. So we can draw from this that the love of God is the cause or source of the atonement; but then we may ask the question - Why should God have to sacrifice His own Son as a way of fulfilling its purpose? Why take on human flesh in order to bring about salvation with the atonement? Why could not God by the word of His mouth or the power of His will bring restoration? The only answer we can give is that His is sovereign and recognize that His will and knowledge is so far above ours and He knows best. We know that God could have forgiven our sins and saved us without the atoning sacrifice of His own Son but He chose this way in His sovereign wisdom and love and it was the way that we would be able to view His
marvellous grace. So while God could save without the atonement and in accordance with His sovereign decree, He does not "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins" (Heb. 9:22). The cross has become a symbol of self-giving love, the fullest expression of Gods love in action through His beloved Son. We often speak of the negative consequences of Christ's death - He went to the cross to save us from the condemnation of our sins, but it is brought out clearly in the Gospels that He had a more positive aim, He died so that He might impart what He had to each and every one who would call upon His name. He stressed this aspect of His death at the last supper, when He gave His disciples a symbol of His death. Having blessed the bread and identified it with Himself (this is my body) He broke it. His death gives us everything He Himself has.
When He spoke about being the "bread of life" by the partaking of it we would "live forever" He was saying the same thing, this eating becomes possible only through His death. He spoke of His flesh as being given in His death, not simply to be sacrificed for the life of the world, but to be partaken of, that the world might live (Mk. 14:22, John 6:51) Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels as one who even amid suffering, and though under the shadow of the cross, experienced the blessedness He spoke of in the Beatitudes. He showed a consciousness of the presence of God quite unique to His own person, He was inspired by a clear vision of God, and enjoyed a pure freedom before God, and an unshakeable certainty of His Sonship to God, and a peace and joy which He knew and spoke of as peculiarly His own. He was born to this, and grew up with it. Only sin could have spoiled it, He had none. He was acutely aware that around Him, men and women with their corrupt personal relationships, their uncontrolled lusts, their petty tragic follies, their love of power and money, they had forfeited what He Himself possessed. A gulf separated Him from all others. He referred to this in His teachings. He and He alone was right, all others were wrong. He was the true light, all others were in darkness. He alone knew where He was going, all others were lost. However this knowledge did not set Him apart from others, rather because of this difference He drew closer to them. It was with growing feelings of horror and pity that He observed what was going on in the minds and hearts of those around Him that stirred Him into action. His desire was to give all that He had, and this same self-giving impulse, this love led to His ultimate sacrifice on Calvary. He alone knew the way, then He must show it to all others and to be the good shepherd, even though it meant laying down His life. He and He only was right before God and had special access into His presence then He could plead mercy for all others. If He alone had power to heal, He must become the physician for all the sick around Him. If He only had satisfaction and joy in God, He must become the "bread for the life of the world".
From the moment of His baptism which heralded His beginning of His ministry to people, and to share and to give Himself without limit or restraint, was the passion behind all His teaching, praying and miracle working. Always He was the one who possessed everything, seeking to share with the world everything, and when those around Him imagined they did not need what He sought to give them, He grieved for them. This effort constantly exhausted Him, and His resources had to be continually renewed in prayer. He lived and was inspired by the Spirit of God. He discovered as time went might live (Mk. 14:22, John 6:51) Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels as one who even amid suffering, and though under the shadow of the cross, experienced the blessedness He spoke of in the Beatitudes. He showed a consciousness of the presence of God quite unique to His own person, He was inspired by a clear vision of God, and enjoyed a pure freedom before God, and an unshakeable certainty of His Sonship to God, and a peace and joy which He knew and spoke of as peculiarly His own. He was born to this, and grew up with it. Only sin could have spoiled it, He had none. He was acutely aware that around Him, men and women with their corrupt personal relationships, their uncontrolled lusts, their petty tragic follies, their love of power and money, they had forfeited what He Himself possessed. A gulf separated Him from all others. He referred to this in His teachings. He and He alone was right, all others were wrong. He was the true light, all others were in darkness. He alone knew where He was going, all others were lost. However this knowledge did not set Him apart from others, rather because of this difference He drew closer to them. It was with growing feelings of horror and pity that He observed what was going on in the minds and hearts of those around Him that stirred Him into action. His desire was to give all that He had, and this same self-giving impulse, this love led to His ultimate sacrifice on Calvary. He alone knew the way, then He must show it to all others and to be the Good Shepherd, even though it meant laying down His life. He and He only was right before God and had special access into His presence then He could plead mercy for all others. If He alone had power to heal, He must become the physician for all the sick around Him. If He only had satisfaction and joy in God, He must become the "bread for the life of the world".
From the moment of His baptism which heralded His beginning of His ministry to people, and to share and to give Himself without limit or restraint, was the passion behind all His teaching, praying and miracle working. Always He was the. one who possessed everything seeking to share with the world everything, and when those around Him imagined they did not need what He sought to give them, He grieved for them. This effort constantly exhausted Him, and His resources had to be continually renewed in prayer. He lived and was inspired by the Spirit of God. He discovered as time went on that His contacts with those to whom He brought forgiveness, healing and new life in God, brought upon Him a deepening share of the human suffering he was trying to banish. We have to note what the evangelists say in their sometimes-allegorical way, when they tell us that Jesus 'touched' those He healed. Matthews after recounting the healing of Peter's mother-in-law by touch, tells us briefly of more healings by the word and then adds "this was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah "He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses (Matt. 8:14-17)" In giving He has to take. Does this not imply that He was able to impart healing through the word only because He took on Himself something of the weakness and disease He was banishing and that His laying His hand on those who were being healed was a sign of a two way giving and receiving? Luke records His touching of the leper in a significant scene of contrast between the healed man being sent to the temple for his certificate of cleansing, and Jesus the healer going apart into the wilderness, the place which those with leprosy were banished (Luke 5:12-17). This active participation in the suffering of those around Him~, and the scorn poured on Him by those who misunderstood and rejected His love, made up for Him a burden of agony from which He sought release in His prayers with His Father, and for those around Him. In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. It was such prayers when He began His ministry that found its climax in Gethsemane (Heb. 5:7).