What Is the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

What Is the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

With the approach of Easter and the Christian world beginning to celebrate and remember the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, a few notes to explain the concept of the Atonement and the Easter celebration of the marvelous resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What Does “Atonement” Mean?  The word “atonement” is actually a combination of three words that mean, respectively, “at” “one” “with.”  In Christian faith, man is estranged from God as a result of his sin.  The purpose of the Atonement is to correct or overcome the consequences of sin.

Why Do We Need the Atonement?”  The process by which mankind became separated from the presence of God is recorded in Genesis 2-4.  With the eating of the “forbidden fruit,” Adam and Eve became mortal, sin entered, and death became a part of life.  As a result of man’s estrangement from God, a way for man to return to God was necessary.  As Paul taught the Corinthians, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” [1 Cor. 15:22]. 

Sin is lawlessness [1 Jn. 3:4]; it is a refusal on men’s part to submit to the law of God [Rom. 8:7]. By transgression, man loses control over his own will and becomes the slave of sin [Rom. 7:14] and so incurs the penalty of spiritual death, which is alienation from God [Rom. 6:23]. The Atonement of Jesus Christ redeems all mankind from the Fall of Adam and causes all to be answerable for their own manner of life. This means of Atonement is provided by the Father [John 3:16–17] and is offered in the life and person of His Son, Jesus Christ [2 Cor. 5:19].

Jesus Christ Is Our Mediator with the Father.  While there are spiritual and infinite aspects of the Atonement to which one can, and some have, devote volumes of discussion, at its most basic level the transactional nature of the Atonement can be summarized as the process through which Jesus Christ is our Mediator with the God the Father.  Because of our own sin, the demands of justice require that we are not worthy to return to the presence of our Father.  As a Mediator, Jesus Christ steps in on our behalf and offers His sacrifice, during which He took upon Himself the sins of the world and suffered.  Jesus Christ paid our debt with the Father—satisfying the demands of justice.  Then, Jesus Christ extends to us the gift of mercy, He pays the debt of our sins.  In return, the Savior requires that we repent, follow Him, and keep His commandments.  If we do not keep the Savior’s requirements for Him to be our proxy for the demands of justice, we cannot receive the benefits of the Savior’s suffering for our sins.

Allegory of the Creditor and Mediator.  The video available at the following link poignantly summarizes the transactional nature of the Atonement through an allegory of a Debtor and a Creditor.  Although oversimplified, it is very powerful and effective:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VTMWVpzx4M

The Debtor commits himself to a loan contract under which he agrees to certain penalties if he is unable to repay the Creditor according to the terms of the contract.  As the days go by and the day of reckoning arrives, the Debtor is unable to pay the Creditor.  When the Creditor announces his intent to execute on the contract and place the Debtor in jail and cease his possessions, the Debtor cries for mercy.  The Creditor questions why mercy should be afforded instead of justice.  Through their dialogue, the polar nature of justice and mercy becomes apparent.  If the Creditor extends mercy to the Debtor, it is at the expense of justice.  There appears to be no way to extend mercy without robbing justice.  At least no way in a two-party contract.

In the final moment before the Creditor executes, a friend of the Debtor steps in as his Mediator.  The Mediator, knowing of the foolish ways and weaknesses of the Debtor, steps in and offers to pay his debt with the Creditor.  The Mediator does so because he loves the Debtor.  In exchange for paying his debt with the Creditor, the Debtor is now indebted to the Mediator.  Through the Mediator, both the demands of justice and the benefit of mercy can be met.

While this example is too simple to be a complete allegory for the Atonement, its basic concept helps us understand the demands of justice and mercy and the reason that we require a mediator in Jesus Christ and the benefits of his Atonement.

Where In the Scriptures Is the Transactional Nature of the Atonement Described? The scriptures are full of descriptions and explanations as to why man needs the Atonement to overcome the effects of his sin and return to the presence of the Father. During His mortal ministry, Jesus Christ emphasized the importance of understanding this transaction of judgment and mercy when He rebuked the Pharisees: “[ye] have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith…” [Matthew 23:23].    Other notable descriptions include the following:

·         Psalms 89:14, “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.”

·         Job 36:17: “But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee.”

·         Jude 1:21: “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

·         Galatians 6:14-16: “[S]ave in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world … and as may as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy,…”

·         Ephesians 2:4-8: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) … For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

·         Titus 3:5-7, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

·         1 Timothy 1:14-16 “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

·         Hebrews 9:28: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

·         2 Corinthians 5:15, 21: “And that he died for all, that they which love should not hence forth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again…For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

The most complete scriptural discussion of the need for the Atonement to satisfy the demands of justice and mercy is contained in the Book of Mormon in Alma, Chapter 42, excerpted as follows:

·         9: “[T]he fall had brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal, that is, they were cut off from the presence of the Lord, It was expedient that mankind should be reclaimed for this spiritual death…

·         14: And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and there were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cutoff from his presence. 

·         15: And now the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; …

·         [A]nd mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.

[As a side note, the transactional nature of the Atonement and the need for a Mediator—a third party to act on or behalf to answer to the Father for our sins—underscores the LDS belief that God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate and independent beings.  If it were not so, there would be no way for Jesus Christ to extend us mercy without robbing justice.  A trilogy nature of the Godhead would render the Atonement a two-party transaction, not a three party transaction.  As a result, the creditor would be the party offering mercy, which could only occur at the expense of justice.  See blog entry on How Is the LDS Church Different: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VTMWVpzx4M ].

Celebration of Easter Images.  The following video reviews the final mortal days of Jesus Christ, including the last supper, His suffering in Gethsemane, and His crucifixion and culminates with remembering the events of that great Easter morning…the morning that Christ rose again and burst the bands of death.

“He Is Risen” video: http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/he-is-risen?lang=eng