Atonement: What Is It?
Which ideas are associated with the verb “to make atonement” in the following passages? Lev. 4:31; 16:18, 19, 30; 17:11.
In Leviticus, though the priests officiate in the atoning rituals as mediators, they are not the ones who atone for sin. After the ritual is performed, God grants the forgiveness (Lev. 4:26; the passive form of the verb implies that God is the one who forgives). Atonement is something that God performs for His people. He is the one who “make[s] atonement for his land and people” (Deut. 32:43, NIV; also Pss. 65:3, 79:9). Through atonement, God allows His love to flow to sinners.
The Hebrew verb translated to make atonement in Leviticus (Heb. kipper) expresses the idea of wiping off or purging. Atonement is made for the tabernacle, the altar, the horns of the altar, meaning that they are purged, cleansed from the defilement of sin and impurity. The implication is that through atonement they are restored to the original condition, one free from defilement. When applied to repentant sinners, the verb still retains the idea of cleansing from sin or impurity.
Because the cleansing takes place through the blood of a sacrificial animal, atonement also can express the idea of ransoming. Freeing a person from sin is done at the cost of the blood/life of the sacrificial victim (Lev. 17:11). It was offered in place of the sinner, substituting for him or her, and therefore it ransomed the life of the person (see Matt. 20:28, 1 Tim. 2:6).
The verb to make atonement also is employed in Leviticus in a variety of rituals, making it impossible to conclude that it designates a single act. That is, atonement was a process rather than something that happens at a single point in time. The whole sanctuary activity throughout the year was understood as atonement; from the daily sacrifices (Lev. 5:10) to the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:34), and all the rituals in between. In other words, atonement was the totality of the cleansing action of God for Israel all year, including the sacrificial act, the mediation of the priest, and the final disposal of sin and impurity during the Day of Atonement. Thus was typified the all-inclusive nature of the work of atonement that Christ is doing for us.
Only God could atone for sin, and it took the life of Christ to do it. What should that tell us about how bad sin must be? Why, then, don’t we abhor sin more than we do? How does the practice of sin deaden our abhorrence of it?
Only God could atone for sin, and it took the life of Christ to do it. What should that tell us about how bad sin must be? Why, then, don’t we abhor sin more than we do? How does the practice of sin deaden our abhorrence of it?
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