Atonement

 October 13, 2022

“I can’t believe in a God who would send someone to hell!” I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard that comment, or one like it, to which I reply, “I can’t believe in that kind of God either.” The truth of the matter is, God doesn’t condemn anyone to hell. People do it to themselves. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ took extraordinary measures to prevent anyone from going to hell. My Bible reminds me that “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), and “God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

I’ve been reading through the OT book of Leviticus, which consists primarily of the ritual law of the ancient Jews. The word that sums up the book is “holy,” occurring 78 times. The word highlights the difference between God and ourselves, emphasizing God’s perfect goodness in contrast to our sinfulness. In the very middle of Leviticus is chapter 16, which prescribes the rituals for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest took the blood of the sacrifice into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled it upon the Ark of the Covenant. 

Fifteen times in this chapter we read the phrase, “make atonement.” The Hebrew word is Kaphar, which means “to cover.” God prescribed a ritual to cover the sins of the people. It goes back to the very beginning when Adam and Eve sinned. They tried to cover it up, but God saw through their fig leaves and instead provided a more adequate covering. Instead of condemnation, God covered their sin and sent them out of the Garden so they wouldn’t eat of the tree of Life and live forever in their degraded and sinful state. Their expulsion from the Garden was a gift of grace, not a punishment.

In the ritual law, again God provided a covering. Instead of exposing his people to the full consequences of sin, he covered it up, not to surreptitiously hide it out of sight, but to protect them from its full effects. Their sin was covered.

The English word used to translate the Hebrew is “Atonement,” which sheds further light upon the character of God. Break the word down: “At-one-ment.” God does what is necessary to break down the sin barrier that separates us from him and each other and “makes us one.” If our secret sins were fully exposed to the world, we would never dare get close to another human being ever again. God in his mercy and love covers us so we can be one together. Ritually, he did this through the blood of the animal sacrifice. In reality, the blood of an animal cannot cover our sins. And as he did with Abraham who was ready to sacrifice his own son Isaac, God himself provided the sacrifice, only this time, it wasn’t a ram caught in the brambles, it was his own Son who wore the brambles upon his brow as he spilled his blood to cover our sins and make us one with God and one another. 

In both the Leviticus ritual and the reality of Christ, the people were powerless to atone for themselves. God provided the means and opens the door when we repent of our sins and trust in the sacrifice he provided. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!