Atonement

 A deeper look @ atonement...

We have all sinned, we all committed the crime.  Christ, taking the full weight of the wrong doing against God, took it upon Himself to reconcile the situation and brought us forgiveness.

Romans 3

  ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

Christ is the atonement, He is/made the sacrifice to draw us back to the connection we have with God.

I Timothy 2

 ⁶ (Christ )who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

This atonement was made for everyone who will accept it as truth.

Revelation 5

⁹ And they sang a new song, saying:
   “You are worthy to take the scroll
   and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
   and with your blood you purchased for God
   persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

God had this plan in place, He knew beforehand and still accepted us, the punishment, the reconciliation.

Galatians 4

⁴ But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

Christ had to be perfect, He is God, He had the right to be mad and punish and hold it over our heads and yet…was faithful to us.  He established us, built us up, stood us back up on our feet and didn’t let go until He was sure we could stand.  Because He did this, we are now back in right standing with God if we accept Him.

II Corinthians 5:21

²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

No matter how much wrong we have done to Him…He loves us.  We have been bought back because God was not too proud (so to speak) to give up every right that He had against us.  He was humble enough to not hold it over our heads…but, rather, to seek us out in the midst of our filth.  (Hosea is another great example of this.)

Romans 5:8

⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We mess up, we stumble…and sometimes we even “stumble” on purpose.  Even though that is true He was willing to take it all on.  It doesn’t excuse bad behavior, rather, if we think about it it may make us wonder why we do the things we do?  What motivates our actions?  Understanding His love in a greater way may cause us to rethink our actions.

Isaiah 53

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him (Christ)
   the iniquity of us all.

This has been refreshing!