Episode 136 - What Atonement Means

Atonement is a word that is thrown around like it means all kinds of things, but that vagueness quietly distorts how we talk about salvation. We’re beginning a new series heading towards Easter, and we want to do something simple and demanding: recover what the Bible actually means when it speaks about atonement, the day of atonement, and the priestly work of dealing with sin.

We start by challenging the modern habit of lumping everything into a bargain basket called “theories of atonement”. Yes, Christ’s death changes us, shapes communities, and defeats evil, but not every true statement about salvation is automatically a definition of atonement. We use examples like Schleiermacher to show how easy it is to describe real effects while drifting away from the biblical vocabulary. We also dig into why people react against “substitution” even while describing a Champion who stands in our place and fights on our behalf.

Then we slow down and ask the human question beneath all the theology: what would it take to be reunited after genuine wrongdoing? We explore the Hebrew root often translated as atonement, kippur, and its basic sense of “covering” without turning that into a cover-up. Atonement, as we frame it here, requires that evil is confronted, counted, and brought into the open so it can finally be put away. That takes us into the Bible’s personal language of judgement and “visitation” and why divine justice is not cold legal machinery but God himself arriving to set things right.

If you care about biblical theology, atonement, salvation, substitution, the meaning of the cross, and the Day of Atonement, this conversation sets the foundation. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review that tells us what you think atonement really means.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Transcript

Welcome And Series Aim

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Well, welcome to the next episode of the Christ-Centered Cosmic Civilization. Just a quick note that the last two episodes had a buzzing sound on them, but we've managed to clean them up so they should be fine now. Okay, well, we're launching into a new series as we get to Easter 2026 at the time of recording about atonement. And this is one of the big subjects of all subjects, in a way, but it's only one aspect of a broader subject that is salvation. And I kind of want to flag something up as we begin, because quite often in the past twenty years, I come across many people alleging that there are many theories of atonement. And this is one of the things we'll explore in this series because what they say, they'll say, here's something that is, and and what they describe is part of this big work of salvation that Christ accomplishes. But this person will say that is a way of thinking about atonement, and that is the difficulty because sometimes because the word atonement, it's an English word, but it is in the English word just at one moment. It's the Oxford English Dictionary explains the development of this word, the the to to be at one, to, and the concept is really reconciliation to become at one. That word is used, the word English word atonement, to grasp certain a particular Hebrew word, and then there are Greek equivalents of that word in the Bible. And that word itself, we're gonna get into the word itself, the underlying word, doesn't necessarily mean exactly at to be at one with somebody, but we're gonna explore that. What is it that the Bible means by this thing that we use the English word atonement to describe? This activity that is really a kind of priestly sacrificial activity or action or event, something like that. We're gonna explore that. And then we're gonna then circle around, hopefully, in the series, to be able to understand that when sometimes people talk about theories of atonement, they're mixing up things that they say that the word that the biblical concept of atonement is not at all related, in fact, to some of the things that people group under a heading called theories of atonement. But those things that they that are put in this kind of big bargain basket called Theories of Atonement, nearly everything in there is part of the great work of salvation. It just isn't lay it's labelled wrongly to label some of those things as atone. So for example, so Schleiermacher has an idea. He's the you know, go early 19th century German father of of modern liberal Protestantism, really. But he he says that what is going on in the death of Jesus is creating a new God consciousness, and it's it has a kind of social or mystical effect upon people and on society to make them think of God differently. Now, the there is some level of truth in that, and we'll get to that when we get to it, but it has really almost nothing to do with what the Bible thinks of as atonement. Uh it'd be it'd be almost impossible to map anything of what Schleimachus says is going on, the or the meaning of the death of Jesus. It'd be almost impossible to map what he says is the meaning of the death of Jesus onto the biblical words that are used to when the Bible speaks about atonement or the day of atonement or things like that. It'd be almost impossible to map Schleiermacher's ideas onto those biblical words. So that's just an example. So we're gonna try and do this. Is a big project if we can manage it to examine what atonement's about, look at the foundations of it, biblical concepts, then move towards why concepts like substitution, for example, is that's a word that people react against. People will tell me, oh, I don't like substitution in atonement. And then what they will go on to describe is the meaning of atonement is all about substitution. It's just they don't like a particular kind of substitution, but they will say, for example, Christ is our champion who goes to fight against the devil. And you're like, yeah, that is a form of substitution. He in the conflict with the devil, he substitutes himself instead of us, he is standing in the place of us in conflicting with the devil. For example, so a person say, I don't like substitution, it's nothing to do with atonement. But what it is is Christ being victorious over the devil, and then you sort of how does that work? Oh well, Christ is the is the representative, and then of course, what do you mean by representative? Oh well, he goes instead of us, he fights the devil, so it's a it's still all substitution. Nearly loads of what people describe about atonement, they you they are talking about substitution, but it they they feel that there's a particular kind of substitution that they react against, and we're gonna we'll hopefully be able to examine all that as well in this series. Well, uh, that's enough of the trailers and me setting ambitions for what this series could could achieve, and then you'll probably discover I won't achieve any of these things, but this is what's in my mind, this is what I'm planned, I've made notes for this, so we'll see how it goes. Let's begin then. What is this atonement all about? It's bringing people together. Atonement, bringing people together after evil has been done. And as we said, it's uh a word that was invented in the 16th century, in the early 16th century, to to grasp to uh to articulate this idea of bringing at one, make people at one when there is separation. So think of the worst thing you've ever done to another person, and then really do that. Really think the worst thing you've ever done to a person. Or if you are the of a person who's so nice that you've never done anything really bad to anybody, if that's true, you're probably. I'm surprised you're listening to this podcast. But uh, but uh, if that's the case and you cannot think of anything truly terrible that you've done to somebody, think uh just think of another of somebody you maybe someone's done something truly terrible to you, or think of an example of somebody who's done something truly terrible to another person. How could you be at one with them after that? How could you be at one? How could there be at one moment between two people if one of those people has done something truly terrible to the other person? What would need to happen? What would need to be done in order to make you both at one? What would need what would be required to bring real closure and unity? That's what atonement is. It's about that. And we're gonna get to what is it that may it is between humanity and the living God that m that creates such a rift. And and for some Christians are very intensely aware of that. Other Christians are from traditions that don't really think so much about all the what separates us from the living God. I come across sometimes Christians from traditions that uh uh have a relatively unthought-through element uh approach to that, they're just kind of superficial about that in a way, but it doesn't matter, that doesn't matter. What we want to get at is what's the reality of it, what's the depth of it, we want to give attention to it. And this is what atonement is, how to deal with this. Now then, at a at a trivial level, if we if there's a fence or difficulty between us and somebody else, and we've done something, or failed to do something, or become something, and that that needs thought, if we become something that creates great tension, or even revulsion between two people. Now, at a trivial level, we might buy someone a gift or cook them a meal in order to cool the heat about what we have done. When we do something to make amends, we are showing that it matters to us, and we're showing something of the value of the person to us. There's in all of this, and we need to be thinking about all this as we're exploring atonement. It the way in which so, first of all, there's questions about what creates friction between people and how upset people become by things. Some things don't seem, you know, some things they can handle, some things really, really upset people and are very, very hard to recover from. Like adultery is something that is very, very hard to overcome that level of rift in a relationship. But at any level of the offense, the way that it amends, we try to fit amend, like amends, we make amends. That is, we're trying to mend the relationship. So we make amends, and how do we do that? Buy a gift, cook a meal, spend time. There's a range of things that can we might sometimes a person does something very hard or painful or costly in order to demonstrate how bad they're they're trying to sh acknowledge the severity of the problem and the cost they're willing to pay to restore it. And all of these things, you may know many stories in your mind. You yourself have experienced them or tried to do this to fix, to make amends. Now, it becomes exponentially harder to do this as the damage we have caused goes deeper. When we've caused lasting damage or profoundly violated someone, the consequences or the cost of our wrong may be very heavy. And there are times where we would assume that it is absolutely impossible to make amends, to mend that. And particularly if that person has died, how do you how could you how could that ever be mended? It is by no means easy for that damage, because what we'd want to say is, I want to take back the damage done by my actions. I want that damage and harm and pain and destruction caused by the the wrong I've done. I wish that could return to me. I would like to have that all that destruction return to me and and and and fall on me rather than the harm caused to this person. We may wish that, but it's by no means easy for that damage to be returned to us in such a way that genuine atonement is achieved. When we go back to the original Hebrew scriptures, we discovered that the English word atonement was typically used to translate a Hebrew word, kippah, which means simply to cover. And this is something we're gonna need to explore much more deeply as as the series goes on. But let's just hold that cover, and we'll just keep that simple for a moment, although we're gonna have we're gonna later in the series we'll look at many biblical examples of of how this word is used. But the original idea has a simplicity to it. How can wrong be covered? Covered over. The English word cover is an extremely rich and subtle word. Well, you know, we might talk about things being covered by insurance or news stories cover an issue. Or we might talk about a cover-up, which is the opposite of the news story thing. So a news story covers something, meaning exposing it, but a cover-up is hiding something. So the word cover in English is extremely diverse and rich and subtle, and it's much more complex a word than this underlying Hebrew word, the English word cover. But the just like it basically the Hebrew concept is is simple, really. It's it's cover like putting a lid on something, a sheet over something, clothing something to cut its cover like that. And so we might say, how can we bury the crime and its consequences so that we can move on? How can that be covered over so that we can't see it anymore? It's not so that it isn't glaringly obvious anymore. How can that be covered over? If our victim always sees or feels the evil we have done, how can it be covered so that it isn't seen and felt all the time? What can be done so that neither of us need ever think about it again? So atonement covers evil or covers problems. But and this is hugely important, atonement cannot let's use another English expression, atonement cannot brush the evil under the carpet. So cover cannot just mean a cover up. Atonement is almost the opposite of a cover-up, as we'll see. It's more like that news story where something is covered that is explored thoroughly so that the everything is dealt with. Everything is dealt with. That's more like so. When we use English word cover in that way, that's closer to what's what atonement's about, really, to cover something means to completely uh get get the reach of the thing, deal with it. In one sense, it kind of means bringing the thing into the open so that it can be put away. So it can't be simply put away, brushed under the carpet. It can only be put away after it's been exposed thoroughly. So it's like after there has been full news coverage, there can then be this other kind of covering after there's been cover in this other way. We'll see all this as we go on. So atonement means that evil is properly confronted and addressed. So the Hebrew scriptures tells us that sins are counted, sins are charged. All this is relevant to how atonement is made. If sins are not counted or but covered up in the wrong way, ignored, if they're ignored, there cannot be atonement. There cannot, if a person say, say there's wrong between say someone has wronged you, but they refuse to acknowledge that there's been any wrong. They say, no, no, there's nothing wrong, nothing wrong's been done. That is how immensely difficult is that to bring about peace. How can you move on if there's no acknowledgement of evil done? So if evil is to be dealt with, it cannot be ignored. Over and over again, the Lord God promises that he will count or charge or confront the sins of humanity, he will pay attention to our sins. And there's a lot of language about this, and that's what the prophets do, really. They come and list the charges against Israel or Judah and so on. They list it, they count the sins, and then Moab, Eb, Edom, Samaria, you know, the Philistines, any Egypt, Babylon, the charges are listed. They have to be brought into the open. And the Lord God does this continuously. And it's that's why I always think of the example of Jonah when he is sent to confront Nineveh with their sin. Jonah then becomes alarmed because he knows that doing such a thing is a precursor to atonement. Confronting sin is a precursor to atonement. So Jonah's anxious because he doesn't want Ninevites in his church family. So if sins are to be covered, atoned for, so if sins are to be covered, they must. Must be confronted, counted, and charged. It's striking to study the Hebrew words that we translate as punish or punishment. And this is, you know, for those who know, the the very idea of sin being punished upset some people because they're they in their minds that's not a helpful thing at all. Sin you the only people from relatively comfortable societies talk like this. Like if you're f if you've suffered a great deal of injustice and evil, the godliness and holiness and righteousness of punishment is as natural as the air you breathe. But if you have not experienced that level, it's easy to f to uh forget the power of this idea of divine vengeance or civic vengeance, and we'll think about the dangers of personal vengeance later, but this idea of punishment and what is that? Well, let's let's find out. Perhaps the most common word, Hebrew word, is pacad, with the basic meaning to visit. Visit. And it can mean to pay attention to, to care for, to count, to number, or to punish. All of these are the it's it's to yeah, give attention to, but to visit. Well come and why so the English word punish doesn't have the full personal and relational flavor that the Hebrew word has. Because the English the and this may be partly why the word like the concept of punishment has become so difficult in a theological setting. Because if the if punishment is understood in an incr in a very impersonal, abstract, only legal sense, it it becomes very, very alien to the living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are intensely personal about everything. So it can I certainly have heard presentations of atonement that are so abstracted and like mechanically legal that you know I feel myself recoiling from it simply because I think that whatever that is, it is a long, long way from the personal language of scripture. So like offense that sin is not just a legal problem, like an abstract legal problem. In the Bible, it is it's an offense, it's detestable, it's something that it's the the it's a personal problem with the living God. We'll get into this. So the word the English word punishment ten you see older older English translations are better really because they used the word visit. Now, if the Lord if the Lord it visits a modern person who isn't used to this concept of the fearfulness of the living God, they might say, Oh, that's nice, the Lord's gonna visit us. A pleasant social visit. But nevertheless, the concept of being visited in this sense is a terrifying thing. The word visit is good though, because it shows that the Lord God will personally call us to account for what we have done and said, He will visit us in the sense of coming to confront us, coming to number our offenses, counting what we have done, confronting us about our defiance. We all remember that story in Daniel where the finger of God says, weighed, weighed, counted, you know, lacking. And that is a that's a divine visitation with respect to sin. So the punishment of the Lord God is not the mere exercise of a legal system, but his personal confrontation with those who have defied, attacked, and provoked him. So, like Judgment Day in the Bible, it is not when impersonal law enforcement finally deal with everything. Judgment Day is also called the day of God, the day of his appearance, the day, the second coming of God. It's God arriving that makes it the day of justice, the day of the ultimate of like real confrontation, where all right and wrong is established, everything's unveiled, all condemnation happens, all of that. It's when God visits in that final eschatological sense.