Episode 147 - What If Atonement Means God Finds Peace Too

The cross is often explained as something done for us, or as a victory over evil powers, and both themes are truly biblical. But we push deeper and ask the unsettling question the sacrificial system keeps asking: what if the death of Jesus is aimed first at God? We close our atonement series by returning to the multifaceted meaning of the crucifixion and insisting that the centre is God reconciling the world to himself, a work within the Trinity that makes real peace with God possible.

From the burnt offering we explore why the Old Testament dares to speak of a “soothing aroma” to the Lord, and why atonement is tied to death, blood and fire. That imagery is not theatre. It is Scripture’s way of naming divine indignation at unchallenged evil, a wrath that the prophets describe as building towards a day of vengeance and visitation when everything is exposed. Atonement matters because it answers how God can be righteous, opposed to evil, and yet still forgive.

Then we focus on Passover, reading Exodus closely and noticing what the ritual is actually for. The blood on the door is not for human eyes, and not to ward off demons, but for the Lord to see so that judgement passes over. When Jesus frames his own death in Passover terms, the cross takes on a bracing clarity: God himself is the one we cannot outrun, and only the blood of the true Passover Lamb can cover us when nothing else can. If this helped you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review, what line or idea will you be thinking about this week?

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

Transcript

Atonement Faces God First

Rev Dr PRB 0:00

Welcome to the Christ-centered cosmic civilization as we come to the end of our series on atonement, at least the end for now. We want to end this series on atonement by returning to the multifaceted nature of the death of Jesus, the shedding of God's blood. This supreme moment of the cross faces towards either humanity or cosmic enemies or towards God. We've been considering that over and over, and we've seen it does face towards humanity in various ways, and we've seen how the Bible speaks about that. The death of Jesus also confronts the cosmic enemies of death, the devil, the gods, flesh, even the systems of politics and religion. But as we have looked at the divine indignation and anger against sin and evil, we have had to grasp that the cross most fundamentally faces towards the living God and impacts upon the Lord God. What God is doing on the cross is something that is for himself. God is reconciling the world to himself, that the cross is a work by God, for God, so that we might have peace with God. It is a work going on within the Trinity, within God Himself. Working out this work of atonement. Think only of the way that the burnt offerings of the ancient law were designed to provide a soothing aroma for the Lord God. The smoke

Burnt Offerings And A Soothing Aroma

Rev Dr PRB 2:40

of the sacrifice ascended, physically ascended, but in a much deeper way, the aroma of the burning sacrifice impacted the living God, the Lord God, to create what the Bible says it was soothing to the Lord to smell this sacrifice being consumed in the fire. It had an impact upon the Lord God, according to the text of the Bible. Why? Why was this soothing? And the concept of soothing is in opposition to the Lord being angered, indignant, but he is soothed by this. Why? Why does it soothe him? It's not merely the physical smell, it is that this action of the sacrificial animal being consumed in the fire, we have to say, in some way, reminds him or represents and his own blood of the eternal covenant by which all forgiveness, cleansing, and redemption could happen. This ancient burnt offering has a effect upon God, according to the text of the Bible, which finds it, it is a sort of sign, a sacrament for God Himself of the cross, a sign of a visible sign of this central reality of the cross. The goal of the burnt offering was not to address humanity, nor was it designed to defeat the devil or overcome death, to combat the cosmic enemies. There is a way in which we can see that it is a way of confronting the flesh and putting that to death. But according to the law, the target, the object aimed at in the burnt offering was the Lord God Himself to soothe him, to find a way to be covered from the anger and wrath of the divine judgment. We saw how the language of fire and heat is tied to the wrath of God over and over again, all the way through the scriptures. It's an extraordinary Bible study to just see how the language of fire and the language of the wrath of God go in partnership so often.

Fire As Wrath And Stored Indignation

Rev Dr PRB 6:06

And it's hard to miss this insistence on fire in the sacrifices of atonement. Why look so consider the use of the language of fire in relation to the wrath of God, then consider the insistence upon fire in the atoning sacrifices in the law. The animal is not merely killed and disposed of in any way, buried or eaten or discarded or anything like that. It must be killed and its blood handled rightly, and then the carcass had to be consumed in fire. Fire was so essential to these sacrifices of atonement. Death and fire. Death and fire. And blood, we might say, death, blood, and fire. Death, blood and fire. With the fires of sacrifice constantly burning at the heart of the ancient church community, why would the law and the prophets constantly use the language of fire to indicate the wrath, the fury, the indignation of the living God? To use the language of fire for those people in that context with that experience of the worship of God, that when they turned just visibly to look at the place where the Lord God manifested his presence, fire was burning and it was consuming sacrifices. Why is God angry? He is angry because he sees evil happening, and that evil is not condemned, it's not confronted, it's not punished. That is what enrages God. The idea that evil is in some way victorious or free to do what it wants to do, the idea that evil can happen in his universe, in his presence, is far more provocative to God than we perhaps ever imagine. It is to him, when he sees evil done, and evil is committed without there being immediate retribution upon it, and it is very difficult for the living God, Father, Son, and Spirit, to allow that to happen, to allow evil to remain unanswered in this universe, in which the scriptures say the world is full of the glory of God, manifesting his glory. It is designed to be the home of the living God forever and ever, where he dwell with his people. And in this home, in his presence, in this vehicle of his glory, evil is done, and it is not given immediate vengeance and retribution, and that stores up within the living God indignation which develops to anger and a fury that that language of it being stored up, and sometimes he says, I need to get relief from this. I can't, it's as it's as if evil is constantly winning or allowed to survive, and it's as if evil is tolerated, and then the very land itself shared this horror at evil left unchallenged. The land cannot be atoned for unless there is proper retribution for evil, and that reflects the heart and mind of Almighty God. It is intolerable for evil to be unchallenged, unanswered, unpunished. And so wrath is stored up, builds up, ready for the time when all evil will be finally challenged, and the full vengeance of the living God will be poured out, unleashed upon all those who have done evil. And then there is this outer darkness where the wrath of God is manifested, and that and then again that language of fire and burning is again very relevant, that it is a manifestation of the divine indignation, this outer darkness, this place prepared for the devil and his angels, into which humanity will also go as workers of iniquity on that great day of vengeance. So atonement is how there can be peace with this God, how we can be forgiven, and crucially, it's how God Himself can be at peace with forgiving us. How we can find closure and satisfaction. Sometimes the Bible does use the word relief in the face of unchallenged, unpunished, unavenged evil. The day of his vengeance is the day when he gets this relief from his indignation against evil. Atonement at the cross of Jesus is how God is able to find this relief before that day of wrath. I'll say that again. Atonement at the cross of Jesus is how God is able to find relief and peace before the day of wrath. Now the Passover does not use the language of atonement directly as such, but in a way it's more intense than the wider language of atonement because the Passover is completely focused on the avoidance of divine judgment alone. Really, the Passover is simply about not so much all those wider elements that are part of reconciliation and salvation as a whole, because we've thought there's many different aspects to the full work of salvation and redemption, and we might think about new birth, sanctification, we might think about adoption, we might think about all these elements. Passover is

Relief Before The Day Of Vengeance

Rev Dr PRB 14:23

not really about all of those things, it is really focused narrowly on the avoidance of divine judgment, this vengeance of God. It's about the avoidance of that. In one sense, Passover, and this is what makes it perhaps the most intense example of sacrificial blood covering people. In one sense, Passover distills the matter of salvation to simply the avoidance of divine judgment. And then secondarily, it does involve an escape from slavery, from slavery to pagan gods to a new life with the Lord God Himself. That is in the aftermath of the actual Passover, but the actual event of the Passover itself is quite narrowly focused on the avoidance of divine wrath, divine judgment, really. Let me just read the account from Exodus 13. Moses, uh well, this is when Moses summarizes what must be done in the Passover after the Lord has given the instructions. But read the whole chapter, it's it's full of relevant details. It says this Moses summoned all the elders

Passover As Judgement Avoidance

Rev Dr PRB 15:55

of Israel and said to them, Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes notice this verse twenty-three when the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame, and he will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, What does this ceremony mean to you? Then tell them it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spurred our homes when he struck down the Egyptians. Then the people bowed down and worshipped. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt. So again, in there the details are relevant. It's a Passover sacrifice to the Lord to enable it to bring about a situation whereby the Lord will pass over a house when he comes to bring destruction on Egypt. So the judgment of the living God is against Egypt, beginning with actually the Egyptian gods in Exodus twelve, verse twelve, and then falling on all the humans who are under the Egyptian gods, the whole of Egypt. The judgment falls on the whole of Egypt, and in verse 33, the Egyptians are aware that the divine judgment is against them all, and they fear that they will all die in the judgment of the Lord against them. But in his mercy, the Lord God does not demand death from everybody in Egypt. Rather, he allows only the firstborn male of each household to represent the entire household, and so only not everyone would die, but only the one male firstborn. They would suffer the divine plague of death. So already it is interesting that the firstborn male of each household is allowed to represent the whole household to face this day of vengeance, this day of judgment that the Lord personally is bringing down upon the land of Egypt. But there was further provision made. So the firstborn male could represent the household, but a lamb could be substituted for the firstborn male, and as long as the whole household shared in eating the lamb, and so long as the blood of the lamb was applied to the household door, then the death of that Passover lamb would be accepted by the divine judge, and the Lord would pass over the households with the lamb's blood applied, so that the divine judgment, the divine destruction would not strike those homes. The logic is simple. The purpose of the Passover sacrifice was to provide a covering over the household so that the judgment or literally a destruction from God would not strike the people. The fact that Jesus dies at this feast and frames his own death in Passover terms makes the meaning of the death of Jesus very much focused towards God rather than towards humanity or even towards cosmic enemies, even though both of those elements are included in the full wider work of what he is doing in his death and resurrection. There are the human-facing elements, there are elements that are to do with the defeat of cosmic enemies, yes. But think about this fact that the Passover. Lamb is a sacrifice to the Lord according to Exodus 12.

Jesus Framed By Passover

Rev Dr PRB 22:08

It's to the Lord, it is orientated to him, the Passover, and the goal of it is to provide is to avoid the this judgment, destruction, vengeance of the Lord coming upon the land. So that that if Jesus has framed his own death, some people have said, well, why doesn't he die on the Day of Atonement? If it's about atonement. And yeah, there's of course the Day of Atonement teaches us a lot about well, the Day of Atonement is much broader than simply the death of Jesus. The Day of Atonement gathers up many elements about his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and how the high priest goes into the most holy place, and then they almost wait for him to come back out again. And in that he's making atonement for the entire cosmos, and then he comes back. And and the language of the Day of Atonement is picked up in the rest of the Bible for many elements of the work of Jesus, including his ascension and his work of the ascension. So the Day of Atonement, yes, is relevant to his death and tells us things about the death of Jesus, but it actually covers much a much broader range of topics than only his death. But the Passover is very narrowly focused sacrifice to the Lord for the specific purpose of avoiding divine judgment and destruction. It very much goes to the heart of Jesus' plea that we should not fear those who can only kill our bodies, but rather we are to fear this one, God Himself, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. That for Jesus, this is the central concern of humanity. And so the fact that Jesus dies at the Feast of Passover frames his own death in Passover terms, makes the meaning of the death of Jesus very focused towards God rather than towards humanity or cosmic enemies, even though cosmic enemies are and so on are dealt with. The purpose of Lamb's blood in the Passover was not for other humans to see. It wasn't for them to be able to walk around the neighborhood to note and see who has put the blood upon their doors because, in fact, they're told not to leave their house. They have to stay inside. So for them, they couldn't actually find out, see with their own eyes who who had applied the blood or not. It wasn't for human eyes to see. Human eyes couldn't see who'd done this. It wasn't for human eyes to see. Nor was it to ward off the influence of cosmic enemies. It wasn't to prevent the devil from bringing judgment or destruction upon Egypt or the power of just human flesh or human deceitfulness or or anything like that. And it wasn't even to confront the slavery structures of the political and social systems of Egypt. None of those things are, according to the text of Exodus 12, none of those things are the object of the Passover Lamb. The Passover Lamb is to the Lord, and the blood is applied. The blood of the Passover Lamb was entirely for the Lord God to see, according to the text. It is for him to see that blood, so that when he came in judgment, he would see the lamb's blood and pass over, pass over that house. We need to frame the death of Jesus, the work of atonement, not simply or primarily in the abstraction of a courtroom of legal correctness. There are legal elements to this, and we and the Bible uses that language. It also uses the language of commercial terms, in terms of debt. We've looked at these things, all of that is are elements of it. But the central framing of the death of Jesus in the Gospels, in the Bible itself, is in terms of the Passover, where the threat that is being confronted is God Himself. God is the threat, and the Passover, the blood of the Passover lamb provides cover and protection from that threat. So the context is not something cold and abstract and theoretical, nor is it merely a kind of inner existential business like Schleiermacher was trying to argue. In the biblical context, it is the context is a living God who is angry, coming in vengeance,

When God Is The Threat

Rev Dr PRB 28:12

really, the language of vengeance, retribution, fury, indignation towards sinful human beings to a world that is a corrupt provocation, such that he longs to destroy sinners and a sinful world, and he yearns to bring down upon us the full weight of what we have done to visit us, the language of visitation, the day of God's coming is people, you know, the prophets say, You think it will be a day of light and fun and joy, and how lovely it will be when God comes, but no, for sinful human beings, that's a terrible day, a terrible day of darkness and destruction and horror, horror, where the where the living God visits the world to bring to visit upon us the weight of what we have done, to bring retribution, to redistribute the weight and the consequences of what we have done upon us. He longs for a reckoning when evil receives what it deserves, and goodness also receives what it deserves. Yet and this is the the heart of the whole matter. The living God provides himself, gives himself, so loves us that he's angry with us, even as sinners, even as wicked people, he's angry with us, his indignation, he knows that as we are, we must be destroyed and thrown out into the outer darkness of and the burning. Yes, but he loves us, and so he provides himself as the only Passover lamb whose blood is sufficient to answer that divine indignation, he provides himself, his own son, as the Passover lamb that has blood that is precious enough to cover us from divine judgment. As Peter says, we're not redeemed by any precious earthly things, but by the blood of Christ. God purchased us with his own blood. When it is time for our sins to be visited upon us on that great day of judgment, which Jesus obsessively talks about and warns about in his ministry. And when we read the ancient prophets of the Old Testament correctly, we see that they relentlessly talk about a day of judgment, a day of visitation. They warn about this, and on that day when it is time for our sins to be visited upon us, what then? Where will you run to, sinner man? The rocks cannot hide us, the mountains, even a mountain upon us cannot hide us. No caves, nothing, nothing can hide on that day, because everything must be laid bare, because the time where evil can be tolerated and allowed and unanswered is over. The whole thing must be laid bare and all the evil must be answered, and all the good must be celebrated, and everything put right and everything renewed once and for all. And as P 2 Peter 3 is so powerful on this that everything must be laid bare by this great fire of the divine presence, our God

What Covers Us On That Day

Rev Dr PRB 32:46

is a consuming fire, and this fire of divine wrath and indignation and retribution comes and lays bare everything, everything is exposed and brought out into the open. And then, then, where can we hide? What can cover us? Then no, nothing in creation can cover us other than this blood of the Paschal Lamb, the Passover Lamb, only that can cause the judgment to pass over us. When it is time for our sins to be visited upon us, the blood of the divine Passover Lamb alone can cover us. So that this final and complete divine visitation then will pass over us. And then we can be united to the Lord as He leads us out into the promised land of a new creation.