Jesus as the Atonement

Jesus is the bridge between us and God, the Father.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the law - the living word.  Jesus is the atonement for our sins.

A few weeks ago on a Thursday during camp, the day that we read through the story of Jesus' crucifixion, we took our students to Hopevale.  Hopevale is a chapel built in the woods on the conference grounds.  It is a replica of a chapel in the Philippines that was built by American Baptist missionaries.  They built the chapel there to help bring others closer to the God they knew.  Eventually turmoil arose in the country, and the missionaries were martyred.  They live on through the faith that they shared and through a few short poems written by the nurse that was with them.

These missionaries laid down their lives so that so many people could come to know their Lord and Savior better.

Jesus laid down His life, so that all people - those who had been, those who were there in the moment, and all of us who were to come - could know God.

We can never really put ourselves in Jesus' shoes (or sandals) so to speak - only Jesus, the Son of God, who was without sin, can atone for our sins.  But we can try to walk with Him:

Jesus was led to Calvary.  Before departing to that place a crown of thorns was placed on His head.  He was spat on.  He was called names.  Jesus was subjected to shame and embarrassment.  That is what sin does - it heaps shame on us until we are covered in its dirt, until we are marred and deteriorating.  Jesus took that on.

At Calvary, there Jesus was crucified.  Crucifixion works in this way - the hands and feet are pierced, wounding the body to pin it to the cross.  Jesus was held to the cross by our sin.  Our sins pierce us and pin us down to this world, and Jesus allowed our sins to do that to Him.   Death by crucifixion is at the hand of gravity.  As Jesus hung from the cross, the weight of His body bore down on His lungs - the weight of our sins on His back.  It was us who held Him there.

That is what we deserved.  That is what sin does to us.  It presses the life out of us.  It collapses us.  Jesus allowed our sins to crush Him.  He bore their weight.  He is the all sufficient sacrifice.  He is the all sufficient atonement for our sins.

He was laid in the tomb, and on the third day He rose again.  The wounds became scars.  Scars are evidence of healing.  Jesus was wounded by our sin and God healed those wounds.  They are the evidence of Jesus' atonement for our sins.

~SP