The word atonement occurs 69 times in the Old Testament. You’ll find 43 of them in Leviticus dealing with sacrifices and blood offerings in order to, not only cover, but actually purify and forgive the sins of Israel under their law.
Atonement speaks of complete satisfaction for sins through God’s just reparation (repair). No matter what time in history you lived, atonement is what God does on your behalf in order to fix your sin problem and broken relationship with him.
The only place in the New Testament you’ll find this word is in Rom 5:11. Watch out, though! Except for the KJV, most translations of the Bible will substitute the word reconciliation for atonement. Atonement is the work done to put things back together. Reconciliation is that result. They are different.
Also, only atonement, not reconciliation, links the Old Testament sacrifice under the law in the prophetic-kingdom program to Christ’s finished work on the cross under the mystery program tying together the two-fold plan of God for Israel and the body of Christ.
You can reconcile things that don’t require an atonement. This is why using the word reconciliation in place of atonement diminishes the completeness that Paul is getting at in Romans 5:11.
For instance, most of us balance our bank statement every month by reconciling the credits and debts. Atonement does not need to be made unless there was a transgression against your account, like money being stolen. If there was a theft, someone needs to make atonement. Either you would atone for the perpetrator against your account, or the thief would make atonement and pay back the money he stole. Either way, someone has to make atonement before your account can be reconciled with the bank and your checkbook.
It’s important to understand the difference between these two ideas before continuing on with the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We will look at this verse in our next study.
Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
[…] and forgiveness are different. We talked about that before. Atonement provides the payment, whereby we receive the forgiveness. Forgiveness is like the […]