A friend recently reached out to me and asked what theologians mean by the word ‘atonement.’ She’d come across it while reading Oswald Chambers classic, My Utmost for His Highest. Chambers’ point was—as far as I can tell—that the Christian life must be built on the presupposition or fact of what Christ has achieved for us. So Chambers writes, “the great need is not to do things, but to believe things.” Some readers might squabble over a perceived overemphasis on Chambers’ part here, only I imagine most readers would agree that “we cannot do anything pleasing to God,” apart from God’s supernatural grace. The atonement, therefore, stands at the centre of the Christian life. It is the foundation of our faith. But what exactly is the atonement?

Atonement Aspects and Its Anchor

A few years ago I wrote a series of posts exploring Gustaf Aulén’s famous theological work, Christus Victor. The title of Aulén’s books is synonymous with one of the historical atonementviews or themes. Towards the beginning of his work,Aulén correctly asserts that our “interpretation of the atonement is most closely connected with some conception of the essential meaning of Christianity, and reflects some conception of the divine nature.” Unfortunately Aulén then proceeds to miss the well-established and crucial connection between sacrificial blood and atonement (Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5; Romans 8:3; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 10:11). In Aulén’s words, nothing less than “the essential meaning of Christianity” is at stake in considering the atonement. And—taking that further—I’d argue that the essential meaning of the atonement is anchored in penal substitution.

Though there isn’t a chapter titled ‘Atonement’ in his Concise Theology, J. I. Packer’s delightful and succinct book serves us well here. In his chapter on ‘Sacrifice’ Packer defines the atonement—and this conflation alone tells us much, if not everything, we need to know about it. He writes, “Atonement means making amends, blotting out the offence, and giving satisfaction for wrong done, thus reconciling to oneself the alienated other and restoring the disputed relationship.” Note the strong emphasis on reconciliation and the satisfaction of guilt. These well established concepts are not only inseparable from the atonement but are themselves the glorious fruits of Christ’s work on the cross, biblically and historically. As Lee Gatiss puts it, “God the Son’s punishment-taking, in-my-place death is the magnificent centrepiece for all Christian theology.”

“Christ Died for Us”

In an effort to bring some of the above together, through the atonement God’s just punishment is meted out against the Son of God. To use another word, there is propitiation, the appeasement of God’s wrath. But before you cry ‘cosmic child abuse’, and temporarily resurrect Steve Chalke from the obscurity of his own making, note that the work of atonement is preceded by the love of God (Institutes 2.16.3-4)—that is, both the love of God the Father and the Son, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The atonement is not some abstract, metaphysical transaction but the loving action of our Triune God. By this action Christ dies the death we deserved, cancelling the debt of sin that stood between us and God. Reconciliation is now possible.

Importantly, the Bible doesn’t blush at the identification of sacrifice with God’s death. Nor, as we saw above, does it present it as some kind of apathetic balancing of the moral books. Perhaps there isn’t a better New Testament text, then, when it comes to reflecting on the atonement than Romans 3:23-26. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

The Foundation of Our Faith

Admittedly, the atonement is a theological concept about as deep as it is broad. By this I mean, and hope you’ve seen, almost no Christian doctrine is untouched by it; while on its own it boasts spectacular depths to plumb. For now, I’ll give the cause of this reflection the last word. As Chambers writes on the atonement, “The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which he has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it.”