The Atonement;AW Pink

Reconciliation is one of the many effects or fruits of Christ’s Atonement, but was not part of the work He did. Many others have failed to distinguish between the Atonement of Christ and the Redemption which is one of its fruits. It is vitally important to distinguish between what Christ did and that which has resulted therefrom. To understand what He did, let us now attempt to define the nature of His Atonement.

1. IT WAS A FEDERAL WORK By the term “federal” we mean that there was an official oneness existing between the Mediator and those for whom He mediated, or in simpler language, that there is a legal union between Christ and His people.

The relation between Christ and those who benefit from His Atonement was, therefore, no vague, indefinite, haphazard one, but consisted of an actual covenant oneness, legal identity, vital union. Suretyship presupposes it. Strict substitution demands it. Real imputation proceeds upon it. The penalty Christ endured could not otherwise have been inflicted. They for whom Satisfaction was made do, by inevitable necessity, share its benefits and receive what was purchased for them.

The law, as a covenant of life, was accompanied by two sanctions.

First , the promise of “life” or Divine favor and eternal well-being, conditioned upon perfect obedience: see Leviticus 18:5; Matthew 19:17; Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12.

Second , the penalty of “death” suspended on disobedience. Now the object for which Christ became incarnate was “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” ( Romans 8:4), and therefore is Christ declared to be “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” ( Romans 10:4).

And this was only made possible by His fulfilling all the law’s conditions.


Third , we have shown that the work of Christ was penal in its character.
Because He took our law place, the curse of the law must fall upon Him. Because He was “made sin” for us, the sword of Divine justice must smite Him. As 1 Corinthians 15:3 declares, the God- man not only died “for us,” but “Christ died for our sins,” which was only made possible by our sins having been federally placed upon Him.

4. IT WAS A SACRIFICIAL WORK
Ere attempting to define the character of Christ’s sacrifice, let us first remind ourselves that He presented Himself a sacrifice to God by covenant agreement. As we are told in Romans 3:25, “Whom God hath foreordained a propitiation through faith in his blood.”

God can be pleased only with that which He has appointed. The Everlasting Covenant furnishes the key to many a verse of Scripture. For instance, when Christ was about to go to the Cross, He said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified” ( John 13:31).

But how could that be? Was it not rather His degradation? No, for the eternal Three had assigned to the God man the work of mediation, and that was a high honor. So the Son of man viewed it. It is our “glory” too to bow to God’s will and keep His appointments.

 

A. CHRIST’S SACRIFICE WAS A RANSOMING ONE
More specifically yet, the offering of Himself a ransom for us, and to His bearing the curse of the law in our stead, and the design and effects of this ransom-paying, curse bearing sacrifice of His, that He redeems us from the curse of the law. It is not any kind of a sacrifice, but a ransom paying, curse-bearing sacrifice. It is not any kind of redemption, but a sacrificial redemption” (A. A. Hodge).

That the sacrifice of Christ was a ransoming one is clear, first, from Matthew 20:28, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Christ gave His life a “ransom for many”: the Greek preposition is “and” which, except in the few instances where it means “against,” is always used in a substitutionary sense. His life was not “given” in any vague, indefinite way for the good of others, but was a specific quid pro quo, dying in the very room of His people. The “many” is in contrast from the one life. “The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” ( Acts 20:28).

The prominent idea of “ransom” is that of payment, of vicarious substitution, of one thing standing in the place of another.

 

First , we have shown that the work of Christ was federal in its character: that is, Christ became legally one of His people. He came here not to strangers, but to His “brethren” ( Hebrews 2:12). He came here not to procure a people for Himself, but to secure a people already His ( Ephesians 1:4; Matthew 1:21).

Second , we have shown that the work of Christ was vicarious in its character. Substitution has been thus defined: “A ‘substitute’ is one who does or suffers the same thing which the person or persons for whom he is substituted would have done or suffered.”

Third , we have shown that the work of Christ was penal in its character.

This follows of inevitable necessity. In becoming one with His criminal people, Christ entered their law place before God. In acting as the Substitute of His people, Christ must receive that which was due them from God.


Christ gave His life a “ransom for many”: the Greek preposition is “and” which, except in the few instances where it means “against,” is always used in a substitutionary sense. His life was not “given” in any vague, indefinite way for the good of others, but was a specific quid pro quo, dying in the very room of His people. The “many” is in contrast from the one life. “The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” ( Acts 20:28).

D. CHRIST’S SACRIFICE WAS AN EXPIATORY ONE The whole of Christ’s humiliation and suffering from His birth to the Cross were invested with a priestly and sacrificial character, as constituting His once-offering up of Himself a sacrifice, as propitiatory of God and expiatory of His people’s sins;

 

This was the grand design of the Trinity: that the God man should thus be glorified. 3. THAT GOD’S ELECT MIGHT BE SAVED “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” ( Luke 19:10).

How different is this plain, positive and unqualified statement from the tale which nearly all preachers tell today! The story of the vast majority is that Christ came here to make salvation possible for sinners: He has done His part, now they must do theirs. To reduce the wondrous, finished, and glorious work of Christ to a merely making salvation possible is most dishonoring and insulting to Him.

Christ came here to carry into effect God’s sovereign purpose of election, to save a people already “His” ( Matthew 1:21) by covenant settlement.

There are a people whom God hath “from the beginning chosen unto salvation” ( 2 Thessalonians 2:13), and redemption was in order to the accomplishing of that decree.

 

Fourth , the end in view of Christ’s substitutionary sufferings was to bring His people to God. This was only possible by the removal of their sins, which separated them from the thrice Holy One: Isaiah 59:2. By His sufferings Christ has procured for us access to God. “But in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ” ( Ephesians 2:13). “That he might bring us to God” is the most comprehensive expression used in Scripture for stating the design of Christ’s Satisfaction. It includes the bringing of His people out of darkness into marvelous light: out of a state of alienation, misery and wrath, into one of grace, peace and eternal communion with God. By nature they were in a state of enmity, but Christ has reconciled them by His death: Romans 5:10. By nature they were “children of wrath” ( Ephesians 2:3), obnoxious to God’s judicial displeasure; but by grace they have been accepted into His favor: Romans 5:2. By nature they were spiritual lepers, but by one offering Christ hath “perfected forever them that are sanctified” ( Hebrews 10:14).

 

Hath He “from the beginning chosen us unto salvation”? ( Thessalonians 2:13) Then saved we must be. Hath He “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will”? ( Ephesians 1:5) Then that will must be fulfilled. God’s purpose is immutable ( Hebrews 6:17), invincible ( Psalm 2:6), triumphant ( Isaiah 14:26,27). Before there can be the slightest failure in the accomplishment of the Divine design in the Atonement of Christ, God must cease to be! But this is impossible. 2. THE COVENANT OF GOD Now it is obviously impossible to have any clear views of what the Lord Jesus died to achieve, if we have no real knowledge of the Eternal Agreement between the Father and the Son in fulfillment of which His death took place. Yet, today, deplorable to say, even the great majority of those considered evangelical — to mention no others — have scarcely any such knowledge. The very fact that that Covenant was proposed, accepted and drawn up before the foundation of the world, proves beyond all shadow of doubt that it was unconditional so far as man is concerned, for he then had no existence! Therefore he cannot be a party to it, even though his eternal well-being is the object of it.

 

Hello Webdog,
I enjoy the interaction with fellow believers on the BB. It is not my purpose to harm or make a personal attack on anyone whom Jesus has purchased.
In post 19 I asked some important questions that Idid not feel were really responded to adequately.

Allan did offer somewhat of a response. I felt he changed the force of the questions....and so became non responsive.Unless these questions are dealt with....I think we are not really going to progress on this topic.
I posted a link to Pink's book that i think show's step by step how God's design comes to pass. I am skipping through posting what I believe are key sections that will cause the reader to consider the eternal covenant of God,made with the elect.

here are those questions again;

In what way has sin been dealt with for those who remain dead in Adam?

 

Hello WD,

Let me attempt to clarify.