Atonement

RECOVERING BIBLICAL AT-ONE-MENT : M.
M. M. NINAN
Hebrews 2:17. “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a
merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.” Here Jesus is presented as the High Pries on behalf of mankind.
1 John 2:1-2 “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole
world.” Here Jesus himself is the propitiation of sins and that is for the whole world which properly
includes all mankind and probably the creation as a whole.
1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.” This propitiation is made by God himself because of His love for mankind who
are his children and image.
The wrath of God is to be understood in terms of God’s love. The proper functioning of the cosmos
needs physical laws. In the same way proper functioning of the spiritual world needs spiritual laws.
Violation of these rules brings in cosequence of the act just as we jump from a height would incur fall
and injury, if we violate moral social and spiritual rules will bring in pain and suffering not only for us but
also for the whole family, tribes, nations, humankind and for the creation as a whole. What we see as
the wrath of God and subsequent act is God’s provision to alleviate the pain and suffering the sin
brings into humankind. This is exactly what God did when Adam asserted his self by disobeying
God’s law. The suffering that brought to mankind is experienced by each generation in the fight for
the survival of the fittest. Thus reduce the pain until a full solution is brought about by making the
whole creation anew and in at-one-ment, God blessed man by cursing the ground bringing in the law
of order to disorder causing death in man. Otherwise, this fight for selfishness and power would be
unbearable to man if he lived eternally. Here we can see that all the death and destruction of cities and
creation is for this reduction of pain. It is looked upon by mankind as the anger of God. God wants to
take away death from mankind and to place him within his body of creation as his sons and daughters.
This can be done only after the redemption of man when he is synchronized with the will and the
purposes of God. The atonement is the process of redemption through God’s incarnation as Jesus of
Nazareth and His life, death and resurection.
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