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The application of atonement in sanctification

Definitions

Atonement: “The meaning of the word is simply at-one-ment, i.e., the state of being at one or being reconciled, so that atonement is reconciliation. Thus it is used to denote the effect which flows from the death of Christ.”[1]

Passage under study

1 John 2:1-2, NIV: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Table of Contents

THE GOAL SET FOR A SANCTIFIED COMMUNITY OF BELIEVERS: NOT TO SIN

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.”

This is a goal set for us even though it is not possible for us to attain this in this life. However, the promises of God show us we will be without sin when the Lord Jesus Christ comes and our lives are revealed through Him. The chief end of our sanctification is our glorification were will be like Christ: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is yourlife, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col 3:3-4, NIV).”

Confronted teaching: The first truth of not sinning confronts already the teaching of making the grace of God as the means of doing sin as those people in Jude did that, he had to write about them.

POSSIBLE SITUATION OF SINNING AGAINST GOD

“But if anybody does sin”

With that goal of not sinning, is the possibility of us not living according to that. How then is our hope of being in fellowship with God rekindled if our ways are marked by that possibility? One of the major problems that John is dealing with in this is the hopelessness that one would have when they sin against God. This hopelessness can be demonstrated in the following questions: Can I still be sure that God will forgive me since I have fallen? Can the Lord restore to me the joy of His salvation when I seek it after realizing my fall from His glory? Let, us look at the solution that John offers.

Confronted teaching: It is good to mention early that this idea confronts those who think a believer cannot sin in this life.

THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF SIN

We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

John offers the eternal help that the soul can rely on as it hopes for the fulfillment of the promises of God in Christ. The passage reveals the nature of our relationship with God. It is rooted in Christ the Righteous One and His work on the cross. John emphasizes how the work of Christ reconciles us to God. Through Christ we can hope to be restored to God. This relationship helps us understand how God deals with us in our sanctification (process where God makes us in the image of Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit through His word). When the foundation of our relationship with God is not understood we can easily fall into the pit of thinking that a believer can lose his salvation.

Now, in dealing with the hopelessness that the believer may find himself in because of sin, John raises the following points in rekindling the hope of the believer in God so that one may see God as the only help one has in this problem of sin.

First, John points out that Jesus speaks in our defence before the Father.

This work of Christ is necessary because without Christ through whom we have forgiveness of sin we are left with our works as the means of justification. How then can we be right with God or be reconciled to God if all our ways are marked with sin? Just as our justification is rooted in the work of Christ so is our sanctification. We are not reconciled to God based on our good works but based on the merit of Christ. Thus, why the Bible says, “the just shall live by faith.” We do rely on the very fact that Christ’s righteousness will always be ours.

Christ is not defending us that we should continue sinning, as it is mentioned earlier that John was writing so that the believers may not sin, but His defence is there so that when we have fallen or sinned and are awakened to the weight of our wrong doings and sense the displeasure of God, though the Lord has confronted us in that manner that terrifies us, we can still know that our relationship with God and our fellowship with Him is sure for it is rooted in the person of Christ and His work on the cross. The Lord may deal with us how He pleases in His discipline but we can be sure that when He has forgiven us, He restores us to Himself and we can still enjoy calling upon His name. The closest passage that demonstrates this is that from Job which says,

Job 33:19-30 (Elihu)
a man may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in his bones,
20 so that his very being finds food repulsive and his soul loathes the choicest meal.
21 His flesh wastes away to nothing, and his bones, once hidden, now stick out.
22 His soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the messengers of death.
23 “Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator, one out of a thousand,
to tell a man what is right for him,
24 to be gracious to him and say,’ Spare him from going down to the pit;
I have found a ransom for him’—
25 then his flesh is renewed like a child’s; it is restored as in the days of his youth.
26 He prays to God and finds favor with him,
he sees God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state.
27 Then he comes to men and says, ‘I sinned, and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved.
28 He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit,
and I will live to enjoy the light.’
29 “God does all these things to a man — twice, even three times —
30 to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him.
NIV

We have The One who declares to us what is right for us and that is Christ. We do deserve death in our sins and the shadow of death as our resting place in which the soul that has fallen lack the joy of the Lord. It is evident in our daily living that we lack this joy of the Lord when we fall into sin. Not only that, sometimes we lose the trust we once had from others, peace we once enjoyed with others. We see the weight of the consequence of our act and sense the displeasure of God. We feel that we are walking in the shadow of death. When David sinned against God and was confronted for his sins, in Psalms 51:12, he said, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

The issue is that we do find ourselves in bad situations when we sin against God and if it was not for Christ, we would faint in the rebukes that God gives us. Where will I find strength if the one who loves me is not pleased with me? Unless He says to me, “wake up stand on your feet for you are forgiven, go and leave your life of sin,” I cannot find strength within me or from outside me to make a further step in life because my hope and my strength is from the Lord. His Joy over me gives me strength: “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).” If it was not for Christ’s work through which our relationship with God is founded, one rebuke of God would send us to dust for we would not know if we can be reconciled to God again.

Because of this work of Christ, then we know that God is dealing with us as children. He does not deal with us according to our sins. He forgives us as we seek Him and revives us again to live for Him. Our status of reconciliation in Christ is sure and His disciplining which He may put on us it is not in accordance to our sins but to treat us as children so that we may share in His holiness.

Ps 103:2-5
Paise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits —
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
NIV

God is gracious to us for Christ is the ransom and hence we are spared from death (separation from God forever) and have not our life spent under the shadow of death groaning and longing for death more than life because of the wrath of God for He forgives our sins in our sanctification. About this salvation from the wrath of God Paul says, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Rom 5:9-10, NIV).” The work of Christ has secured that salvation from the wrath of God forever.

Now, this work of Christ does not demolish the work of God of disciplining His children which is promised in the scripture, beginning with church discipline and other disciplines that God gives us in our sanctification. So, the work of Christ as our mediator actually upholds the principle of discipline. Hence the situation that we are dealing with should be looked at the angle of if our fall into sin does threaten our salvation at the same time if our fall into sin does not promises a coming back into our fellowship with God. And the solution to this issue is rooted in the work of Christ. 1) our salvation is secure 2) God is faithful in working in our lives so that we are able to see our sinfulness and seek His forgiveness which revives us (1 John 1:9).

Second, John points out that Jesus is the righteous one

The reason why Jesus is able to do this that is defend us before God is because He is the Righteous One. We can say that it is necessary that our Mediator be Righteous without that Christ would not do that before God the Father. But because He is God, we can depend on His defence and hope that we can live through Him and still enjoy the goodness of the Lord. Now, we need to know that John deals with the situation of hopelessness that need the whole view of salvation in order to comfort the believer of his restoration to God. In 1 John 1:9, John has already laid out how we are to seek the Lord so that we may be restored to Him in our fellowship with Him that is confess our sins.

Third, John tells us of what Jesus the Righteous One did

John tells us of what Jesus the Righteous One did so that His defence for us before God can be our hope when we are found in the situation of sin. He says, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” John employs the person of Christ and His completed work on the cross as the foundation for our defence before God. When God confronts us of our sins, we are brought to the view of who we are, that is we are not righteous. It is a hopeless situation if we are without someone who can save us from the wrath of God. However, because the work of Christ secured our salvation as the whole (Justification, sanctification, glorification) we have a secure foundation that we can be forgiven before God and still embrace the righteousness of Christ as our own.

CONCLUSION

So, when we fall into sin, we ought not to think that is the end of our fellowship with God and that we shall see not the goodness of God for the shadow of death is set as our home. However, we should see the work of Christ as said “atoning sacrifice for our sins” as the one that speaks for us so that in God alone, we continue to trust and hope. So let us always run to God for forgiveness when we sin against God and let us embrace the righteous One (Christ) as one own because His righteousness is what we need to stand before God forever.