The one word that sums up all that Jesus did is atonement. Therefore Paul could write in Romans 3:25 speaking about Jesus, “Whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement (NRSV).” Richard John Neuhaus writes: “Atonement.” It is a fine, solid, twelfth century Middle English word, the kind of word one is inclined to trust. Think of at-one-ment: what is separated is now at one.[1] In essence Atonement simply means reconciliation. It stands for the act of God in Jesus Christ by which humankind is reconciled to God (2Corinthians 5:18).[2]But why need reconciliation or at-one-ment?
We all know what happened in Genesis 1- 3. Godallowed humanity represented by Adam and Eve to eat off of every tree in the garden except for one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:16-17). God, as opposed to being a selfish giant, acted as a loving father giving everything withholding only that which was necessary for the betterment of His children. What the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented was moral autonomy, i.e. the autonomy to decidewhat is right or wrong or what is good and evil. God in His infinite wisdom wanted humankind to leave that job to God who understood the true nature of evil. But as Genesis 3:5 points out, the human desire to be like God, to decide for oneself what is right or wrong led humanity to sin by breaking God’s commandment to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was then because of that sin, the sin not only of breaking God’s commandment but also of not submitting to God’s moral authority that humanity ceased to be in relationship with God. They were, as the end of Genesis 3 tells us, driven away from the life giving goodness of God’s presence. This breakup of relationship with God also had a far reaching impact on all of creation. When Adam and Eve refused to live in harmony with God, when they became self-centered instead of being God centered, all hell broke loose on earth. The harmony with their individual selves was destroyed. The Bible tells us that they became self-aware and ashamed (compare Gen.2:25 with Gen.3:7). Today, shame, guilt and low self-esteem dominate and determine the lives of many people. The harmony between one human being and another was also destroyed. Adam who once sang a love song to Eve (2:23) blamed Eve for the fall (3:12). Today, racism, genocide, wars and conflict give a modern face to that ancient blame game. Lastly, the harmony with therest of the created world was also destroyed through the curse from God. In Genesis 3:17-18 God says to the man, “Cursed is the ground because of you,..…thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you...” Today the human abuse of natural resources, the wiping out of natural habitats, and in return being threatened and destroyed by mega natural disasters live out on a global scale that ancient curse. The solution to the brokenness of this world is once again being reconciled to God.
It is only by being God centered again that we can be properly self-centered by having a healthy self-image, be other-centered by caring for the good of others, and be world centered by truly caring for the world that God created. This is what atonement does for us. It reconciles us to God through Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, and by reconciling us to God it reconciles us to each other and to the world at large. That is why Paul writes in Romans 8:19, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,” i.e. people who have been reconciled to God through Jesus.
Therefore what does this atonement look like in our everyday life? It takes the form of reconciliation with our-selves, our looks and our past. It means forgiving ourselves as God in Christ has forgiven us, and not being ashamed anymore. It takes the form of interpersonal, racial and ethnic reconciliation. It echoes the love song that beyond our superficial differences we are bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. It takes the form of taking care of our world, its plants, its animals and its resources. After all, according to Genesis 1, God created them all and called it all very good. It goes beyond party alliances or whether one agrees with Al Gore or not to what God gave humanity to do when He created humanity. In Genesis 2:15 we read that the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it. The Hebrew word samartranslated keep basically means to exercise great care over.[3]
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