Atonement brings together two people who have been separated because of sin. The atonement is where God’s love and God’s justice meet. It is the work of Christ in taking the sin of the world into Himself and dying in order to pay the penalty for sin instead of us. In this way, Christ atones for the sins of the world. God’s justice demands that sin is punishable by death (Romans 6:23), but God’s love meant that He sent Jesus as a substitute, to die in our place (1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10). In the atonement our sins were placed on Christ and He paid the penalty for them, so that we might receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of His righteousness, so that we can be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:21-26). Christ’s atonement for the sins of the world was pictured in the Old Testament sacrifices, particularly in Leviticus 16 which describes the Day of Atonement. Hebrews 7-10 explains that this Old Testament pattern of sacrifice was a forerunner or shadow of the great sacrifice made by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1). It is only through personally accepting Christ’s atoning sacrifice that forgiveness of sins is possible.
