Our 10th Word is Atonement

The meaning of atonement – Reconciliation through a required payment.

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” (Leviticus 17:11)

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One pretty common and totally valid criticism that’s thrown at the Bible by skeptics is that it’s a violent book. No reason they say this because people are constantly being bludgeoned or stabbed or flogged. Animals are repeatedly being slaughtered and sacrificed.

Sure, this can raise unsettling questions; Why is the so-called Good Book so bloody? And what in the world does atonement mean?

The Hebrew root translated ‘atone” or “atonement” is found almost a hundred times in the Old Testament.  More than half of them appear in Leviticus.

The word is used in Genesis 6:14 describing how Noah slathered his newly built ark with gooey pitch, the word can mean “to cover or smear.” Some people point to this and say that in the same way the pitch covered Noah’s ark and gave it protection against the flood waters, so does the blood of an atoning sacrifice can “cover” a sinner, blot out his or her transgressions, and provide safety from divine judgment. In other words, atonement results in forgiveness.

In a broader sense, atonement means ‘reconciliation through a necessary payment.”  Tactual meaning of our English word atonement: “the state of being at one with” 9that is, at one with a person you were previously estranged from or at odds with).

In Leviticus, God reveals that atonement comes only through sacrifices and offerings. This is why for centuries countless goats, rams, sheep, bulls, and birds served as substitutes for countless sinners, their blood spilled and splattered on an altar, so that a guilty person’s life might be spared.

Today, this system of blood sacrifice seems very primitive, savage, even unfair. For some it might to a degree be embarrassing or even outraged by the idea of atonement being directly tied to how much we’ve trivialized two realities: the holiness of God and the ugliness and horror of sin.

However, there is good news that’s announced by the New Testament and that was that God sent His Son to be the ultimate, once and for all sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 9: 26-28). “Look,” John the Baptist exclaimed; when he saw his cousin Jesus coming toward him, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

When Jesus hung on that cross and yelled with His dying breath, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), he was talking about atonement. He was proclaiming the truth that no more sacrifices would ever need to be made by anyone. Atonement for sin was finished, it was done forever.

Questions to Ponder

1. What does atonement mean to you?
2. Why does it matter?