THE ATONEMENT, WHAT IT IS, AND HOW WE ARE RECONCILED AND SAVED BY THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
The word " Atonement" is one of those theological terms, the true meaning of which has been sadly perverted; and the beautiful and tender thought which it expresses in the Scriptures, overlaid with the errors and coarse definitions of the schools and creeds.
It is a curious fact that this word, which occupies so large a space in the theological literature, and sectarian controversies, of our time, is found only once in the New Testament. Rom. v. 11. And the use of it in this passage is so directly in conflict with the meaning commonly attached to it, that it is a marvel how it ever came to signify substitution, or the suffering of Christ in the sense of satisfaction to Divine Justice.
The meaning of the original word is wide enough from this idea, and is properly expressed in every other passage where it occurs, by the English word " reconciliation." And this was the meaning of the word " atonement " in early English, and at the tiuio the present translation was made. It has passed out of this into its present narrow and perverted sense, since that day. A few references to earlier literature will illustrate this point.
Johnson, the lexicographer, states that the primitive meaning of the word was " to agree, to accord." And he quotes from Shakespeare, who was contemporary with our translators, in proof of this :
" He and Aufidiug can no more atone
Than violentest contrariety."
Trench, in his Glossary of English Words, givesthe following illustrations of its early usage :
" His first essay succeeded so well, Moses would venture on a second design, to atone two Israelites at variance."
" Having more regard to their old variance than their new atonement."
" If Sir John Falstaff have committed disparagement unto you, I am of the Church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromises between you."1
In all these examples, " atone " signifies agreement, or reconciliation, being put in opposition to " contrariety," " variance," " hostility," &c. Originally it was written as two words, joined by a hyphen, and pronounced thus, at-one ; and the noun at-one-ment, meaning a state of oneness or unity.
In the Apocrypha the translators have used the
i Coriolanus, Act. iv. Sc. 6. Fuller’s Pisgah Sight of Palestine, ii 92. Moore’s History of Richard III., Merry Wives of Windsor Act i. Sc. 1.
word in this form : " Then cried they to Simon, beseeching them to be at-one with them," referring to those besieged in the tower at Jerusalem. 1 Maccabees xiii. 50. So in the second book of Maccabees, where the wish is expressed that God " would hear your prayers and be at-one with you," i. 5. And again it is written: " Though the Lord be angry with us a little while for our chastening and correction, yet shall, he be at-one again with his servants," ’ vii. 33. And in the New Testament we have this use of the word: " The next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at-one again." Acts vii. 26 ; i. e. would have atoned or reconciled them.
The Book of Homilies, of the Church of England, employs the term in the same sense in reference to Christ’s death, though it falsely applies it to God instead of man. * The New Testament never speaks of God being reconciled to man, but it is always man who is reconciled to God. Hence in the passage already named, the only one in which the word atonement is used, we have it in this form : " But we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whcm we have now received the atonement." Rom. v. 11. It is we who have been atoned or reconciled to God, not God to us. And this is the uniform witness of the Gospel; and it shows how utterly unfounded is the common doctrine of God’s wrath against man, and the necessity of Christ’s sacrificial death in order to satisfy his offended justice. Let us see how this stands in the sacred text.
Rom. v. 10, 11. " For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life," &c. 2 Cor. v. 18-20. " All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God." Rom. xi. 15. " The reconciling of the- world." 1 Cor. vii. 11. " Let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband."
These are all the passages in the New Testament where the Greek word rendered atonement occurs; and, as we see, in every instance but one it is rendered by the word " reconciliation," in its substantive or verbal form. The idea embodied in the word is obvious enough, and the doctrine is plain and positive beyond mistake or dispute. It is we who are enemies to God, not he an enemy to us. We are the unreconciled party ; and the object of Christ’s death, and the whole aim and intent of the Gospel, is this one thing — to reconcile man to God. This is the true atonement, and this is all that is embodied in the figures of a Sacrifice, a Mediator, Intercessor, Advocate, &c. There is no suffering of punishment in the place of the guilty world; no infliction of the penalties of the violated law on one who never offended ; no satisfaction rendered to inexorable justice ; no confusion of God the judge and executioner, and God the victim and sufferer; nothing vicarious or substitutional, in any sense whatever, in this scriptural presentation of the subject. ’ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and the burthen of the ministry of reconciliation is simply this—" Be ye reconciled to God." Hense the apostle declares that " it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, whether things in earth, or things in heaven." Col. i. 19, 20.
) used to remind his readers in the 19th century: the word first deployed for biblical translation by the Authorized Version compilers, ‘atonement’, is actually ‘at-one-ment’ (meaning at-one-ment) not ‘a-tone-ment’ (meaning nothing).
) Certainly an ortho-trin theist can do so; and this is the line I myself would take. But I can’t compare why I would, vs. whatever he’s doing, until I know more about what he’s doing and why.