Bible Study 12 points of the atonement

[BenJasher]

Some possibly controversial views of the Atonement, from A.P. Adams:

1) The atonement was not to satisfy God's justice, but to reveal His love.

2) The justice of God is not against the sinner, demanding his condemnation, but for him, insuring his salvation.

3) God is not in contrast with, much less in oppoosition to Christ in the atonement, but in perfect harmony.

4) The atonement is not the exclusive work of Christ reconciling God to the world, but it is the work of "God in Christ" reconciling the world unto Himself.

5) Christ does not have to plead with God to make Him willing to pardon a sinner; but God, by His ministers "beseeches" (2 Corin. 5:20) the sinner to make them willing to be pardoned.

6) Hence, the atonement is not to propitiate God, but man; not to make God favorably disposed toward man, but to make His already existing favor known to man.

7) Christ did not die as our substitute, but as our companion and associate; not instead of man but with him and for him.

8) Christ did not die to save us from the penalty of sin, but from sin itself.

9) Christ did not die that we might not die, but to deliver us out of a death in which we were already involved.

10) The sinner is not redeemed because he repents, but is called upon to repent because he has been redeemed.

11) The atonemet is not the cause of God's love to man, giving rise to that love; rather, it is the effect, flowing out of and motivated by that love.

12) The final outcome of the atoning scheme is not a partial success, but a perfect, absolute, and universal triumph.