Did Jesus really die for my sins? By Robert P. Mills The Presbyterian Layman Volume 33, Number 2 Posted April 1, 2000 Did Jesus die on the cross for my sins? The question cuts to the heart of our Christian faith and life. Today there are those in our pulpits and pews who insist that Jesus’ death is unrelated to the reconciliation of sinners to God. If they are right, Christianity is a hoax, folklore embroidering an outdated ethic, and all the Bible says about Jesus’ life and death (and my life and death) may be safely disregarded. But the Church has always believed what the Bible clearly says: Jesus did die on the cross as a willing sacrifice for human sin. And if what the Bible says is true, his death demands that I respond with thanksgiving, obedience and love. Recognizing that most people are unlikely to respond to an act or idea they do not understand, Christians throughout history have had much to say about Jesus’ role in the reconciliation between God and sinful human beings. Such discussions center on the Biblical word “atonement,” which conveys the concept it describes – at-one-ment He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.” – Matthew 18:2-4 The Atonement Throughout the New Testament, Jesus’ act of atonement is characterized in terms of Israel’s sacrificial system. Jesus spoke of his own blood being “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28), an allusion to the sacrifices mandated in Leviticus 4-5 and the Day of Atonement ceremony described in Leviticus 16. Paul says that “Christ our Lamb has been sacrificed” (I Cor. 5:7), connecting Christ’s crucifixion and the Passover lamb (Ex. 12). And in Hebrews 10:11-12, Jesus’ death is compared with a sin offering made by Israel’s priests. The doctrine of the Atonement teaches that Christ’s death makes our salvation possible by removing the barrier of sin that once separated us from God. Paul writes: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:23-26). But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Rom. 5:8-11). A scandalous doctrine A Biblical understanding of the Atonement connects the death of Christ and the salvation of humanity. Exactly how Jesus’ death atoned for our sins remains the subject of debate. Those who accept the truth of the Atonement may differ in their understanding of Romans 3, but in faith they confess the Atonement to be a mystery beyond the reach of human comprehension, all the while recognizing that its mystery does not deny its reality. Of course, not all accept the Biblical teaching that Jesus’ death on the cross atoned for human sin. As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles (I Cor. 1:22-23). “Stumbling block,” in Greek, skandalon, describes how some today still see the Atonement – as a scandalous doctrine. The feel-good, can-do, spirit of this present age tempts us to believe that we are good people who have done nothing wrong in God’s eyes. Public schools and self-help books indoctrinate the young and impressionable with their need to generate their own self-esteem, a doctrine badly at odds with what the Bible teaches us about sin, guilt and our relationship with God. Then there are those in our churches who teach that a felt need for reconciliation with God, particularly one met by a bloody Savior dying on a cross, is nothing more than a barbaric relic of archaic superstition. In the midst of such mindsets is it possible to know – to know with absolute assurance and unshakable conviction – that Jesus died on the cross to atone for my sins? Indeed it is. The most direct path to such assurance is the acceptance of the Biblical teaching that the Atonement is a scandal. No miraculous signs will ever keep the religiously self-sufficient from stumbling over the fact that Jesus died for human sin. No worldly wisdom, no matter how logically impeccable or emotionally appealing, will ever overcome secular skepticism. As in the days of Jesus and Paul, the Atonement will either be denied with defiance or it will be accepted with childlike faith. As the Crucified One himself declared: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3).

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