VICARIOUS ATONEMENT (2)
Explanation of Vicarious Atonement

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I. Vicarious atonement implies substitution. Substitution is "the gracious act of a sovereign in allowing a person not bound to discharge a service to do so for another who is so bound, or to suffer punishment in the stead and place of a person who is so bound". When the substitute discharges that service or suffers that punishment in the place and stead of another, he has done so vicariously, and the one for whom the substitute acted is freed from his former obligation. (The substitutionary work of Christ is vitally related to, but nevertheless distinguished from, His representative work as the Last Adam, as He is identified in 2 Corinthians 15:45ff.)

1. Christ the representative acts for others in such a way as to make His actions to be their actions through Him.

2. Christ the substitute replaces others in order to do what they cannot do.

II. Vicarious atonement is distinguished from personal atonement.

1. Personal atonement is provided by the offending party (the sinner); vicarious atonement is provided by the offended party (God). In personal atonement, the sinner suffers eternal punishment in order to personally satisfy the justice of God against him. In vicarious atonement, "God ... sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

2. Personal atonement is given by the criminal, not received by him; vicarious atonement is received by the criminal, not given by him. Through vicarious atonement the believer has "received the reconciliation" that was made for him vicariously by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:11).

3. Personal atonement excludes the element of mercy from God; vicarious atonement represents the highest form of mercy from God. Personal atonement involves justice without mercy; vicarious atonement involves mercy through God's self-sacrifice.

-- While we often speak of the self-sacrifice of the Son in atonement, we must not overlook the self-sacrifice of the Father: "He ... did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" to agony and death (Romans 8:32), and caused the sword of His justice to execute "My Companion" (Zechariah 13:7). The Son volunteered to die for sinners, and the Father surrendered Him for this purpose.

-- This self-sacrifice on the part of the Son or the Father is not incompatible with the impassibility of God, the doctrine that He is incapable of suffering. God cannot be made to suffer from any external cause. But God in Himself can do that which results in inward suffering. When God gave His Son, He gave Himself; when God caused the sword to pierce His Companion, He pierced Himself.

4. Personal atonement will be forever in the making and therefore can never result in redemption, reconciliation, or life; vicarious atonement leads not only to redemption, but also to reconciliation and everlasting life.

5. Personal atonement can be made by a creature; but vicarious atonement cannot. Of the latter we read: "Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him – for the redemption of their souls is costly [too great in price for any man to pay], and it shall cease forever [or forever cease such an impossibility] – that he should continue to live eternally, and not see the Pit" (Psalm 49:6-8).

III. Vicarious atonement was typified in Old Testament sacrifices. That these sacrifices were typical of Christ is evidenced in that they were shadows of which He is the Substance, and copies of which He is the Original (Hebrews 8:5; 10:1; Colossians 2:17).

1. Sacrifices were necessary because of sin (Leviticus 4:1-6:13): "Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying: "If a person sins ... against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, ... then let him offer to the LORD for his sin which he has sinned a[n] ... offering. ..."'"

-- Christ was "an offering for sin" (Isaiah 53:10). "He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26).

2. The victim to be sacrificed was to be of the most perfect clean animals associated with man (Leviticus 22:19-25): "you shall offer of your own free will a male without blemish from the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it shall not be acceptable on your behalf. ... it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. Those that are blind or broken or maimed, or have an ulcer or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to the LORD. ... You shall not offer to the LORD what is bruised or crushed, or torn or cut; nor shall you make any offering of them in your land. Nor from a foreigner's hand shall you offer any of these as the bread of your God, because their corruption is in them, and defects are in them. They shall not be accepted on your behalf."

-- Christ is the perfect victim for sinners (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 Peter 3:18): He is "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" – "a lamb without blemish and without spot"; "Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust."

3. The sins of men were transferred to the victim symbolically through the laying on of hands (Leviticus 1:4 / 3:2 / 4:4): "Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him." This action was accompanied with the confession of sins, which were symbolically transferred to the animal, as with the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:21f): "Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness."

-- The sins of God's elect were transferred to Christ legally through imputation (2 Corinthians 5:21): "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us."

4. The victim bearing the sins of man was slain through the shedding of its blood for the atonement of the sinners (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22): "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul"; "without shedding of blood there is no remission."

-- Christ made atonement through the shedding of His blood (Hebrews 9:12-14): "Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ [the Substance casting the shadow], who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

5. The blood of the victim was sprinkled before God - either on the horns of the altar or on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement, thereby signifying the application of the covering of sin and its acceptance by God (Leviticus 16:15-16ff): "Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement ...."

-- The blood of Christ is "the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24).

6. The sins of men for whom the victim died were forgiven by God (Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31, 35, et.al.): "and it shall be forgiven him."

-- Christ obtained forgiveness for all for whom He died (Hebrews 10:17): "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more [says God]. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin."

(To be continued)

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