Series: The 7 Phases of the Atonement
Sermon: The Payment
Pastor Rod Thompson
Midland SDA Church
August 11, 2018
Today we continue in our 7 part series on the atonement, and we are going to look at the 2nd phase. In the first part of our series we saw that atonement and reconciliation are different words that mean the same thing. God is attempting to reconcile the world to Himself and the first thing that He needed to do in order to bring reconciliation is that man must be informed as to how he can be redeemed, reconciled, restored to a relationship with God. In other words, how atonement can be achieved.
And we saw that immediately after man sinned that God was there. Not to judge the man, not to chastise him, not to immediately bring death, but rather God was there to show man how he could be restored to a relationship with Him. And to bring man hope. Hope for a redeemer, hope for a way out of the predicament that sin has caused. Sin has caused separation from God. So how could man be restored to a harmonious relationship with God?
And the answer came in Genesis 3
Read Genesis 3:15
Patriarchs and Prophets P65
This sentence, uttered in the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise. While it foretold war between man and Satan, it declared that the power of the great adversary would finally be broken. Adam and Eve stood as criminals before the righteous Judge, awaiting the sentence which transgression had incurred; but before they heard of the life of toil and sorrow which must be their portion, or of the decree that they must return to dust, they listened to words that could not fail to give them hope. Though they must suffer from the power of their mighty foe, they could look forward to final victory.
Here is the promise of a redeemer. Someone who would pay the penalty for man. Someone who would take the place of man and die for him so that the righteous judgment of God could be met while at the same time man could live and have a relationship with God.
Another period of probation would be granted to man, and through repentance and faith in the coming redeemer they might again become the children of God.
In the chapter on the plan of redemption in the book Patriarchs and Prophets it tells us that God explained to Adam and Eve the plan of salvation. Heavenly angels more fully opened to our first parents the plan that had been devised for their salvation. Adam and Eve were assured that notwithstanding their great sin, they were not to be abandoned to the control of Satan. The Son of God had offered to atone, with His own life, for their transgression.
The sacrifice demanded by their transgression revealed to Adam and Eve the sacred character of the law of God; and they saw, as they had never seen before, the guilt of sin and its consequences. In their remorse and anguish they pleaded that the penalty might not fall upon Him whose love had been the source of all their joy; rather let it descend upon them and their posterity.
They were told that since the law of God is the foundation of His government in heaven as well as upon the earth, even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for their transgression. Not one of the laws precepts could be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition; but the Son of God, who had created man, could make an atonement for him. As Adam's transgression had brought wretchedness and death, so the sacrifice of Christ would bring life and immortality.
In the first phase of the atonement we also saw that not only did God indicate to Adam and Eve that a redeemer would be provided but he also instituted the sacrificial system to yet further impress upon their minds the magnitude of their sin and the necessity for a blood sacrifice.
Genesis 3:21 For Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Can you imagine the horror of Adam and Eve as God introduced them to the sacrificial system?
Patriarchs and Prophets P68
The sacrificial offerings were ordained by God to be to man a perpetual reminder and a penitential acknowledgment of his sin and a confession of his faith in the promised Redeemer. They were intended to impress upon the fallen race the solemn truth that it was sin that caused death. To Adam, the offering of the first sacrifice was a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which only God could give. It was the first time he had ever witnessed death, and he knew that had he been obedient to God, there would have been no death of man or beast. As he slew the innocent victim, he trembled at the thought that his sin must shed the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. This scene gave him a deeper and more vivid sense of the greatness of his transgression, which nothing but the death of God's dear Son could expiate. And he marveled at the infinite goodness that would give such a ransom to save the guilty. A star of hope illumined the dark and terrible future and relieved it of its utter desolation
The sacrificial system was instituted there in the Garden of Eden. We see in Genesis 4 the story of how Adam and Eve’s sons (Cain and Abel) brought their sacrifice before the Lord. And then in the book of Exodus we see that when God brought His people Israel out of the bondage of Egypt that He restored that sacrificial system, which was designed to point them forward to the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
So God said to Moses,
Exodus 25:8-9 and let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
The earthly tabernacle was to be made after the pattern of the heavenly sanctuary and there in the earthly sanctuary man was to bring his sacrifice.
I want you to imagine for a moment that you are Jew, you have just come out of the bondage of Egypt and now God has instituted this sacrificial system. You may have known about it before this and it is a reminder or it may be something completely new to you. But there you are as a part of the wilderness congregation, and you have sinned
So you need to bring your pure spotless lamb to the sanctuary. So you start walking with your lamb towards the center of the camp where the sanctuary (Tabernacle) is set up. As you are walking along you see everyone turning to look at you and they see you there with your lamb. And you know that they know that you are guilty of some sin. You may be embarrassed by that but you keep going.
You bring your lamb into the courtyard. You wait your turn, and finally it is time. The priest bends down in front of your lamb with a bowl in his hand and he hands you a knife. You take that knife in one hand and the other you place upon the head of the lamb and you secretly confess your sins over the animal.
At this point your sins are symbolically transferred to the animal and the innocent animal now (symbolically) becomes sinful. And the blood of that animal now represents something.
Leviticus 17:11 The life of the flesh is in the blood
In other words the blood represented life, and because of your sin it now represents a sinful life. And then you take the knife and you cut the throat of the animal. It has to be you who slays the animal because it is your sin that brings death, and the priest is there with that bowl to catch the blood.
The priest than carries that sinful blood into the holy place, the first compartment of the sanctuary, and puts some of that blood on the horns of the altar of incense.
Symbolically your sins are thus transferred from you to the animal, and the blood of the animal is the carrier if you will which will transfer your sin from you into the sanctuary. At that moment you are now symbolically free of sin.
Of course this was not able to do away with your sin, but your sins were temporarily covered or atoned for. And it was all designed to point you to the redeemer who would come and pay the penalty for your sins once and for all
Read Hebrews 10: 1-10 (hold your place we’re coming back)
Here we see that those sacrifices each day throughout the year could not completely do away with sin but they were a temporary fix until the Son of God would come and lay down His life.
But the ministration of the earthly sanctuary was twofold. On a daily basis the priests ministered in the holy place bringing forth the morning and evening sacrifice and performing the service in behalf of individuals, helping the repentant sinner to transfer his sins to the innocent animal. The animal was then slain by the sinner and the blood was carried by the priest into the holy place.
Thus the sins of man were “transferred into the sanctuary:” This meant that a second ministration was essential to remove the sins from the sanctuary. God had commanded that atonement also be made for the sanctuary.
Read Leviticus 16: 16 & 33
So, not only does man’s sins need to be atoned for, but, because the sins were transferred into the sanctuary now, once a year on the day of atonement the sanctuary needed to be cleansed as well.
But these things were only types and shadows that were pointing forward to the ultimate sacrifice and priestly work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, as depicted in Hebrews 9. They were symbolic in nature but they could not do away with sin.
In this second phase of the atonement, at the appointed time, God brought forth His Son, the promised seed born of a woman, God in human flesh. He was the Lamb of God slain before the foundations of the world.
1 Peter 1:20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you
Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world
He would live in perfect harmony with the law of God, but as the prophet Daniel predicted, (Daniel 9:26) he would “be cut off, but not for Himself,”
As the prophet Isaiah said in Chapter 53: 5-6 He would be “wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities”
Read Hebrews 10: 11-18
those earthly sacrifices that continued day after day and year after year could never bring perfection or complete atonement, because it was “not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” But Christ, after He offered one sacrifice for sins, His own life, He sat down by the Father’s side,
“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” The infinite God, who existed from eternity past, had paid the penalty Himself. His life, His blood, is infinitely more valuable and is sufficient to meet the demand of God.
In His earthly ministry and sacrificial death, He had revealed the love of God and took the sins of the world upon Himself. He proved that the law could be kept, and as was already mentioned, the atonement for man’s sin was effectual and complete. He defeated the devil and provided the way of escape from sin and its consequences.
Read Romans 5: 6-11
It was essential that the first phase of the atonement be accomplished. God needed to let man know how his sins could be atoned for. That phase was accomplished by God, starting immediately after sin. He was there to bring hope to man of a way out of his predicament. God went even further and instituted the sacrificial system so that man could see the awfulness of his sin and he could have faith in a coming redeemer.
In this second phase of the atonement God then provided the redeemer that had been promised. He sent His Son to this earth, to live a perfect life, to show us that the law of God can be kept by His power, to show us the love of the Father, and then to lay down His life and pay your penalty for you.
John 10: 18 Jesus said, No one takes my life from me, , but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again
He laid down His life for you, He willingly went the cross, and He would have done it even if you were the only one.
Hebrews 9: 12-14 He came as our High Priest, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood … for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of the heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Read Romans 5: 12-19
The logic of this verse is twofold.
1. The sin that entered the world through Adam caused death.
2. And everyone must be a sinner because everyone dies
This formula is based on the principle of curses and blessings in Deuteronomy. And according to this - one act of transgression results in the condemnation of all of Israel, and one act of obedience results in the blessing of all of Israel.
Let me give you a couple of examples of this.
You’ll remember in Joshua 7 how Achan kept some of the spoils of war after the walls of Jericho fell down and all of Israel suffered for his sin. It was sin because God had told them they were not to take any spoils of that war.
So through one man sin entered in.
And then there is the example of Phineas in Numbers 25. The children of Israel had joined themselves to Baal of Peor and were bowing down to these false gods of Midian, So Phineas rose up and went after this man who had been committing adultery with this woman and he thrust his javelin through them both and this stopped the plague
So here we see that through the righteous act of one man all of Israel is blessed.
And so it is true of sin
Because Adam was disobedient sin entered the world and brought with it death.
But through the obedience of Christ sin was atoned for so that He might bring life.
And thus the second phase of the atonement was completed. But that is not the end of the atonement. Restoration to oneness has not yet been fully accomplished, so we must keep going. We must discover what the next step is. And so I leave you in anticipation of what is still necessary for God to do in you.
Is it the desire of your heart for God to complete in you the work that he has begun.
If so would you pray with me now?