Atonement and the Cross of Christ
October, November, December 2008
Want to learn more about Atonement and the Cross of Christ? Use these Bible Studies for personal devotion, group Bible studies, or teaching a church class. Below are links to the lessons in this 8-part series.
Lesson 1: God's Nature: The Basis of Atonement (Psalms 102, 1 John 4, Isaiah 40)
Have you ever thought about how long God has been
around? Just saying, "How long" implies a specific period of time.
Can you imagine a God who has always been? There is much scientific
evidence for the "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe. We
can observe that the universe is uniformly expanding outward at a set
rate of speed. Two logical conclusions flow from this. First, the
universe had a creation point (the "bang"). Second, since the rate
of expansion is perfectly timed, an Intelligence guided the "bang."
If time was created when the universe was created, then the
"Intelligence" exists in a realm outside of time. Let's dive into
the Bible and see what it says on this subject!
Lesson 2: Cosmic Crisis: The Disruption of God's Established Order (Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14, Genesis 3, Job 1)
Many people ask "How could sin arise out of
perfection?" Since I doubt I'll ever figure it out with my human
brain, I prefer to ask "Why did sin arise in a perfect place?" If we
figure that out, it might help us to be more alert to the sin problem
in our life. The Bible gives us some strong clues as to the main
reason why sin arose. What would you think if we learned that the
root cause of the sin problem was not considered to be a serious sin
today? Let's jump right into our study of the Bible and learn more!
Lesson 3: The Fall Into Sin (Genesis 3)
There is an old saying: "You get one shot at the king;
either you kill him or he kills you." Imagine the thinking of Satan:
if you were given one opportunity to test the loyalty of Adam and
Eve, wouldn't you bring your best argument, your best temptation?
Everything was riding on that "one shot." I wonder if Adam and Eve
gave as much thinking to their upcoming test? Let's jump into our
lesson and consider how sin entered our world!
Lesson 4: Atonement and the Divine Initiative (Romans 3, 5 & 8, Ephesians 1)
The last two weeks we studied how sin entered the
universe and our world. This week we turn our attention to the first
chapter of our escape from sin and eternal death. Why would God
decide to redeem us? What began our way out of sin? We learned
something in the last two weeks about how to avoid sin based on how
sin entered the universe and the world. What can we learn about
righteousness based on how God gave us a way out of sin? Let's dive
into our study of the Bible and learn more about the thoughts of God!
Lesson 5: Atonement Announced (Genesis 3 & 22, Exodus 32)
If you were God, what would you do when humans rejected
you? Two weeks ago we studied how it was that Adam and Eve sinned and
plunged us all into a terrible situation. Last week we looked at what
God planned to do to throw a life-line to humans. This week we
progress to God's announcement to humans of His great plan for
disaster relief. How difficult a decision was this for God? Why
would God announce in advance what He had in mind? Why not leave His
options open? What does this show us (again) about the character of
God? Let's dive into our study and learn more!
Lesson 6: Atonement in Symbols: Part 1 (Leviticus 4-6 & 17, Romans 3, 5 & 6)
This past Sunday evening I was sitting on a bench
overlooking the lake by my home. The quiet, beautiful evening turned
my thoughts towards God and my place in His world. I thought about
why it was I believed God existed, that Christianity was true and
Jesus was the Messiah. Our lesson this week speaks to those issues.
My reason for believing God exists is the order I see in the
Creation. Owning cars and houses has taught me that things move from
order to disorder, not the other way around. That God foretold the
Messiah through the symbols of the Atonement shows His order. The
three major world religions believe in the account of the sanctuary
service, yet only Christianity can match it up to Jesus the Messiah.
Only Christianity relies on these fulfilled symbols for the
forgiveness of sins. Christianity is the logical, consistent,
reasonable religion. Let's jump right into our study of the Bible to
better understand this!
Lesson 7: Atonement in Symbols: Part 2 (Leviticus 16, Hebrews 9)
Last week we learned that only Christianity, of the
three major world religions which accept the Old Testament as the
inspired word of God, fulfills and follows the Old Testament pattern
for dealing with sin. That is history. What about today and the
future? What does the Old Testament sacrificial system teach us
about Jesus' current work, if any, on the problem of sin? What is
Jesus doing for our sin? Or, is His work complete and He is currently
enjoying retirement? Let's plunge into our study of the Bible and
find out!
Lesson 8: Born of a Woman - Atonement and the Incarnation (Luke 1, Matthew 3, Matthew 4)
We learned the last two weeks that Christianity is the
"thinking person's religion." What we did not discuss was how hard
we have to think! In one sense it is easy and logical to line up the
Old Testament system for removing sin with the life, death,
resurrection and heavenly ministry of Jesus. They just logically
fit. On the other hand, it is not so easy to understand how the
Creator God could demean Himself to become a human. Even the
mechanics of the "God born of a woman" to create a God/human are very
difficult to grasp. Let's give it a try by plunging into our Bible
study!