Episode 313: I’m Talkin. . .Atonement

I’m talking episode 313 for April 14th, 2024.

This is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week we’re talking atonement.

Atonement is another word that you may have heard in the, what do we call it, the real world or the regular environment of the day, whatever, but it’s not used very often.

In my mind, it really only has a connotation for church, but I understand that there are other meanings for the word.

Just looking in the dictionary, it talks about reparation for a wrong or an injury.

It’s like making atonement for something.

It’s like making up, like doing something above and beyond to make up for an error that you may have made.

It can be an act of reconciliation to repair a relationship between you and someone else, or maybe you’re making atonement for another person’s mistake and saying they didn’t really mean it or whatever, so that can happen, but it’s probably not used all that often.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christian, because atonement is an important word for us, and it’s a challenge to use it properly.

It’s a challenge to get others to kind of understand what it means, and in essence, it is a reconciliation.

Atonement is what allows sinful man to have a relationship with perfect God through the act of Jesus Christ on the cross.

He made the atonement for us to repair a relationship, to make a relationship even possible, and that is hard for some people to understand.

The other thing we have to remember is that atonement is a super important part of Christian theology.

It is not something that is questioned.

It’s not something that can be believed or not believed.

This is one of the backbones of who we are as Christians.

It says that Christ had to die on the cross to make atonement for our sins so that we could have a relationship with God.

That is the only way.

How many ways are we allowed, can we, is there for us to get to God?

And there is one way, and that’s why I say atonement is a challenge.

Because anytime anyone says there’s only one way to do something or one way for something to happen, especially in the case where, hey, you’ve got two choices, heaven or hell.

And what’s the way to get to heaven?

There’s one way, and that’s through the atoning act of Jesus Christ.

And people say, well, that’s so close-minded.

What about other religions?

What about, what about, what about?

And we have to stand strong on the truth of God’s word because while others may say it is close-minded, we recognize that Christ’s atoning work on the cross is for everyone.

He didn’t die for my sins just because he knew I was going to become a Christian.

He didn’t die for your sins because he knew that you were going to become a Christian.

He died for the sins of the entire world, even for those who don’t accept him.

And you know, as well as I, that in the human world, that is the most painful.

For someone to reject your atoning act, for someone to reject your desire for reconciliation and to reject the act that you have done to make that possible.

And so you can imagine the rejection that God feels, that Jesus feels when people don’t accept his atoning work on the cross, and yet he knows it’s going to happen.

He knew before he died it was going to happen.

And yet he died for every single sin ever committed and ever to be committed in the entire world, regardless of the person’s willingness to accept that forgiveness or not.

And that is what makes atonement such a vital part of who we are as Christians.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.

Thanks for watching.

We’ll see you next week.