In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” ( Ephesians 1:7). Along with this truth, the atonement also speaks of sacrifice. This sacrifice, i.e., the atoning death of Christ, is the central theme of the Bible. Book after book, through the prophets and others, they spoke and wrote of it in some way. Christ has made a perfectly sufficient atonement for all those who will trust in Christ. Just as in the story of the Exodus the Israelites had to place the door of the lamb on their doorpost, so too we must apply the blood of Christ. The atonement is effectual when sinners, by faith and repentance, apply the sacrifice of Christ to themselves. Through our union with Christ his death becomes our death and his life becomes our life. Invite the young men to read 2 Nephi 9:6–16 or watch one or more of the videos in this outline and listen for what they learn about the need for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Give time for several young men to share the verses they selected and what they teach. Encourage them to write a letter to someone who does not believe in God and use these verses to explain why the Atonement is important and why we need a Savior. Ask them to share their letters with each other. While the context of Rom. 1-3 is a revelation of God’s wrath, this doesn’t mean that salvation requires an “appeasement” of wrath. As J. M. Gundry-Volf says, “In light of the threatening wrath of God, the need of sinners can be said to be not the transformation of God’s attitude toward them but the transformation of their sinful existence before God [emphasis in original] (“Expiation, Propitiation, Mercy Seat,” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 282). Just as God poured out judgment on Egypt, and yet protected Israel through the sign of the Passover blood, so too God will protect all those marked/cleansed with the blood of Jesus when God judges the world for sin.

Ask the young men what they learn about the Savior and the Atonement from His final words on the cross (see Luke 23:34, 39–43, 46; John 19:26–30) or from His account of His suffering (see Doctrine and Covenants 19:16–19). In the command to sacrifice the Lamb of Passover (Exod. 12) the notion of sin is presumed, and the ideas of substitution (v.3, 13), rescue from divine judgment (v.12, 23), the necessity of blood (v.13, 22) become prominent. By the sacrifice of a qualified lamb whose blood was properly applied each Israelite household escaped the death of God’s judgment. Only Jesus can make satisfaction because he is without sin. He is sinless because in the Incarnation God became man. The theory is thought out by Anselm in his work Cur Deus Homo or Why God became Man. The cross as a moral example For many writers the victory was achieved because Jesus was used as a ransom or a "bait". In Mark 10:45 Jesus describes himself as "a ransom for many". This word "ransom" was debated by later writers. The Greek writer Origen suggested Jesus's death was a ransom paid to the Devil. Our lives: Remind the quorum of the discussion from the last meeting. What experiences have we had with applying what we learned? What experiences have we had in the past few weeks that strengthened our testimonies of the gospel?As wonderful as the atonement is laid out for us in the Old Testament, when Jesus came, He took it a step further. It was John the Baptist who cried out concerning Christ: whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement [ hilasterion] by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed… Also in favor of this reading is that 1 John 1:7-9 & 2:2 uses the cognate of hilasterion in connection to cleansing: “and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin…If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness…He is the atoning sacrifice [ hilasmos] for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 1:7, 9; 2:2). The context of Romans 1-3 is the revelation of God’s wrath against all unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). Does this mean I don’t believe in the seriousness of sin, or the severity of God’s wrath, or the need for repentance, or the demands of faith. No, of course not.

Dr. Christian A. Eberhart is Professor and Program Director of Religious Studies at the University of Houston. He graduated from Harvard University, Divinity School (Cambridge, MA) and has a doctorate in Hebrew Bible studies from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) as well as a second doctorate ( Habilitation) in Early Christian literature from the University of Mainz (Germany). In the end the Roman authorities and the Jewish council wanted Jesus dead. He was a political and social trouble-maker. But what made the death of Jesus more significant than the countless other crucifixions carried out by the Romans and witnessed outside the city walls by the people of Jerusalem?The Atonement is the sacrifice Jesus Christ made to help us overcome sin, adversity, and death. Jesus’s atoning sacrifice took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. He paid the price for our sins, took upon Himself death, and was resurrected. The Atonement is the supreme expression of the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Resources to Help You Prepare The only Greek use of hilasterion seems to always refer to the appeasement of the wrath of some deity through a sacrifice.

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year." The phrase “has set us” speaks of the action taken on our behalf, which was His sacrificial death, i.e., the atonement. So it is a basic idea in Christian theology that God and mankind need to be reconciled. However, what is more hotly debated is how the death of Jesus achieved this reconciliation. Satisfaction was an idea used in the early church to describe the public actions - pilgrimage, charity - that a christian would undertake to show that he was grateful for forgiveness.In the last post we talked about the blood of Jesus, and how it is better thought as a cleansing agent of life rather than a demand for death.

Dr. Eberhart is a seminar founder and convener for the Society of New Testament Studies. He has published various books in English and German, among them What a Difference a Meal Makes: The Last Supper in the Bible and in the Christian Church(2016). He edited the volume Ritual and Metaphor: Sacrifice in the Bible(2011) and co-edited the volume Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity: Constituents and Critique(2017).For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” ( 2 Corinthians 5:21). What Are Some Bible Verses about Atonement? The New Testament frequently describes Jesus's death and resurrection as a victory over evil and sin as reprsented by the Devil. How was the victory achieved?