How did Christ make atonement for our sins? He takes our place and gives us right standing

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21

This paragraph is immensely important: Not only did Jesus make right all of our wrongs, fulfilling what we couldn’t do, but he also traded places with us, taking upon himself the wrath that sin deserved for our lawlessness and giving us the righteousness of God that should only come from perfection.

See, if Jesus is just our fulfillment, he did what you could not… but how does this get applied to you? It is through his substitutionary atonement. Substitute = traded places. Atonement = made righteous. Jesus did this for you!

As you read Scripture, do you see ways in which Christ takes the undesirable position or punishment even though he did no wrong? To do this properly, you have to be able to see yourself as the one deserving of judgment…which can be hard for some of us to do. We are often not the hero in the story; we’re more likely the enemy. Can you see how Jesus, the innocent One, traded places with Barabbas, the one who actually did commit sins worthy of crucifixion (whose name means son of the father…)? Or how Pharaoh, the enemy of God’s people, was drowned in the Red Sea and yet we, who are enemies of God (Rom 5:10), are instead saved by the blood of Christ; his death for our life?

Biblical passage: 1 Samuel 17

We’ll go through a common story from 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath, each week as our model story. Familiarize yourself with the story if this is helpful. Additionally, each week I’ll only pick out some of the examples that I see. I’ll leave some of the “easier” and some of the “harder” ones in case you want to practice this exercise as well.

1 Samuel 17:11 & 24 “…they were dismayed and greatly afraid…fled from him and were much afraid…”

1 Samuel 17:22 “And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks…”

1 Samuel 17:42 & 43 “…he disdained him…the Philistine cursed David by his gods.”

We often think of ourselves as the hero in the story, but let’s be real, we are not David! We’re not Goliath either, though. If Goliath acts as a “Satan” figure, do we even make an appearance? Yes, we most relate to the Israelite army: dismayed, afraid, and waiting in the wings (v. 11 & v. 24). How could we overcome a demon-man? How can we win a battle with a giant? We cannot, so we stand afraid.

David was a shepherd, not a warrior. He wasn’t responsible for fighting the war against the Philistines, yet he left the things he oversaw to run to the battle and be with his brothers (v. 22). Verse 42 and 43 tell us that David was mocked and cursed by Goliath, and though the odds were against him, he, by God’s strength, defeated Goliath.

Christ is a shepherd and warrior, but likewise, left his charge, his heavenly throne, to join the ranks as a human. He took our place in the battle and was undeservedly mocked, scorned, beaten, and cursed. He was not just our fulfillment, he was our atonement. He gave up his life (Matthew 27:28-31, Galatians 3:13).

Though it appears he was defeated, we know his resurrection on the third day brings us salvation (Matthew 28:1-9). But we’ll get to that next week. For now, we marvel at the fact that Jesus took our place and died where we should have. Our sin, and the sin of our appointed earthly king should have left us dead, but Jesus came and took our place.

Additional biblical passage: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

A few weeks ago at church, we walked through 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, a passage about communion. Jesus, in this section, ties himself to the Passover meal, saying that he is the bread broken (his body torn) and he is the cup of the covenant (his blood spilled). He is, ultimately, the Passover Lamb. When sin left us as good as dead, Jesus’ blood was shed, put over the doorpost of our heart, and through faith and belief in Christ, we’re spared and freed.

The Corinthians were taking communion in wildly ungodly ways (getting drunk off of it… literally), and because of this, some of them were dying. Paul said they should “examine themselves…” Each of us, though, takes communion in sin, and therefore we should die! Yet Jesus was examined by wicked men, in sin. Jesus was led to a hill, body broken, blood spilled, examined as guilty, though innocent, so that we who are guilty can receive his innocence, and now this Eucharist is no longer a condemnation ceremony, but one where we remember he took our sin and gave us his righteousness.

Jesus is the atonement of every single story in the Scripture. Think, friends, what this is saying. Every bad decision, every broken picture and character, everything that couldn’t measure up, Jesus takes on himself, and gives his righteousness in its stead. Praise God!

Jesus is our atonement in all of the Scriptures. If and as we see this, our life and Scripture reading will flourish.

Next week, we’ll look at Jesus as our power. Jesus is our example to follow, he fulfills every passage to perfection, and he stands in our place, taking on our failure as our atonement. But not only that, since Jesus didn’t just die, but resurrected, he becomes our power that gives us the ability to begin to live like him.