Living Christ’s Atonement

Greetings Friend.

Many Christians, throughout Church history and in our age, readily admit they believe Christ atoned for their sin and has reconciled them to the Father. They are forgiven. And, for many, that is the extent of their experience of Christ’s atonement and “the all of” their Christian faith. There is nothing more. No intimate fellowship with God. No participation in Christ’s peace, or His joy. No confidence in God. No manifestation of the fruits of God’s Spirit. Functionally, these people have not the life of Christ present in their daily experience. But they believe! They profess Christ. Yet, they live as if alone.

To ensure you and I both understand and continue in the reality of Christ’s atonement, instead of just stating that we believe in Christ’s atonement, I thought it good to briefly present the following ideas. First, Christ’s atonement involves both his sacrificial death and his resurrection life. The two are joined. In like fashion, our identification with and participation in Christ’s atonement involves our death and newness of life. If we profess union with Christ in His death, then union with His life should also be our confession. But the confession stems not merely, nor primarily, from the mouth, but from the life. For the life is new. The mouth conveys and gives testimony to what the life already exhibits.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, makes three explicit references to Christ’s crucifixion that, to me, address the notion of living Christ’s atonement:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 2:20

“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” 5:24

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” 6:14-16

I have not the time or physical ability to write all that is in my mind and heart regarding these passages, so I trust you will pursue their truths with God directly. I do desire to make the following observations to set some framework. The three verses speak to three relational orientations: the individual with God; the individual with self; the individual with the world. Christ’s crucifixion, His death and life, address each relational direction which defines every person’s existence: upward (with God); inward (with self); outward (with the world). As a Christian, one’s identity is established in Christ. Not by sin, not from self, and not through the world. Being in Christ, sin, self, and the world lose their voice—any defining role—to me. Christ is now life.

If one professes Christ, that one belongs to Christ. Jesus Christ defines reality. Self does not define reality any longer. It follows, then, that the inward desires, cravings of the flesh, no longer define me nor do they direct my energy or efforts. I should no longer strive to satisfy the hunger from that which is of my flesh because I’m satisfied with feeding on The Bread of Life. (See all of John 6.)

Similarly, the world, with it unique, consistent and manifold ability to define people based on distinctions, should no longer have any voice to me. In Christ, I live as dead to the world, and in reverse fashion the world would be as dead to me. As Christians, our basis for identity is contrary to the world. One is heavenly. One is earthly. They are mutually exclusive. The apostle emphasizes this when he states what really matters is “the new creation.” Not what the old order tries to define one by. (See also Gal 4:26f.)

The apostle concludes by writing, “as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” The nature of Christ’s atonement, as belief and as life, leads to the experience of peace and mercy. This experience is both for the individual Christian and the body of Christ in general. Mere belief in Christ’s atonement, without understanding its reach into and for your life, leaves you short of the life from Christ’s atonement and, functionally, leaves you only with yourself and the world.

Spend time prayerfully considering your condition, my friend. Move in this direction with me. Let us not come short of the life for which the Father has redeemed us through the atoning work of His Son.

Carl