Eternal Blessings-A Present Reality

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.  (Romans 5:11)

Our study of Romans fifth chapter has focused on the work of Christ and its securing of eternal blessings for us.  That focus on eternal blessings follows Paul's line of reasoning in these verses.  But what about the "here and now" someone might ask.  In our study verse Paul bridges the gap between eternity and the temporal world in which we live.  He affirms that we may live in supreme joy based on God's present blessing and our realization of the blessings we have in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, indeed "our" Lord Jesus Christ.

We don't hear the word "atonement" very often in our contemporary culture.  What does it mean? Here are several definitions of the word.

"Atonement" (the explanation of this English word as being "at-onement" is entirely fanciful) is frequently found in the OT. See, for instance, Leviticus, chapters 16 and 17. The corresponding NT words are hilasmos, "propitiation," 1 John 2:2; 4:10, and hilasterion, Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9:5, "mercy-seat," the covering of the ark of the covenant. These describe the means (in and through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross by the shedding of His blood in His vicarious sacrifice for sin) by which God shows mercy to sinners.

The Friberg New Testament Greek Lexicon defines the word as "15188  katallagh,, h/j, h` literally exchange, profit from exchange; figuratively in the NT, as the reestablishing of personal relations reconciliation, change from enmity to friendship (2C 5.18, 19)."

Four occurrences; AV translates as "reconciliation" twice, "atonement" once, and "reconciling" once. 1 exchange. 1A of the business of money changers, exchanging equivalent values. 2 adjustment of a difference, reconciliation, restoration to favour.

to reconcile. Reconciliation, restoration, exchange. A change or reconciliation from a state of enmity between persons to one of friendship. Between God and man it is the result of the apolútr?sis (629), redemption, the divine act of salvation, the ceasing of God's wrath. In the NT, it means reconciliation, i.e., restoration to divine favor by bringing about a change in man, conversion (Rom. 5:11; 11:15), the means or occasion of reconciling the world to God.

Despite various emphases, all of these definitions focus on the central work accomplished by God to bring us into peace and favor with Him.  Our reconciliation, our atonement, did not occur because of something we did, but because of something that God did. The distinctive "we" makes the obvious point that what Jesus did was not done for a vague and unknown group.  It was for a specific "we."  This verse rejects the notion that Jesus died to merely make salvation-or in the words of the verse, the atonement-available for everyone, but effective only for people who meet various conditions to obtain it.  Jesus died for a specific people who "now" are blessed with the benefits earned by His death.  Notice the emphasis in the definitions of this word on the idea of a literal exchange, not dissimilar to an exchange of currency.  In His death Jesus took our sins onto Himself.  In His resurrection He affirmed that His righteousness, the "atonement," now belongs to us.  He didn't merely open the currency exchange bank and invite us to trade our sin-money for his righteousness-money.  The exchange has already occurred.  By using this verse as a summary of what he has been teaching in the prior verses, Paul specifically identifies our present atonement, our peaceful and secure relationship with God, to the death of Christ.  Our joy is based on the knowledge of what Jesus accomplished for us, not on what we did to gain access to that atonement.

The agency by which we "now" receive the atonement is not what man says or does, but "…through our Lord Jesus Christ."  Occasionally critics of the doctrines of grace object that we believe in salvation apart from conditions.  They err in this accusation.  We indeed believe that our eternal security is based on conditions.  Further we believe that all the conditions imposed by Almighty God were met by and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Not only did He meet the conditions of our salvation, but He also now serves as the agent by which those conditions and blessings flow from God to us.  The idea that the gospel is in some way instrumental in a person's salvation actually seeks to supplant the instrumentality of the Lord Jesus Christ with a fallible human instrument.  Consider this fundamental flaw in the idea that the gospel is instrumental in a person's salvation.  Short of the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles when speaking or writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, there has never been a sermon preached that was without flaw in some way or another.  Paul asserts, "…we have this treasure in earthen vessels…" (2 Corinthians 4:7).  If God in fact uses preaching in any form as His agent to reach and regenerate the lost, how much error may a given sermon contain and still be used by God in this work?  Where is the divine line in the sand?  And if a person comes to believe that God used a specific sermon for his/her regeneration, despite its flawed content, is this person not highly susceptible to magnifying the content of that sermon as if it were all true rather than perceiving it as part true and part error?  How effective will a teacher be later in convincing this person that a particular point in that sermon was in fact error?

God indeed uses the gospel to reveal Christ in His regenerate elect and to bring them to the joy of knowing His blessings in and for them.  Herein is the Biblical instrumentality of the gospel.  Prior to the new birth, Scripture describes a person as being "dead" in trespasses and in sins (Ephesians 2:1).  Scripture further affirms that the person in this unregenerate state is wholly incapable of knowing spiritual truths.  In fact Scripture affirms that spiritual things appear as foolishness to the "natural man."  (1 Corinthians 2:14)  Thus the popular view that an unregenerate person has the ability to perceive the truth of the gospel, to believe it, and to embrace it flies in the face of Paul's clear teaching in these lessons.  In fact such teaching builds its whole notion on an impossible premise.  Reason with a person who is "dead" and wholly alienated from God.  Convince a person to embrace and truly believe in something that he perceives as altogether foolish and absurd.

Further Paul affirms that "…they that are in the flesh cannot please God."  (Romans 8:8)  This passage further compounds the impossible situation already affirmed in the above passages.  From the contextual perspective of spiritual conduct, conduct that pleases and honors God from a distinctly spiritual perspective, the person who is not born of God can do nothing that pleases God. Thus the popular notion of the unregenerate person doing something to bring his/her regeneration into being presumes that the person does something that does not-in fact "cannot"-please God.  Are we then to believe that such a person does something that is repugnant to God in order to in some mystical way reverse God, please Him, and gain access to the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Paul rejects all such double-speak in favor of the profoundly simple truth of the New Testament gospel.  In the atoning, reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ God accepted that work as satisfaction for our sins and "through our Lord Jesus Christ" completed the exchange once and for all.  The death of Jesus didn't place a divine offer of exchange on the table.  It didn't merely post a rate of exchange that we must evaluate and either accept or reject.  Paul affirms that the exchange has already occurred and we "…have now received" it, the atonement.  The atonement of which Paul writes is not merely a potential event to be decided in the future.  It is a factual event that has already occurred. What is our response to this glorious event?  Do we complain because God didn't give us a role in its success?  No-a thousand times no-we "joy in God" because of the grand event.  To Him alone be the glory!