Gospel Prism

Reflections on the Atonement #1

We were singing hymns this morning and came to Fanny Crosby’s hymn “Jesus Shed His Blood for Me.”  What struck me is how one hymnal had changed the words to make it less to do with the penal substitution of Jesus and more to do with the act of salvation apart from the shedding of Jesus’ blood for sinners.  I couldn’t have felt more empty after realizing how people want to think of the atonement apart from Jesus’ sustitutionary sacrifice for sinners.  It is the only way I can grasp God’s grace.

This was exemplified by my reading of Leviticus 16 and the very specific instruction God gives to Moses concerning the scapegoat.  Sin was so wretched that the goat was a “representative” of the people of Israel.  This animal would try to bear the weight of the sins of Israel.  And so in a symbolic act, the goat is sent away into the wilderness alone as a sin offering.  Even more interesting is verse 16 and the meaning of Azazel: “that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.”  Most scholars see Azazel as a word which is a personification of “complete removal.”  That is, God in His great mercy would use this scape-goat to take away sin.

In light of such texts and especially in light of the book of Hebrews which expound the OT sacrificial system, how in the world can some of the church repudiate the idea of a subsitutionary atonement?  It is the great hope and joy for all believers that a just and loving God would act for “such a worm as I” (Isaac Watts, “Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed”).  As for me and my house, we will praise our glorious God for His unfailing love and perfect justice met on Calvary.