In the New Testament, Paul shows that God used the Old Testament to point to Christ. Galatians, chapter 3, beginning with verse 19: “What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed,” and notice the capital “S” there in Seed, “till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is One. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”

So again, we have the Old Testament that foreshadowed the atonement to come—the coming of Christ—and we now see that inthe coming of Christ.

There are several words used in Scripture to refer to the atonement:

Propitiation: Hebrews 2:17 [“Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”]; Romans 3:25 [“Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.”]; 1 John 2:2 [“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”]; and 1 John 4:10 [“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”].

Ransom or Redemption: Matthew 20:28 [“As the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”]; Mark 10:45 [“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”]; and Hebrews 9:12 [“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His Own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”].

Substitution: Romans 5:6-9, 18 [“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His Own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him…Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”]; 1 Corinthians 15:3 [“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,”]; 2 Corinthians 5:21 [“For He made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”]; Galatians 3:13 [“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).”]; and Titus 2:14 [“Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”].

And, finally, a brief summary of God’s grace and the atonement. The need for the atonement was seen because of the sin of mankind. As Paul said in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The promise that God made to meet this need to overcome sin was His sending His Son. He is the sacrifice and we must avail ourselves of the provision of God’s grace in order to be saved.

There is another part to this that we will cover next week, which has to do with Man’s Part In Salvation.