Jesus Made Atonement

On the Cross God fulfilled His word, he accomplished what He set out to do. But what did Jesus do? He made actual atonement for our sin. I would suggest, He didn’t make “potential” atonement, but “actual” atonement. Isaiah 53 had a huge impact on Peter. He wrote about in 1 Peter 2:21-25,

“For to this you have been called, because Jesus Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Who was Jesus? He was God. What did He do? He suffered and died for your sins. Now, for the third question, Why does it matter? It matters because He made atonement for you so that you could die to sin and erase all that stands between you and God, and so that you could for the first time in your life—live in righteousness. Jesus makes all the difference and the One who was led like a lamb to the slaughter is now the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul…

On any given Sunday morning, we come to the Table and we remember the Lamb who was slain, but we also remember that John saw the Lamb standing, as though it has been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the spirits of God sent out into all the earth…and this same Lamb is the One to whom the elders are singing a new song saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

So at the Table we remember what He has done and we wait in anticipation for what He is going to so soon and until that time we follow Him as our Shepherd.