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Breshears
ETS 2001 Atonement
Page 15

Sinful activity is the result of God's letting us go our own way - and this <letting us go our own
way' constitutes God's wrath."
40
The only truth in this metaphorical language comes when God
leaves us to our lusts, our degrading passions, our debasement. Rather than an angry deity
requiring mollification, God in love reaches out to people. If they resist his love, they experience
his righteousness and love as condemnation.
This picture of atonement has moved from the completely objective, God-oriented
approach of Berkhof and Grudem to a wholly subjective approach. No hint remains of the death
of Christ having impact on God. Themes like sacrifice are mentioned, but one simply cannot fit
Green & Baker with the Old Testament approach where the sacrifice is a pleasing aroma to God,
an offering that results in people being forgiven. This sort of statement appears dozens of times
in the Old Testament.
An example is Leviticus 4:13-20
40
Ibid. 55.
"'If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any
of the LORD's commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, they are
guilty. When they become aware of the sin they committed, the assembly must bring a
young bull as a sin offering and present it before the Tent of Meeting. The elders of the
community are to lay their hands on the bull's head before the LORD, and the bull shall
be slaughtered before the LORD. Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull's
blood into the Tent of Meeting. He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it
before the LORD seven times in front of the curtain. He is to put some of the blood on
the horns of the altar that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the
blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent
of Meeting. He shall remove all the fat from it and burn it on the altar, and do with this
bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make
atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.
How can on get by the fact that guilt because of sin committed forms the basis for what happens?
How can one get by the fact that the penalty associated is death? How can one get by the fact of
substitutionary death of the bull that is identified with the people through laying on of hands?
The blood, attesting the fact of death is taken to the altar, not to purify it, but to make atonement
so they will be forgiven?
It is also true that many sacrifices have expiatory impact, especially ones that are made
because of ceremonial uncleanness. This dimension must not be overlooked in the discussions of
sacrifice as do many of those holding a primarily objective view. But the God-directedness of the
sin offering cannot be bypassed if one is to keep biblical fidelity.
If the New Testament pictures draw from the Old Testament, then terms like sacrifice
carry the meanings they had there. Topics like guilt, penalty, substitutionary death leading to
forgiveness must be in the symbols of sacrifice in the New Testament.
The concept of the wrath of God cannot be reduced to abandoning people to their
depravity with any sort of biblical fidelity. One reads Deuteronomy 29:22-29
Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant