My teachings are long, I cannot preach them until I first write them, but I am going to start preaching on what I have already written by making outlines. It takes me hours to write a message or what people call a sermon. It will take you minutes to read it. I do not know how long, I might just read one and record it to see how long it takes to read, but when I start preaching the audios probably will be longer. But when you read you can also meditate on it, my messages are deep but basic and you should be able to receive all of them.
When I teach on eschatology and the afterlife, it will probably take weeks to write one message and those are very controversial, but I can hear God’s voice and then He gives me the scriptures to confirm it. (it is almost like a face-to-face relationship with him, but I am just learning how to see in the spirit or ascend to the heavenly places in Christ, so right now I can only hear) So, I am going to be teaching on the cross or the atonement, for the next couple of messages.
Atonement is a word that’s rarely used in English, instead they use the word to make amends- a person taking some kind of action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part.
In the Hebrew the word atonement is kippurîm and basically just means a covering for sin. It has to do with the act of reconciliation.
Romans 5:11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation(katallagē)-the New King James. The king james uses the word atonement instead of reconciliation.
In the Greek the word is katallagē and is better translated reconciliation which means restoration to favor. The word means exchange, which can be instant or a process of appropriation which means taking possession of. And that is what my next series of messages will be about under the category of atonement on my website.
The word in the Greek that we need to be really aware of is hiláskomai (Propitiation)which means to propitiate, expiate. Expiation means to remove or cancel the guilt of sin, making it as if it never happened. To remove the sin from the persons heart.
So, in my next series of posts about the atonement. Think exchange. Because this is very foundational, through the cross we exchange our righteousness for his righteousness and list goes on and on and one concerning every human attribute exchanged for a divine one. This is who Jesus becomes to us and in us, and through us and eventually we become it.
This word(hilaskomai) is used in Hebrews translated 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- New king james.
Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation(hilaskomai) for the sins of the people-King James
hilaskomai means “to conciliate. To conciliate means- stop (someone) from being angry or discontented.
Hebrews 2:17 for this reason it seemed necessary to Him to be made like the brothers in all things, that He might become a kind and faithful Chief Priest in the things related to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people-LSV.
The literal standard translation is a word for word translation but I do not like how they translated this word propitiation. It does not mean the permanent removal of sin, but the removal of the enmity in God’s heart, the sin is still in the person’s heart but has been reconciled which means God is not angry at the person, so it is like a covering or not holding it against that person, but the person has not been transformed, and you cannot be transformed until the sin in the heart is removed. Then it can be exchanged for a divine attribute that the cross of Jesus provided, but does not mean that provision has been appropriated.
In the Old Covenant we have the word atonement which is just a temporary word for a covering for sin.
In the New Covenant we have the word propitiation(katallagē)(atonement) which is the removal of sin which is permanent.
Hebrews 10: 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Now in this verse in Hebrews we have the legal and vital aspects of redemption.
Legally we have already been perfected in Christ. But on earth this perfection, maturity, holiness, sanctification has to be worked out in our lives, I call it the appropriation of the finished work of Christ.
So if we do not read the original manuscripts, we may not really understand what we are reading.
At one-ment. That’s the meaning of atonement. It’s God and the not yet believer being brought to a relationship in which they are at one.
There’s a great difference between the word that’s translated atonement in the Old Testament and the word that’s translated atonement in the New. It’s very important to understand that.
There is a lot of symbolism in the feasts of the Lord and like to celebrate the spiritual reality those symbols point to and remember them according to the Jewish calendar, but not in a legalistic way.
The Jewish people still celebrate the day of Atonement. They call it Yom Kippur.
The essential meaning of that is to cover. So, in the Old Testament, the Day of Atonement, was the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar, it was a day of covering.
Its sacrifices did not deal with the sin issue. They simply covered sin for one more year. And the next year, on the Day of Atonement, they had to deal with the sin issue again.
The New Testament’s Atonement is totally different.
Hebrews 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
So far from taking sin away, from dealing with it, it reminded the people of the sin issue.
The central issue is taking away sin. We see this in the second half of the verse in Hebrews 9
Hebrews 9:26 But now he has appeared at the fulfillment of the ages to abolish sin once and for all by the sacrifice of himself!
So, when Jesus came and offered Himself as a sacrifice on the cross, He put away sin.
So, there’s a total difference between the Old Testament sacrifices which reminded people of the fact that the sin issue had not been dealt with and provided a covering that was valid only for one year
When John the Baptist introduced Jesus, in John 1:29, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. That’s completely different from the Old Testament. Jesus took away sin.
For that reason, after His death, for those who’ve accepted his sacrifice, there is no further sacrifice for sins.
The bible reveals to us two vitally important things. The diagnosis of the human problem and then the cure.
A human being really is not able to deal with his life’s problems until he’s faced the reality of the root problem, which is sin.
Thank God that the Bible not merely diagnoses our sin, but it also provides God’s perfect remedy for sin. The remedy is the cross, the atonement. The provision that was made.
The cross is a sacrifice. Some Christians may never have realized to the full extent what took place on the cross was a sacrifice.
Hebrews 7: 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
The word offer is the word for what a priest does when he makes the sacrifice. So, on the cross, Jesus offered up himself.
That is to say, he was the priest and he was the sacrifice.
As priest, he offered the sacrifice, but he was also the sacrifice, the victim. He offered Himself.
There was only one priest that was good enough to make that offering, and there was only one offering that would be acceptable to God, and Jesus was the priest and the offering.
Hebrews 9: 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Notice in the middle of that verse It says Jesus offered Himself without spot to God through the eternal Spirit.
In every major phase of redemption, every person of the Godhead was directly involved.
At the conception of Jesus at His incarnation, the Father incarnated the Son by the Spirit.
When the ministry of Jesus began, Peter says in Acts 10:38, God anointed Jesus with the Spirit.
When it came to the sacrifice, Jesus offered Himself to the Father through the Spirit.
When it comes to the resurrection, God the Father resurrected the Son by the Spirit.
And when it comes to Pentecost, the Son received from the Father the Spirit and poured out the Spirit on His disciples.
Jesus offered Himself as priest and victim to the Father without spot, without blemish. He was totally pure. He was the only acceptable offering because He was the only one without sin. And it says through the eternal Spirit.
It was through the eternal Spirit that Jesus offered Himself. The word eternal means out of time. What happened on the cross was a fact of history, but its significance transcended time.
If we don’t give the cross its rightful place, and understand the provision it provides, our faith loses its meaning and its power. And we end up with a set of rules we are supposed to keep.
No one will ever keep the principles of the Sermon on the Mount without the provision the cross provided, the power of the Holy Spirit enabling Christ to live through us.
1 Corinthians 1: 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. Let me ask you, if you’re a preacher or a teacher, pastor or a counselor, do you do that? Do you teach Christ crucified? If you don’t, your counseling will sound nice, but it’ll accomplish nothing of eternal value.
Hebrews 10: 14 For by one sacrifice He has perfected forever (eternity) those who are being sanctified (set apart exclusively for YWVH’s purpose, being transformed into the likeness and image of Jesus Christ in this life).
Notice again, it’s a sacrifice. Only once was it ever done, it never has to be repeated, and it has perfected us forever in the realm where there is no time-eternity.
As far as what YHVH had to do and Jesus had to do, it is perfect, complete, forever. Nothing can ever be taken from it. Nothing can ever be added to it. It’s perfect forever.
But the second part of the verse is in a different tense the continuing present tense, those who are being sanctified. What God has done is complete, perfect, final. Never will it have to be changed or added to, but our appropriation of it is progressive. It’s very important to see that.
But notice it’s for those who are being sanctified. It’s for those who are coming progressively closer to God. Receiving more and more of God into their being, until we come into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Jesus had the Spirit without measure, this is where we are headed when we come into a walk with God, it is our destination.
In these teachings on the atonement, I will be teaching on;
First, what the cross did for us.
Second, what the cross must do in us, who Jesus becomes in us.
And third, how to appropriate what God has already done.