Sufficient for all Efficient for Some

The Atonement is what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross, cancelling the debt of our sin, bearing the wrath that we deserve and ensuring for the believer all the benefits of salvation. We live in a wonderful country filled with great people with sincere hearts to help others. We are surrounded by great organizations like Habitat For Humanity, YMCA, United Way, LiveStrong, Feed The Children, Salvations Army.... which show a love and desire to help others in a way that extends care and mercy. The question that needs to be answered in today's context is how does the atonement fit into a society that sees itself as doing so much good in the world.

So, doing good for good sake is not good enough, loving other for the sake of loving others is not enough. What is enough is Christ and the Cross, that is where all that is good and loving starts and ends. We must go to the cross as sinners in need of a savior, we must put our faith not in our abilities to do good or to love, but in God who sent his son to be the substitution for our unrighteousness. The good news is that even in our depravity through God's grace we can enjoy all that is pure, holy, just and loving, forever. The bad news is that those who do not put their faith in God will suffer the wrath of God. He is a Holy God and in order for Justice to be served and in order for there to be everlasting peace He must deal with sin.

I urge you to seek first the one and only God who enables salvation through the sacrifice of His son. If you are not presently pursuing God as the Lord of your life, I plead with you to cry out to Christ, seek forgiveness for the faith that you have in yourself and your own works and ask Him to give you a new heart that puts complete faith in Him and through Christ alone.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinctions: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:21-26, ESV

May the Atonement be Effective in your life.

Matt