Getting a Grip on the Atonement

There's so many details with coordinating a feast. I just recently realized, you know what? I didn't think of a podium. We need a podium, so I got that taken care of. But I can imagine showing up on the first night, you know, and holding the mic for the first night. I'm speaking the first night, so that would have punished me in that way. Well, before we get to the Feast of Tabernacles, and observance of it, we do have the wonderful and impactful day of Atonement.

So we're going to turn our focus on to that day today with the title, Getting a Grip on the Atonement. Getting a Grip on the Atonement. And let's open our Bibles to the 10th chapter of Hebrews, if you will. The 10th chapter of Hebrews, as we will turn our focus on to this day that we will observe in just a matter of a few days, Hebrews 10. And we're going to read together verses 4 through 17. This is the perfect place to turn when we're turning our attention on to the depth of meaning for Atonement. Hebrews 10, let's begin reading in verse 4.

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God. Previously saying, Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He, Christ, takes away the first that he might establish the second. But that will we have been sanctified through, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But, verse 12, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after he had said before, This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. And then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

So let's stop there. So certainly here we have what we could say are some essential biblical truths and some essential truths in particular to the Day of Atonement. So we're going to see about getting a good grip onto these central truths that surround the Great Day of Atonement.

It has been said that in most sports that the essential element, especially if it involves some implementation of some sort, a racket or a bat or a club, that the essential element, first of all, is to address one's grip. For example, have you ever had a golf lesson? How many of you had a golf lesson before? A few. I've had several golf lessons. You wouldn't know it if you saw me on the golf course. But if you've ever had a golf lesson, what the teacher does, immediately, has you hold the club and he begins to analyze it. The teacher recognizes that if the grip is wrong, then no matter what you do and the other aspects, your golf swing will be compromised as a result. Same is true, I'm sure, of a tennis racket, a baseball bat, whatever it might be. And it's only when you get the proper grip that you can move on to other aspects after that. Then you can move on to proper alignment and so on and so forth. But it starts with the proper grip. So, in considering the atonement, we would also acknowledge how imperative it is to have a proper grip on what it means to say that Jesus Christ has died as an atoning sacrifice for sins. That's the biblical truth to get a hold of in the next few days. What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ has died as an atoning sacrifice for sins? That's what we're going to look at. Getting a good grip on. And this is actually the perfect place here, Hebrews 10, here. This is where if you were going to turn anywhere to get a good grip, this is where you would turn. Because here in this section of Hebrews, what we have really is an overarching exposition on the atonement. And if you were to look for a word, one word that would summarize this aspect of atonement, it would be the one word in which Jesus Christ uttered from the cross as recorded in the Gospel of John. We know that word. In the Greek, it's tetelestai. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. One phrase in the English, it is finished.

So while that word is not found in this passage, I believe if you were going to look for one word to summarize this passage, one word to summarize the atonement itself, it is in that Greek word, tetelestai. It is finished. And when Christ cried out that word on that day, no doubt many would have assumed that it was a cry of resignation, perhaps, or a cry that somehow he felt that he had been defeated. We know what Jesus was saying is that he had accomplished the work that his father had given him to do. It was all accomplished. Tetelestai. It's done. Complete.

And that means everything to the called believer. We stand on the strength of that truth and all that Jesus Christ accomplished. So here in this remarkable section of the Bible, we're going to look at the achievements of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. We're going to look at this fundamental truth surrounding it. And we're going to break it up into four main headings that the writer here expounds on. Four main headings. Get a grip on what Jesus Christ accomplished in the atonement. Four things I want you to know. Number one, first, is that Jesus has done everything in relation to sin. Jesus Christ has done everything in relation to sin. In other words, all of its power, all of its penalty, Jesus Christ has addressed it all. Again, sin's power, all of sin's penalty, it's been addressed. Notice the contrast here that the Hebrews writer presents. Verse 4 again, he speaks of the impossibility of the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Verse 4 again, for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Not possible. But then contrast that with verse 12. If you allow your eyes to go down to verse 12. Verse 12, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. It was done. In other words, verse 1 explains that all that had taken place before it was a shadow. And the repetition of the shadow could never amount to the substance of the shadow. And the repetition even spoke to the inadequacy of what was going on. The blood of bulls and goats ultimately insufficient. These sacrifices were to foreshadow they could not accomplish what Jesus Christ did in his death regarding sin. Why? Why? Well, because of the fact that a person was needed to substitute for people.

That seems to make logical sense, we could say. A person was needed to substitute for other persons, for people. We get that. And because of the fact that animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant, they were non-rational. They were non-rational. In other words, they didn't go up to the animal. This sounds a little facetious, but they didn't go up to the animal and ask the animal if they would agree to be a sacrifice. They simply took the animal. There was no decision there. It was not a rational decision. It was non-rational. It was forced.

But the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was rational. It was voluntary. He voluntarily submitted to the Father's will. Why is that so important? Well, it's for the reason because that the ultimate dealing with sin in our lives is in our consenting wills. That we consent not to do those things that we know not to do. Very important aspect there.

The ultimate way we deal with sin is in our consenting wills. It's a rational decision. So Christ comes consenting to do the will of the Father.

So then all you see happening in Christ bearing the cross, all you see in the crowds moving and mocking Him and railing Him and spitting on Him as He hangs there, one of the men hanging beside Him would mock Him. All that He voluntarily submits to the will of the Father. And it's a consent. And in that way, He really is able to remain dignified. There's a certain dignity that Christ had, a divine dignity, as He consented, allowed them to do what they did. And in the end, He did everything in relation to the penalty that sin brought, and He broke the power of sin. So therefore, He sits down. Verse 12, He sits down. When He had offered this, He sat down. He accomplished all in relation to sin. And you see it in the picture of the Old Testament priests. When they would make a burn offering, they would make their offering, and then they would essentially go back to the back of the line, stand in line again, and they would make offering. After offering, after offering, never sitting down, you know, during that period of time.

Why not sitting down? Well, the work wasn't done.

But when Jesus offered a sacrifice for sin, once He sat down. And so, when you think about these things, think about the fact of sin, its power and penalty over us. We look at the reality of sin's power and penalty in our lives. Where do we look? Where do we look? Where do we look in regard to these things? Well, we sit, we look to the one who now sits at the right hand of God. You know, we first look within ourselves, of course. We see, we see, and in doing so, we see sin's power, we see its condemnation. We're on our knees, we're asking for forgiveness and repentance. We feel hopeless, searching for answers to the sin. And we ultimately realize that the only way we can actually get back up off of our knees is to look to Jesus Christ in all that He's accomplished with regards to the sin that's in our lives. He dealt with it with complete sufficiency. And it's because of that we can deal with it and deal with it with significant sufficiency. It never will be complete sufficiency. We can make progress. And so when Satan comes, tempts us to despair, tells us the guilt from within, how do we ultimately answer that? We ultimately answer Satan's accusations by pointing to the ultimate sufficiency of Christ's atoning sacrifice for sins. We look to Jesus Christ.

In fact, the Hebrew writer says that very thing. Keep your finger here in Hebrews 10. Turn with me just a few chapters forward to Hebrews 12, if you will. In verse 1 and 2, we see this admonition and where to look in regards to these things. Hebrews 12, let's look at verses 1 and 2. Hebrews 12, verse 1 and 2, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. So we'll stop there. So by steadfastly looking to Jesus Christ, what does that mean?

It's a little esoteric, I guess. But when you look to Christ, what that means is you're turning your thoughts onto what he has done and really thinking about it. And whenever you do that, it's a powerful thing because then all of a sudden the affections in you, the affections for Jesus Christ and what he's done will come forth. That's a powerful thing. And it helps us then to keep carnal desires away. Keep carnal desires away. We'll talk a little bit more about that so that we can have our own measure of sufficiency and progress over sin. We look to him, consider him, consider his life. He is the finisher of our faith. A better word there translated might be perfecter. He's the perfecter. He stands as the captain, he chief leader, the prince, the preeminent example of our faith.

So again, when Satan tempts me to despair, tells me the guilt from within, to him I look. He who has made an end to sin's ultimate power and penalty over me.

So he's done all in relation to sin. The power, the penalty, all of it. Teddalestai. It's finished. Secondly, second thing to notice today is we look at the Hebrews writer here and pull out these aspects and getting a grip on atonement. Number two is that Jesus Christ has done everything in relation to the Father's will. We spoke about that briefly in point number one, but number two is Jesus Christ has done everything in relation to his Father's will. If you're still here in chapter 12, notice again where he is sitting.

Chapter 12 at the end of verse two, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And if you go back to chapter 10 there, go back to chapter 10. Look at the end of verse 12 again. So chapter 10, the end of verse 12, where is he? Well, we're told again he sat down at the right hand of God. There at the end of verse 12. So this central truth is that Jesus Christ sits in acceptance of the Father. You know, the Father accepted him.

And now he sits at the right hand on the throne. Christ died in fulfilling all of the Father's will. He bore in his body the judgment of God upon sin. This was the Father's will that he do that. What does that mean to us? It means everything. We who by nature are without God, without hope, under his wrath, as revealed from heaven because of the wickedness of men, we have been condemned by death, by sin, to death, by sin. Therefore we're hopeless except that all the judgment was laid upon him according to the Father's will. Again, Christ has done all according to the Father's will, in relation to the Father's will. God is a sin-hating God, and therefore it is the satisfaction of his wrath against sin.

If God were complacent about sin, there would be no need for satisfaction of it. If God approached sin as simply, don't worry about it, or we'll just overlook it, then there would be no need of a Savior, no need of salvation. But people think that's exactly what's happened, that somehow God did not count their sin, and they stopped there. The Bible doesn't say that. In fact, if you read that scripture, we won't take the time to turn there. God did not count their sin against them, it says. And the reason he didn't count their sin against them is because he counted their sin against him, his beloved son.

Jesus has done everything in relation to the Father's will. And if you think about this, and really think it through, in the plan of atonement, essentially what you have is that the story is that back in eternity's past, and I'm going to put it in a little bit of contemporary language, the Father and the Son got together, and they decided on the plan, the plan of the great atonement, the bringing back of mankind, they did it together, working together to fulfill this objective. So we shouldn't think that the Father somehow is laying on his son, something that the Son is unwilling to bear. And somehow the Father is just overriding it and laying it on the Son. That's not the Bible. That would be more from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar from the 1970s. Andrew Lloyd Webber, I think, did the music. How many of you ever have endured Jesus Christ Superstar? Good. Okay, a few. I'm sorry. But I haven't seen it. I've seen parts of it. But the character that's portraying Jesus, they present it in a way where it's like Jesus is being forced upon him. Somehow he's an unwilling participant in it, and that's heresy, because what we actually see is that it was the Son's consenting will, bending to that of the Father's will. And maybe better yet, in agreement with the Father's will. And the recalling of Jesus Christ in the garden, that was in his humanity. And in his humanity, he's looking at all the awfulness of it. But the plan of the great atonement for mankind is not that the Father is laying on his Son, an ordeal that he's unwilling to bear. We understand that. But people talk wrong on this. It is true that the Father gave the Son. It's equally true, though, that the Son gave of himself.

And actually, you shouldn't think of it either as the flip side. Some people even think about it this way, that somehow or another, the Son is extracting from the mean Father salvation that the Father is really not wanting to give or extend. Some even position it that way.

But one commentator writes, I think he puts it pretty well here, quote, We mustn't speak of God punishing Jesus, or of Jesus persuading God the Father. We must never make Christ the object of God's punishment, or God the object of Christ's persuasion. For both Father and Son are subjects, not objects, taking the initiative together to save sinners, unquote. So for us, when we think about all that Christ has accomplished for us in consenting to the Father's will, it really should affect us. And the way we take that and then apply it to our lives is that then you and I should have consenting wills to the Father's will as well. We should have consenting wills. That's our example by Jesus Christ.

So we realize that God is a holy God.

Without the awareness that he's a holy God, we will play fast and loose with sin. But we must not lose what is the sinfulness of sin, we could say. We can't lose that. When we're thinking about these things and having consenting wills to the Father's will, if you lose the sinfulness of sin, it changes everything and it changes the gospel. It fundamentally changes the gospel. As we look at the world's pulpits, you will see that the gospel has been eased by the portrayal of Jesus Christ, not as the consenting atonement. They don't portray him that way. You will see them portray Jesus as merely one who came to fix relationships, let's say. Or they portray Jesus as one who simply came to give the American dream to men and women. Or one who takes away the loneliness of lonely people. Or he came simply to make us happy. Now, all those things may be true, but it's not merely that. And that's not the gospel. That's not the correct essence of Jesus Christ and how we portray him. But why don't we portray Jesus just as those things? Well, what happens is when you portray Jesus merely as those things and not as the consenting atonement for the sins of mankind, and you portray him just in these felt-needs way, then you'll have men and women come to a service like that, and they'll respond in various ways. The person who's happily married and living in faithfulness to his wife, when they hear that Jesus Christ merely came to fix your relationship, they say, I don't need it to be fixed, but it's good to know. Thank you. I don't know if I have a need for him. Or when they say, you know, Jesus Christ came to give you the American dream, and the businessman reaches in his pocket and fills his BMW keys, says, I have a pretty good idea of the American dream. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus, but I'm good, you know. Or Jesus came to cancel your loneliness. I've got all the friends I can take, you know. Thank you. Or Jesus comes to generally make you happy. Ask anyone. I'm a pretty happy person. Well, then I don't know what else to tell you about the gospel. And so, many of the Christian, so-called Christian pulpits in the world are portraying Jesus in a way, and their efforts are trying to make him relevant, appear relevant in these contemporary categories. And they cast the dilemma in terms of the perceived needs of the day.

But when you approach people on the basis of felt need, and they don't have that felt need, then they won't have a need for Jesus Christ. So, we must present Jesus Christ and portray Him in the proper way as the consenting atonement. Because I've got to tell you, everyone needs that. Everyone needs it. Desperately needs it. It's a matter of life and death.

And that's why the Bible comes and it poses to mankind. What prophet is it if you gain all the world and lose your soul?

Then the man or the woman lets that land on them for five minutes, and they don't have a response to that other than they know they need Jesus Christ. And without accepting and responding to all that Jesus fulfilled in the accomplishing of the Father's will, they're in trouble. And so the man or the woman says, this changes things. Because no matter what emblem is on the car keys in my pocket, it doesn't matter. I have no answer to that Jesus Christ.

So, whereas everyone might not have felt needs, everyone absolutely needs the atoning work of Jesus Christ. So if we begin to preach that, we're making progress. And as when a man or woman realizes the magnitude of what Jesus Christ accomplished in fulfilling his Father's will, then the only response they will have is to bow down in holy devotion and respond with a complete transformation. On to number three. On to number three. And getting a grip on the atonement. Number three, then, is that Jesus Christ has done all in relation to Satan.

So he's done all in relation to sin. He's done all in relation to God's, his Father's will. He's also done all in relation to Satan. Again, where is Jesus sitting now? At the right hand on the throne of God. He's not on a crucifix, helpless. Rather, he's sat down at the right hand of the God. And notice verse 13, and what is he doing while he sits? Well, he sat down, verse 13, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.

In other words, the chess piece is moved. Checkmate. Satan has done all in relation to Satan. That Christ has done all in relation to Satan. Excuse me. Checkmate has been accomplished. The devil can fiddle around with, what are they? Rooks, pawns, bishops, whatever he wants to do.

He cannot change the outcome.

And what this is saying is the power of Satan is now broken. That's what it means to us, the ultimate effect. We know sin has not been wiped out. We still have the challenges of every day. But Christ sits already victorious, already victorious. And he's simply waiting for his defeated foe to bow in submission to him. Let me explain it this way. This reminds me of a time in my life. It was a difficult time in my life. I was a senior in high school, and I had enough credit to where I could work half a day, and I could have a job half a day.

And the job they gave me was cable TV installation guy. I knew nothing about cable TV installation, and I was faking my way through every day, pretending I knew more, trying not to electrocute myself on a daily basis. I'll have to tell you some stories, but you know, I'll tell you one. You know how they have—and I think I've told maybe some of you this—they call them gaffes, and these are spikes that are on the inside of your boots, and they strap onto your work boots.

And you're supposed to use these things to gaff up a pull. So you're gaffing up to pull. You get to the top, you lean back, you strap around, strap it onto your belt, and you're supposed to lean back and then free up your hands to do whatever you need to do.

By that time, my hands wouldn't do anything. They were frozen or shaking so much, you know. And I can't tell you how many times I gaffed out. That's what they call it when you gaff out, and it doesn't stick. And you begin to fall, and your first initial reaction is to hang on to the pull. Not a good idea, because these pulls are splintery.

And so by the time you realize, well, that's a lot of splinters going into me, then you push away from the pull, which is actually what you're supposed to do, and you hit, and the tools go everywhere, and the lady in the house is shocked, you know, by the whole scene. But anyway, I digress there. Another reality I found while I was installing cable, and this applies to our number three point, I promise, is the reality of dogs. There were dogs everywhere. If you're in this type of work, that's what you realize. There's dogs in the backyard, there's dogs in the front yards, there's dogs up in trees, you don't know where they're coming from, and they're all angry, and they all want to bite you.

And so one day I completed my work, and I almost completed my work, I came to the last house and walked up to the fence door, and the dogs were just, you know, just hear the saliva, and they're just, can already taste me. And I said, no, thank you. And I walked back and got in my truck and went back to work and told them of the situation. He goes, no, no, no, you got to get back there.

You got to complete your work. And I said, I don't know if I can do that. I'll be just as scared the second time as I was the first time. And he said, well, I'll tell you what, I've actually been to that address. I know which address you're talking about. I was there for the initial consultation, and you're going to be fine.

And he described, he said, actually, the dogs, I know exactly which ones you're talking about, they're on chains. And they're given just enough chain to where if you stay on the path, they can get really close, but they won't get you. I promise. They're given just enough chain to move, but they can't reach you. I took quite a bit of trust to go back and open that door. But he was right, actually. It was a scary walk on that path. And there were the dogs. And what he said was true. They were given just enough rope, but if I stayed on the path, they couldn't reach me. Couldn't reach me.

And the Hebrews writer wants you and I to know that Satan has been chained symbolically to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And if you stay on the path, he can make all the noise he wants. He can't reach you.

He can't ultimately reach you. Christ has done everything in relation to Satan the devil if you stay on the path. Stay on the path. So Christ now awaits the inevitable time when his enemies are made his footstool.

It's quite comforting. Number four, number four, in our final heading to get a grip on all that the Atonement means to us and all that it means is just that, that he, Jesus Christ, has done all in relation to us. That's number four, that he's done all in relation to us. To us. Look at verse 14. Verse 14 again. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. That's an incredible verse there. By one sacrifice he has perfected those who are being made perfect. Those being made one sacrifice, perfect offering. Through one perfect offering he's made perfect those who are being made holy. Those who are being sanctified in the process of it. Verse 15 says that the Holy Spirit gives us this knowledge. And then verse 16, Jesus quotes from Jeremiah 31. We won't turn there, but this is a quote from Jeremiah 31 and he's going to reveal through Jeremiah's quote what Jesus Christ has accomplished in relation to us. Let's read this. Verse 16 through 18. What has he accomplished in relation to us through his atonement? Verse 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there's remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. So we've been given a new heart, it says, and it's a heart that's in the shape of God's law. It's a heart in the shape of God's law. Again, by one offering he's perfected those who are being sanctified, perfected those who are being made perfect, not perfect. We're being made perfect. We're being made holy.

And in this process, for those who are being made sanctified or being sanctified, our sins and our lawless deeds are remembered no more.

So because Jesus Christ has put us in this position to be sanctified, to being made holy in this life, that then causes us to respond in a way. You know, if we know that our sins and our lawless deeds will be remembered no more, do we then carelessly add sins and lawless deeds for God to remember no more? Do we carelessly keep adding to those things so that God will remember them no more? No, of course not. We're in the process of being made like Jesus Christ, in the position of being sanctified, in the process of being made holy. And therefore, as James would say, it's incongruent. Certain behavior then is incongruent with that. So, for example, the same mouth that of someone who's accepted the atoning sacrifice of Christ and is being made holy, the same mouth that praises God here, it's incongruent for that same mouth to then curse someone on the highway that's cut you off, you see. It's not impossible. It's incongruent. It doesn't line up.

Why? Because Christ has done everything in relation to sin and its power that we might become what we are. So, God says, don't do that. That's not what you are. You're Christ. You're being made holy.

You were bought with a price. So, for example, young people, the admonition is glorify God with your body. So, if you're in a temptation situation with someone from the opposite sex and they say, well, don't you think we should do this or why not? No, I don't.

I don't think we should do this. Why? Is it that we don't do it because the commandment says, thou shall not do this? Yes, that's part of it. But the real reason we don't do it is because it's incongruent with what I am. God is in the process of making me holy to be made new.

He's begun to give me new clothes to wear.

The visual is for us bringing, we come to Christ and come to that crucifixion in these tattered and filthy rags. But then through Christ, He turns those into wonderful clothes, clothes and robes of righteousness. So, am I to go down the road in these clothes of righteousness only to then return a few minutes later and ask if I can put some of those old filthy rags on again? Well, you can do that, but you're going to be a walking contradiction. You're going to be partly truth and partly fiction in a way, you know, because we're in the process of being sanctified. And you see this all throughout the Bible. Joseph, when he was tempted to go outside of the bounds of the confines of relationship involvement, when he finally is confronted with it, and he eventually runs from the situation. The reason he runs, he says, how could I do such a thing and sin against God?

He doesn't say, how could I do such a thing and it would be unfair to you? How could I do such a thing? This, this, or that, whatever the excuse is. The gut, the driving force is, how could I do this and sin against God? So no matter what the temptation situation is in front of you, you may think it's about those characters in that situation. It has to do with your relationship with God. That's who it's actually with. And so you turn your eyes upon that, and in that situation you think, no, what did Christ do for me? I'm going to look toward that. I'm going to set my affections on that. And that's going to be the reason I say no. It's not in line with who and what I am. It's in the analogy, let me give you this analogy. When you get married, you get married, and you are married in an instant, June 7, 1997.

I cheated a little bit. I looked on my paper. June 7, 1997, in the backyard of her mother's house, in an instant I was single. In one moment I was single. In an instant I was married. After repeating the vows and giving the declaration of my dad, who was the minister.

So I arrived single. I left a married man. That was my status.

But in the last 22 years, I have been becoming what I am. There's no doubt that I'm married on that day, but do you think I knew much about marriage on June 7, 1997? No. Ask Jennifer. It's been a 22-year process of becoming what I am, and it will be a rest of my life process of becoming what I am. That's the analogy here. That's what Christ's atoning sacrifice has done in relationship to us. We've entered into this covenant relationship.

And on that day, verse 16, this is the covenant, verse 16, I will make with them after those days.

And He put His law, He entered into our hearts, gave us a new shape of our heart, allowed us to enter into the relationship, and instructed us on the relationship rules.

And the most encouraging bit, maybe, of this whole thing, in what Christ's atonement has done in relation to us, is verse 17. And He adds, for those who are in the process and put into this relationship and this position, verse 17, and He adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. That is awesome. When you think about the power of the atonement and all these fundamental aspects and getting a grip on it, here's one huge grip with regards to us. It's the great delete key of all sins that you've turned from and repented of. There's no computer genius in the world that can find them again once it's been hit delete.

And even if Satan stirs you up about sin from a year ago, two years ago, maybe 20 years ago, he stirs it up, rumbages around in the garbage, brings it back up to you, maybe something in a conversation triggered something, a memory, a bad memory.

And perhaps we go to God at that time and we're confronted with the guilt all over again, and we go to Him and we say, Father, I was reminded of this situation and it's made me think about it all over again. I just want to say, and He says, I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have any record of it. I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Unlike us, with God, it's forgiven. He remembers it no more. It's gone. Ted Alesse died. So you let it go too. You let it go too. I need to let things go. Wow. It's finished. Christ has accomplished everything in regard to us through the atoning sacrifice. And this is one of the great benefits. And if we misstep in the future, we can go to God the Father, ask for forgiveness again, and call upon this great atonement.

He will remember it no more. Again, what a loving God we have.

How can that be? Well, it's because He's done everything in relation to us, the repentance center, to the one who's becoming what they are, to that one. When they in childlike faith come to Him, they turn to Him with genuine repentance. Then the Father applies to them this final act on the crucifixion and all that the Son has accomplished, everything. And He says, Ted Alesse it's done. Stand up, my son. Stand up, my daughter. Go. Send no more. But I've forgiven you.

I don't remember it. You don't remember it either. Just allow it to drive you to do better.

Well, amazing, isn't it? How amazing it is are these fundamental truths of the great atonement. So in conclusion, let's pray. Let's pray to get a grip of this. In turn, be gripped by it, gripped by all that the great day of atonement has accomplished. It is finished. Let's look to the one Jesus Christ, our great atonement, as the author and finisher of our faith, He who has finished, the one who has now sits at the right hand on the throne of God.