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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for August 21, 2009
“Here’s a Big Ol’ Bible Word: Atonement”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Here’s a big ol’ Bible word for you: atonement.
I know, I know. Unless you’re a Bible scholar, your eyes just crossed and rolled back into your head – which makes it really hard to drive.
An easy way to think of atonement is by splitting out those first five letters: at one.
Have you ever heard of being “at one with nature”? I picture someone sitting on a grassy hill, holding a flower, and watching deer frolic in the meadow. “Ahhh, I’m at one with nature.”
But if I throw my old TV in the back of the pickup, which is full of cans, then I tear out across the grassy hill, cranking the stereo, spinning the tires, belching out smoky exhaust fumes, doing donuts and spinning around so that the cans and finally the TV just flail themselves across the meadow, while I flip cigarette butts and candy wrappers out the window – no. That is not being at one with nature.
If you see a couple in a restaurant, and they are holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes – wow, they are at one. But if they sit there bickering and finally storm out – no. They are not at one with each other.
So atonement is taking things that are separated and bringing them back together. With the fighting couple, for example, atonement means the differences are reconciled.
This week I heard that Sean Penn and his wife are getting divorced for “irreconcilable differences.” They are saying there is no atonement, they cannot possibly be at one, there is no reconciliation possible.
Atonement. At one.
You can read a lot about atonement in the Old Testament.
The big one is Leviticus 16 where it talks about the annual Day of Atonement. That involved animal sacrifice and blood and a priest – and believe me, I’m skipping over a lot of details – but the end result was atonement.
Verse 30 says, “…because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.”
Verse 34 says, “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.”
So on the Day of Atonement, the people were brought back to a position of being at one with God. Their differences were reconciled. They were clean from all their sins.
Now blood was a crucial part of this atonement. Listen closely to Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
We see something similar in the New Testament. In Hebrews 9:22 it says, “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Well you’ve probably noticed that we are no longer doing animal sacrifices to pay for our atonement. That’s because Jesus Christ became the one perfect final atoning sacrifice.
Hebrews 9:12 says, “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Jesus paid for our atonement once and for all! We can be at one with God due to what Jesus has already done.
Romans chapter three covers this in depth. Verse 25 says that Jesus is “a sacrifice of atonement.”
We can be at one with God. How? Verse 22 says, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…”
Verse 24 says we are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
And verse 26 says that God “…justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
Hebrews 2:17 sums it up. Jesus came to “make atonement for the sins of the people.”
So don’t be intimidated by this big word atonement.
Just split out those first five letters: at one.
Atonement means we can be at one with God, with no sins getting in the way.
And thanks to the atoning work of the blood of Jesus Christ, our atonement is free to us, “through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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