Atonement or Crime?
Atonement or Crime?
The New York papers on a Monday morning after Palm Sunday carried a report of a sermon by a well-known minister. The headline over the sermon report stated that the noted minister viewed the "Crucifixion as Greatest Crime," and the article carried on the thought by saying that the preacher had declared that Christianity was the only religion which began with the martyrdom of its founder.
This, of course, is absolutely false. Christ was not a martyr, though He Himself has inspired many martyrs. Yet Satan has had his martyrs, too, and many thousands have died in the fanaticism of the faith of Mohammed or other false religions. There is a vast deal of difference between a martyr and the Savior. There could be millions of martyrs, but there has been only one Savior. A martyr dies for a cause, the Savior dies for sinners. "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6). No martyr ever did this. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). No martyr ever did this.
The crucifixion was not a crime. The sinful heart of man crucified Christ, and that sin not only produced hearts that cried out, "Crucify Him," but in this instance has produced a preacher who denied the meaning of that crucifixion.
If someone states that an act that involves the death of a man is by definition a crime, we answer that this may be true from the standpoint of men in acts against other men, but this was not the case in the death of Christ. He was "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Though He was taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain yet, nevertheless, "it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief' (Isa. 53:10).
No man has a right to speak of the crime of the crucifixion if he is not speaking first of the atonement provided by the Father in offering up the Son.
1. Why can there only be one savior? What are some scriptures that would make this point?
2. what does the atonement accomplish for sinful men?
3. Do all men receive the benefits of the atonement? Why or Why not?
