Did Jesus’ Death Atone for Our Sins?

By Donald Werner

We often hear that Jesus died to pay the ransom price for us because of our sins, or Jesus died in our place, or Jesus died as a sin sacrifice to atone for our sins. But are these statements all accurate? There have been throughout history multiple theories on the atonement - and the oldest of these is ignored by the current church, and I will tell you why it’s really the best theory and I will tell you why it is often wrongly rejected.
And then the questions comes up, do we really need an atonement? Does it have to be blood? If our sins are forgiven and forgotten through repentance, as God promised, is atonement still needed? Is shed blood required for atonement? And if so, will God accept a human blood atonement? Did God ever really want blood sacrifices in the first place? Or could sins be forgiven without the blood being shed? These questions are all answered by the Scriptures and the results may surprise you, as they did me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387210596

Book preview

Copyright

Did Jesus’ Death Atone for Our Sins?

Copyright © 2017 Donald Werner. All rights reserved.

ISBN #: 978-1-387-21059-6

Published by Donald Werner

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  All Scriptures, unless otherwise marked are from the NKJV.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version® ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 

Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

All scripture emphases, bolding, underlining, italics and parenthetical notes are mine.

THE PREFACE

The Premise for this Book; It is my understanding that the Bible is God’s word, and its authority supersede all other authority, including religious instruction, doctrines, creeds and teachings.  All ‘truth seekers’ must be willing to honestly compare what your church teachings to the teachings of Bible.  If you are willing to do that, this book is for you.

THE INTRODUCTION

Over the centuries the original Christian faith changed, and the Christian faith we practice is no longer the same faith that Jesus taught and practiced – though it originally was. 

Jesus was a Bible believing Jew.  Jesus referred to the Scriptures as the Word of God and would not tolerate any Jewish tradition or oral law that leavened the pure word. Yet today the teachings of the churches have strayed far from what Jesus taught and preached.  In some cases the orthodox or commonly accepted Christian faith negates God’s word and in other cases it changes God’s word.

Through this series of books, I will share with you truths that have been set aside in favor of church creeds, doctrines and traditions.

In this book I will examine the Scriptures to see what it alone says about Jesus’ atonement.  I will draw on 100’s of scriptures from the New and Old Testaments.  By the time you are done with this book, the answer you are seeking will be obvious.

I pray that God will be your Teacher and your Guide as you study the material in this book.  I pray that you will not just informed, but that you and your relationship with God will be transformed by what you read. 

Blessings as you study,

Donald Werner, [e-mail]

Chapter 1 - Atonement

FORGIVEN + FORGOTTEN =JUSTIFICATION + ATONEMENT

Again, it’s important to get the terms correct.  What is atonement?  I think we could all give a definition for ‘forgiveness’, but ‘atonement’ is a little different. 

The word for atonement in Hebrew is ‘kaparah’, which also means to cover up.  It means ‘at-one-ment’, where we are made one with God when our relationship is reconciled because God covers up, or cleans up the problem.  The concept of atonement is to clean up something to make it acceptable or cover up the defect.  To help understand atonement it should be noted that in the Bible, atonement is not just made for sinners, but also for intimate objects. Atonement was made for the Temple, the altar, and for a house declared clean of mildew.  To atone is a declaration the something is in a clean state.  When your sins are atoned for, you are deemed clean before God.  That cleansing happens when our sins are forgiven and forgotten- or they are blotted out (ancient form of erasing), or covered up, or we are justified before God.  The condition for receiving atonement was true repentance, and that will result in God forgiving and forgetting our sins.  Forgiveness could be equated to ‘justification’ and sins being forgotten equated to ‘atonement’.

Atonement in the Old Testament was made by sacrifices.  Not just blood sacrifices, but also with other offerings, such as grain offerings. Sacrifices were to ‘cost’ people so that they would understand the seriousness of the sin, and move to repentance. Atonement always required true repentance, which is symbolized by the sacrifice.  True repentance always involves a sacrifice. When we repent, we sacrifice our ‘self’, ‘self-will’, ‘selfish desires’, ‘self-determination’, ‘selfish inclinations’, ‘self-serving’, pride, ‘self-innocence’, etc., to do God’s will. Without that sacrifice, there is no true repentance – and with that true repentance there is a restored relationship with God and that is atonement.

Luke 9:23 (NKJV), Then He said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."  True repentance requires that we take ‘self’ of the throne of our hearts and make God (or) Jesus our supreme (i.e., greatest) authority.

YHVH (Yahoveh) God is to be our supreme authority, however, Deuteronomy 18:18-19 tells us that YHVH was to send His anointed Prophet (Messiah or Christ) to speak His words with His authority.  Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37 both tell us that Jesus is that Prophet.  Jesus also claimed to speak YHVH’s words with His authority (John 12:29, 14:10).  So Jesus spoke YHVH’s words, and then to make Jesus as your supreme authority is to make YHVH as your supreme authority.

Through repentance, according to Ezekiel 18 and Luke 18, the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, we are ‘justified’ before God and our sins are forgotten.  To be ‘justified’ is to be just as if you have never sinned. That means atonement has to be included with the true repentance.  (True repentance means turning

Reviews for Did Jesus’ Death Atone for Our Sins?

[anjtec1885 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was a very enlightening read, if quite challenging . I have to review my beliefs. Thank you, Mr Donald Werner - you're spot on!