Redemption and Atonement

Redemption and Atonement,

Not the Same

–*–
(From the Theological Magazine.)
        

BETWEEN atonement and redemption, divines, as yet, so far as I have been acquainted, have made no distinction. They have always considered those terms as conveying one and the same idea. It is thought to be evident, however, that redemption and atonement are, by no means, convertible terms. This evidence arises out of the holy scriptures. Atonement is for sin; redemption is from sin. The word redemption however, in the third chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and in some other places, signifies the same as atonement. But, in those places it is used by a figure, the effect for the cause. Redemption, in its proper sense, and as the word is used in the holy scriptures, doth not mean, the precious things by which captives are delivered from bondage, but it is deliverance itself. Sinners do not obtain redemption through redemption, but through the precious blood of Christ: his blood is not redemption itself; it is the price of redemption. And it is through this precious blood, that believers have redemption, even the forgiveness of their sins; through this blood they obtain deliverance from eternal death; through this blood also, they obtain the salvation of their souls, even eternal life.

What is new in Christ's new commandment?

       
From Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, New Command, by Carl B. Hoch, Jr.
    
New Command
    
On the night before his death, Jesus gave a new command to his disciples: "Love each other as I have loved you."
    

Silencing the law

      Christ crucified, by satisfying the justice of God, brake the thunders of the law and dissolved the frame of all its anathemas. Being made a curse for us, he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), that is, from the sentence of the Law-giver, denounced in his law against the transgressors of it. So that now 'there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:1) because they are 'dead to the law by the body of Christ' (Romans 7:4). By the body of Christ as slain and raised again, this handwriting of ordinances, which was contrary to us, is taken out of the way by God, being nailed to his cross (Colossians 2:14). He hath abolished the obligation of the moral law as to any condemning power, it being the custom to cancel bonds anciently by piercing the writing with a nail. The ceremonial law was abolished in every regard, since the substance of it was come, and that which it tended to was accomplished; and so one understands, 'having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly'(verse 15), of the ceremonies of the law, called 'principalities and powers' in regard of the divine authority whereby they were instituted. These he spoiled, as the word signifies, unclothing or unstripping, he unveiled them, and showed them to be misty figures that were accomplished in his own person. The flower falls when the fruit comes to appear; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, grace to obey the precepts, and truth to take away the types.

Christ's Death a Sufficient Sacrifice for All - A Puritan's View

It is sufficient for the salvation of all sinners and the expiation of all sins. The wrath of God was so fully appeased by it, his justice so fully satisfied that there is no barrier to a re-admission into his favour and the enjoyment of the priviledges purchased by it, but man's unbelief. The blood of Christ is a stream, whereof all men may drink; an ocean, wherein all men may bathe. It does not lack value to remove our sins, if we do not lack faith to embrace and plead it. As no sickness was strong enough against the battery of his powerful word when he was in the world; so no guilt is strong enough against the power of his blood, if the terms upon which it is offered by God are accepted by us. It is absolutely sufficient in itself, so that if every son of Adam, from Adam himself to the last man that shall issue from him by natural descent, should by faith sue out [ask God for] the benefit of it, it would be conferred upon them. God has no need to stretch his wisdom to contrive another price, nor Christ any need to reassume the form of a servant to act the part of a bloody sacrifice any more. If any perished by the biting of the fiery serpent, it was not for want of a remedy in God's institution, but from willfulness in themselves. The antitype answers to the type, and wants no more a sufficiency to procure a spiritual good than that to effect the cure of the body.

Bill Nye and Ken Ham Debate

    
     
A coworker and I reexamined a homework assignment from an ordinary differential equations textbook a number of years ago. The assignment was to develop an equation which modeled the world's population growth. Once that was developed then one could estimate the world's population at some future date. But we thought that if one could estimate the population of a future date then we could use this equation to find out the time that the world's population was 2, when the first couple arrived on the scene. The link below the next paragraph contains this result.