Atonement Now
Many people struggle with wondering whether or not they are truly saved. The struggle often comes from two sources:
A lack of clarity on the gospel that saves today
Confusion over “faith alone” or “faith and works” from those who fail to distinguish the differences between the body of Christ and Israel, especially when they’ve sinned.
Fortunately, there’s no need to struggle, guess, or be afraid, as the book of Romans addresses these dilemmas with absolute clarity for the body of Christ.
First and foremost, we see that our faith without works is counted for righteousness (Rom 4:3-5) when we trust in the gospel of Christ: the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of Christ on our behalf to pay for our sins and give us eternal life (Rom 3:19-26, 1Co 15:1-4, Rom 4:24-25).
We are justified, meaning we are declared righteous and shown to be just before a holy God, solely through faith in His blood (Rom 3:21-26). This justification and the resulting atonement, however, are not future hopes to look forward to. They are present possessions:
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”– Romans 5:9-11
By faith in the finished cross-work of Christ, we are justified NOW and have received the atonement NOW. We do not have to wait for it, and we certainly cannot earn it by any works of our own.
What does that mean for the believer?
It means that the relationship that was severed between God and man because of sin is entirely reconciled through Jesus Christ. It means you’ve been forgiven ALL trespasses, not just some or most of them, for Christ’s sake (Eph 4:32, Col 1:14, 2:13). It means that no matter how severely you stumble or mess up, absolutely nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:35-39, 2Ti 2:13).
Rather than using this glorious liberty in Christ as an occasion to the flesh or a license to sin, we must use it to serve one another in love so that other people can be saved and receive the same reconciliation to God (Gal 5:13, 2Co 5:17-21).
The very essence of God's grace is that we are utterly incapable of saving ourselves; we need Christ to do it for us. Our sin is the problem, not anyone else. When we fail, we do not need to sulk in self-pity, become paralyzed by soul-crushing guilt, or question our eternal security. Rather, we must recognize and reckon that sin and death have no more dominion over us (Romans 6:6-14). We are Christ’s. We are alive in Him. We are completely forgiven. We are now a child in God’s family, and we are infinitely loved in Christ despite our wretched flesh (1Co 3:23, Rom 6:11, Eph 1:5, 3:17-19, 4:32). That is something to be joyful about.
