Monday, June 14, 2021

Truman Madsen on the Atonement

 

 

ATONEMENT

 

But how does the Atonement enter our lives here and now? How is it actuated? How does it take root in our souls? Insights are to be discovered in the root words of biblical Hebrew which are translated as covenant.

 

To Cover

 

Atonement means to cover or hide. It also carries the idea of washing or rubbing off, obliterating, or taking away one’s guilt, which flows away in a stream. Hence the efficacy and appropriateness of water baptism and washings. We are to die to the old man and become new.

 

To Pacify or Make Propitiation

 

In verb form, kippur—“atonement”—means to pacify or make propitiation. Anciently, one meaning was to dimmish the wrath of the king, as if he would now turn away or hide his face from the known transgressor. The word sacrament carries a related idea of saluting or paying tribute to the monarch. So we are commanded to bring to the table of the Lord and offering, that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, in response to his propitiation, and thus avail ourselves of the Spirit of Christ.

 

To Ransom

 

Atonement can mean ransom; that is, to pledge oneself or one’s possessions on behalf of another. The ransomed one is then delivered from imprisonment, or even from capital punishment. Hence it is appropriate that there be covenant-requirements for the followers of Christ, to serve in his image by sacrifice, and to bring our possessions to his altar in consecration.

 

To Cleanse the Sanctuary

 

Anciently, the high priest, representing the whole house of Israel, entered the sanctuary of the temple. This was once a year on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. The record of the uncleanness and transgressions of the people was believed to have accumulated within the Holy of Holies. The high priest entered, spoke the sacred name of God, and if repentance of the people was genuine and they therefore had a “good inscription” in the Lord’s book of life, then both the sanctuary and the people were cleansed. Otherwise, they and their temple would be rejected.

 

The book of Hebrews identifies this ancient rite with the role of Christ as our high priest. He alone is fully worthy to enter the house of the Lord are extended to all the Saints. In the temple, in a full-scale covenant relationship, the atonement of Christ may be written, as it were, in our very flesh, as the prophet Jeremiah prophesied: “But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33) (meaning the very center of us, our hearts).

 

All of these variations on the meaning of atonement have one thing in common: the restoration or reinstatement of a relationship that has been strained or broken.

 

(Truman G. Madsen, “The Suffering Servant,” in The Redeemer: Reflections on the Life and Teachings of Jesus the Christ [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000], 232-34)