Is The Concept of Atonment Only An OT Concept?

As I've been teaching about the atonement provided by Jesus in offering Himself on the cross, I occasionally have been asked, "Isn't the atonement an Old Testament concept?" I understand why people ask this and, in fact, used to tell people that it is only an Old Testament teaching but a closer look at Scripture reveals something different.

The word "atonement" in the Old Testament most certainly refers to the pouring out of the blood of the sacrifice on the altar. This atonement covered Israel's sins for the past year and its efficacy was good until the next year when the priest had to offer another sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.

Like other acts that foreshadowed Jesus, the atonement was imperfect and had no ability to permanently solve the problem of man's sin. However, even in the Old Testament our God of Grace gave the people hope for the day that would come when the Perfect Sacrifice would atone for the sins of the people, once and for all. The Old Covenant atonement was imperfect because it could only cover people's sin but the New Covenant atonement would take away the sin of the people forever!

In speaking of the Messiah who would one day come, he wrote: "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place" (Daniel 9:24, emphasis added).

Daniel wrote that the Messiah would "make an atonement for iniquity." In other words, he said that Jesus would be the perfect expression of the atonement that the less than perfect OT sacrifices could never be.

In Romans 5:11, Paul plainly says that Jesus did just that in offering Himself for our sin. The King James Version makes it clear: " And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." So there it is, made clear that the perfect atonement was facilitated on our behalf by Jesus Christ.

The confusion about this matter comes from the fact that (to my knowledge), the King James Version is the only one that actually uses the word "atonement" in the New Testament Scriptures. The Greek word used here in Romans 5 is the word, katallage and is translated as "reconciliation" or "reconciling" in other places. (See Romans 11:15, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19) The primary meaning of the word is "exchange" and refers to the way moneychangers exchanged one form of currency for another.

So the atonement is indeed a New Testament concept and, in fact, is a great word to describe what missionary Hudson Taylor called "the exchanged life." Jesus exchanged our sin for His righteousness. He exchanged our lives in Adam for His Life in the Father. He is the Atonement for us and is the fulfillment of every Old Covenant incidence when the blood of a less than perfect sacrifice was poured out, pointing to the One who would bring in a New Covenant by offering Himself as the Perfect Sacrifice and in so doing make atonement for us all, reconciling us to our Father.