Recap from Last Sunday
Ps Joel started the new series 'Lived Theology'; looking at how we can live an "embodied God orientation" to bring God into the everyday, ordinary tasks we regularly do.
Personal Story - Think about (+ share with the group) an everyday moment in your life this week where you have seen God (and possibly the atonement) in an ordinary task or activity?
Lived Theology: 'Atonement'
Atonement = God’s answer to human sin
3 Aspects of Understanding Atonement:
- Our sin has a price
- Jesus is our substitute
- God favourably sees us because of Jesus (this is called 'propitiation')
The 'Atonement' principle comes originally from the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, as the people of Israel were building themselves as a nation.
The 'Day of Atonement' was a special, sacred ritual which symbolically accomplished a number of things:
- To deter Israel from sinning (repentance);
- To provide a symbolic “payment” for the hard cost (or, “debt”) of the wrongdoing (substitute);
- To provide a symbolic purification for the community and the temple from the contagious vandalism caused by sin (purification);
- All of the above allowed God to maintain His presence with His people without compromising His divine justice (covenant relationship).
Here's a video by Bible Project that explains the topic of the Atonement further:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OlRWGLdnw