In pondering the nature of Christ’s death on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sinners, the necessary question that must be drawn from this is, “For whom did Christ make atonement?” In John’s First Epistle, we read, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2 ESV). Initially, it might seem that this verse would answer this question without the need for further debate – that Christ died for the sins of every person who ever lived.1 Despite what one might gather from an initial reading of verses such as these, the assertion that Christ died for every person on Earth does not agree with the larger context of Scripture. By examining the nature of penal substitution2, the removal of sins, and propitiation, both in the Old and New Testaments, it is clear that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for sin was not done for the sake of everyone, but only for the elect. The implications of Christ dying solely for the sins of His people are astonishing and give the Christian a firm foundation of God’s love for him.
The Day of Atonement
To have a proper understanding of the atonement, we must first understand the nature of the Mosaic sacrifices that prefigured it. In John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied he writes, “We must interpret the sacrifice of Christ in terms of the Mosaic patterns because they were themselves patterned after Christ’s offering.”3 Christ’s sacrifice cannot be understood if it is isolated from the larger context of redemptive history as outlined in Scripture. Although the Mosaic sacrifices were certainly necessary for the people to be acceptable in the eyes of God, these sacrifices were not an end in themselves – they were given as a picture of a greater coming Sacrifice. These were “patterned after the heavenly exemplar, after what the epistle to the Hebrews called the ‘heavenly things.'” From Hebrews, we know “it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” (Hebrews 9:23 ESV).4 Once we understand the nature of the Mosaic sacrifices, we can then compare them to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, which will then lead to a proper understanding of the extent of the atonement.
The Day of Atonement, detailed in Leviticus 16, is a sacrifice that provides a notable example of penal substitution and the removal of sins, where sins are transferred to a substitute who is then punished for those sins. There we read:
And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free into the wilderness.
Leviticus 16:21-22 ESV
There are many things to note from this sacrifice. As part of the sacrifice, there is a transfer of sin to a substitute. The important act of the laying on of hands on the goat proves the transfer of sin to the substitute according to Louis Berkhof. In his discussion of the atonement, he notes, “This action symbolized the transfer of sin to the offering, and rendered it fit to atone for the sin of the offerer, Lev. 1:4.”5 There it states, speaking of burnt offerings, “He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him” (Leviticus 1:4 ESV). Thus, through this act, sins are transferred to a substitute to make atonement for those sins. Without sins being removed and transferred to another to be punished, there can be no atonement, whether indefinite or definite.
Additionally, this atonement is made specifically for the Israelites, God’s people. In His covenant with Moses, God promises, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God” (Exodus 6:7a ESV). Further, we read “This shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel” (Leviticus 16:34 ESV). As God has taken the Israelites to be His people, so He also provides atonement for their sins specifically through the sacrifice He institutes. The necessary implication of this is that this atonement is not provided for and does not atonement for the sins of the ungodly neighboring nations.
Finally, the substitute dies. Although not stated explicitly, the goat that was led out into the wilderness would die. From Creation, God mandates that the penalty for sin is death, starting in the Garden of Eden, where He commands, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17 ESV). Further, in Ezekiel, He declares, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20a ESV). The penalty for sin could not be clearer. Thus, the sins of the Israelites are placed upon the goat, and the death of the goat completes the process of penal substitution, as the goat dies for the Israelites’ sin, and the Israelites alone, in their place.