Imagine someone gives you a beautifully wrapped box. The paper is elegant, the bow carefully tied. You thank them sincerely and place it on a shelf in your home so that you can admire the beautiful box. Life moves on as the box just sits there. Then months turn into years as dust forms on the box. You always mean to open it, but you never quite get around to it.
One day, you remember the box, and curiosity gets the better of you. You open the box.
Inside is a set of keys and what looks like a legal document. You read it and quickly realize that it is the deed to a house! It turns out the giver had purchased a home for you years ago. While you’ve been scraping together rent payments, worrying about housing, and living with uncertainty, a home has been yours the whole time. The gift was real. The sacrifice was made. But until you understood what the gift actually was, it didn’t change how you lived.
In many ways, that’s what can happen with the cross. Many Christians know that Jesus died for them. We may say it, sing it, and affirm it in our hearts. But if we never take time to understand why Jesus died or what His death actually accomplished (theologians call this the study of the atonement), we can spend years living as if the gift were still unopened.
This is why studying the atonement matters.
The apostle Paul gives us a breathtaking description of what happened at the cross in Colossians 2:13-15:
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
In just a few sentences, Paul opens the gift and shows us that there is a treasure trove of great news inside. We were dead in our sins, but God made us alive with Christ. Our record of debt, which was every charge that stood against us, has been canceled and nailed to the cross. The dark powers that held humanity in bondage were disarmed and defeated. Each of these represents a different theory of the atonement, each a compelling and beautiful gift we need to open, but the beauty is that there are many more. The cross was not merely a tragic moment in history. It was the decisive victory of God. It was forgiveness purchased, debt erased, life restored, and evil defeated.
When we study the atonement, we are not simply analyzing a doctrine. We are opening the gift of the gospel. We are discovering the depth of what Jesus accomplished for us.
And when we finally see what’s inside the box, we have an opportunity to live with deeper gratitude, stronger faith, and a renewed sense of freedom.
The more clearly we understand why Jesus died, the more fully we are able to live in the life He won for us.
Josh Rose
Family Pastor