 All right, welcome back. Before the break, we started looking at the historicity of Jesus. Because you see, in a short while, we're going to start talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ. So if Jesus himself is not real, if the things which are said about him are not real, then this whole atonement that we're going to be talking about is not very real and not very applicable. It would just be a very nice theory that has got nothing to do with reality. But the fact is that shortly after the resurrection of Jesus, when the early church was still forming, when the early church was still developing, at that time itself, there are secular writers who noticed all that is going on and they began to talk about these Christians and this Jesus Christ whom they are following. They began to make mention of it in their writings. So, I mean, we do not know how many people wrote about him, about Jesus. But today, I mean, in our current day, we only have 39 ancient writings with us which mention Jesus. Now, of these 39 ancient writings, most of them are written by Christians. So let's say, okay, fine, you know, you cannot just, you would expect the Christians to be a little biased towards Jesus. So let's, you know, set aside the Christian writings. But then the ones that we are talking about right now are the seven secular writings in which Jesus is being mentioned as a historical figure. So those are the ones that we have been talking about. We talked about how Josephus has openly talked about the miracles of Jesus in his two historical works. We also saw Tacitus who is a Roman historian who would not feel any kind of obligation towards the Christians. He openly says that this Christus has led to many, many mischievous superstitions because of which an immense multitude of followers are going after him is what he says in his writing. A third person that we can look at would be Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Younger was the governor of Pytinia in Asia. And so this governor, he's very concerned about the large number of people who are becoming Christians. And so he actually writes an official letter to Emperor Trajan. So Pliny the Younger, who is the governor of Pytinia is writing an official letter to the emperor. In that letter, he says that now all of the people are saying that Jesus is divine. And so they have all started following him. And because of the large number of people who are following Jesus, he writes in the letter that he says the pagan temples are becoming almost deserted. Now this is an official letter being sent to the emperor. And in that he says the pagan temples are almost getting deserted because the number of people following this Jesus is remarkable. And so he requests permission from the emperor to start persecuting the Christians. And Emperor Trajan replies back to him. And in his letter, he says, yes, you have the permission to persecute them. But don't engage in wholesale slaughter. So he gives permission for persecution. However, he does not give permission for wiping them out completely through killing. This is another person, Lucian. And now the people whom I have mentioned so far, all of them were writing very, very close within a hundred years of the resurrection of Jesus. This next person, Lucian is a little away. He's in the second century. He's a Greek writer. And in his writing, he says very mockingly, these Christians are claiming that Jesus, you know, has risen from the dead. He has become immortal. And so they believe that if they follow him, he will make them also immortal. And so what to do with these Christians? They're not even scared of death. You know, at least if you can punish somebody and frighten them with a threat of death, maybe you can control them. But these Christians are so confident that this Jesus is going to make them immortal like himself, that they're not even afraid of death. How do we control them is basically, you know, he writes in his writing, Lucian, a Greek writer of the second century. Then we have also found a marble, one of those marble plaques on which they used to write instructions and inscriptions. So in Nazareth in 1878, they discovered this marble slab on which an official inscription had been written. In that inscription, it says a warning to all grave robbers. If anyone goes near a grave or in any way harms or tries to meddle with the grave, a death sentence will be given. Now why on earth would the emperor issue an inscription like this? Something must have happened which caused him to write, you know, to officially give out an inscription like this. So in different locations, these marble slabs were placed and this instruction was written saying that grave robbers, you know, severe action will be taken against them. And the same emperor Claudius who has issued this inscription, he also writes in one of his other writings. He says that the Jews have created such havoc because of some religious issue. He says they have created so much havoc in Rome that temporarily they're all going to be expelled from the city. And he says this in AD 49, which is like literally maybe around 13, 14 years after the resurrection of Jesus. You see, the Christians are spreading and the Jews are very, very upset. So they're attacking the Christian community and the Romans don't know how to control the situation. So in fact, in AD 49, the emperor asks all that all the Jews leave the city for a while so that they can be peace. If you notice, he doesn't ask the Christians to leave. The Christians are not resorting to violence. It was the Jews who were resorting to violence. So they're asked to leave the city temporarily. All of these things are historical records of things which happened at that time. So these are not stories which were made up in the, you know, 300 AD, in 400 AD. No, these are not historic records which were invented by people much later. These writings began to be written within 100 AD, very, very close after Jesus and the time of Jesus' resurrection. One final thing are the writings of Thalus and the writings of Clegon. These are Greek writers. So Thalus in his historical work in 52 AD, you know, his writing in 52 AD and he talks about an eclipse of the sun which completely blotted out all light and there was complete darkness. He actually makes mention of this event and this Clegon who writes that in 33 AD, he says, it became night in the sixth hour of the day. And he talks about how a great earthquake was felt in Bydynia and many things were overturned in Nica, Nikes, Nicaea, oh, sorry. So these are all things which historians have recorded which backs up the events recorded in the Gospels. Okay, so Jesus really came, he really was crucified, he really got resurrected. As a result of his resurrection, we enjoy the atonement which he did for us. So having understood the historicity of the atonement event, let's look at a few details about that. So this will be the focus of our talk for the rest of this session, atonement of Christ. This is actually a Hebrew word that is used in the Old Testament in many places. It's a Hebrew word called kafar. The word kafar was understood in those days in biblical times in three ways. Firstly, the word was used to talk about hovering something. It's like if I take a paintbrush and I start painting the wall with it, I'm covering the wall with paint. In that sense, kafar, you know, I'm kafaring the wall if you want to, you know, anglicize that word. You know, you're basically covering the wall with something. That was one way in which the word kafar was used. The second way that word was used is, you know, if there is a property dispute or something between two parties and there's an argument going on about who owns the property or something like that. The mediator would ask those two parties to come together and then they would have official talks to reach some kind of an understanding, you know, to work out some kind of a reconciliation. So this word kafar was used for reconciliation where two parties are being brought together and the mediator is mediating between them so that peace can be restored. So kafar was also used in that sense. The third way in which kafar was used was in the sense of something being taken away. That word kafar was used for something being taken away. In Leviticus chapter 16 which talks about the day of atonement, that is basically the sense in which this word atonement is used where the sins of the people are being taken away from them. Okay, so now when we look at what Jesus did on the cross for us, he in fact did all these three aspects of kafar. In the sense his blood has covered us. It's like as if he has taken his blood and coated us, you know, painted us with his blood. So we are covered by his blood. We are cleansed from our sins because of his blood. So in that sense, he has performed kafar for us. He is also the mediator who brought God and us together. He mediated between God and us that peace can be restored between God and us. So in that sense also Christ has performed kafar for us. And also Christ is the one because of whom our sins have been taken away. Our sins have now been taken so far away that when God looks at us, he does not look at those past sins anymore. You know, some of us have this kind of guilt hanging over our heads regarding our past. And we think that every time God looks at us, he thinks about what we did. But no, Christ is the one who did atonement. That word kafar atonement talks about something being taken away. Your sins were taken so far away that when God looks at you, he does not look at those sins. He just looks at you and he has a hope for you and a future for you. And there are great things lined up for you. He does not even see those sins which you were part of your past because those sins were kafar. They were taken away. They were atoned for. That is the sense in which we need to understand this term atonement. In the Old Testament, you know, they had all these different atonement ceremonies where something would be cleaned by performing the atonement ritual. So the atonement ritual was done to clean objects which are considered unclean but it was also used to clean people in the sense those who are sinful, they are being cleaned off their sins. So we'll just look at two examples and we'll look at something similar which is mentioned in both of these passages regarding atonement. The first example that we look at, yeah, we have a question over here which says, you know, the student is asking from which page I am teaching. If you look at your APC notes, you know, we have about 12 pages of notes but those 12 pages have to be covered over four months. So all the details are not there in the APC notes. What we are covering today is basically the heading, Doctrine of Christ and under the Doctrine of Christ, you know, we looked very briefly at the nature of Christ and we are also looking at the atonement work of Christ. All right, so all the details will not be given because you know, you just have a brief outline of 12 pages. So we are basically covering the topic of Doctrine of Christ today but then there is also a Christology course which you guys are doing this semester. So to avoid an overlap, to avoid repeating things which you have already covered in your Christology, we are touching upon aspects which are not part of that other subject, you know, so that you will not be bored having to listen to the same thing twice. So I cannot give you an exact page number but it's the chapter on the Doctrine of Christ that we are talking about and we have tried to avoid all the things which will be covered in your Christology course. All right, so that's the kind of adjustment that is being made. So yeah, I hope that helps. Okay, thank you so much Andrew. Yes. Yeah, so right now we are looking at two examples of atonement. The first we will look at is the atonement of an object. Basically, it's the atonement being done for a house. Okay, a very Old Testament custom, something that we would not even think about today. So if we were to turn to Leviticus chapter 14 versus 33 to 53, in great detail you would have all the things I know mentioned about how the house became unclean, what had to be done to make the house clean once again and then for it to be officially declared as spiritually clean the priest would have to come and perform the atonement ceremony. So that's basically the background of your Leviticus chapter 14 versus 33 to 53. So we of course don't even know to know, I need to know all the details of how exactly the atonement was done, how the house was declared clean. Let's just look at the main points because there's something mentioned here which again gets repeated in many, many other places wherever atonement is talked about. So we are basically interested in that one main point. So just to have a general understanding of what is being talked about over here regarding the atonement of a house in those days they didn't have the kind of concrete which we use now for the construction of our homes. They basically used to use mud bricks and with the mud bricks they would make the walls. So sometimes you would have fungus mould things like that growing on the mud wall which can actually contaminate the house and in fact can harm the health of the residents. So God in the 613 Old Testament laws that he gave the people, one of the laws was regarding what to do if your house starts developing fungus and mould and all of that. So basically you would have to replaster all the walls. So after the replastering of the walls the priest would be called to come over there and to atone for the house so that it can be declared spiritually clean once again. So he would go through this elaborate ceremony of doing different things but for our interest let's look at some specific verses which talk about the thing that we are interested in. Leviticus chapter 14 and we are looking at verses 48 to 53. If you were to look at verse 49 it says to purify the house the priest is to take two birds so the priest he takes two birds and then in verse 50 it says he shall kill one of the birds and then in verse 52 it says that he shall purify the house with the bird's blood and in fact in the previous verse 51 it says that he will sprinkle the house with that blood that he names to purify the house but there are two birds that he took right and it's only one bird which has been killed and it's blood is now being sprinkled what about the other bird that you would find in verse 53 where it says then the priest is to release the live bird in the open fields outside the town in this way he will make atonement for the house and it will be clean so one bird is killed but the other bird is taken outside the town and it is released into the air and that bird flies away this is the symbolism behind that one bird is being killed and it's blood is being used to cleanse the defilement the uncleanness in the house the other bird which is released into the air it's like as if it's carrying that uncleanness on its wings and flying far away and nobody will be able to find that bird again you know that particular bird you will not know where it is gone so it's gone away for good in that sense the defilement of that house has been taken completely far far away and it will never again come back to the house it's a kind of very permanent cleansing that has been done that's the symbolism behind what is being talked about over here so this is regarding the atonement of a house but then if you go to the day of atonement and you look at the ceremony which God suggested for humans to be cleansed it's so similar at least the main points again we see they are similar so Leviticus 16 is the chapter that talks about the day of atonement and this is what it says over there in Leviticus 16 here it's not two birds which are being used rather you have two goats being used over here and this is what it says in Leviticus 16 verse 9 it says Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering so one of the goats is being used as a sin offering and it is being killed it's being sacrificed and it explains in verse 10 that the goat chosen to stay alive to be presented alive it says it shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat again in verses 21 to 22 the same thing is explained it says that Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites so he places both his hands on the head of the goat and the sins of all the people of the entire Israelite community is transferred on to the head of that live goat so one goat was offered as a sin offering so the sacrifice has already been made for their sins now this live goat is performing another function it's going to carry these sins of the people and go far away so it says in verse 22 the goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place and the man shall release it into the wilderness and when we come into the New Testament we see Jesus performing the function of both of these goats that we see because in the New Testament in the epistels it talks about how Jesus did the same things which the birds did and which the goats did so what was symbolically presented in the Old Testament it was all pointing towards what Jesus would finally accomplish one day so all this Old Testament ceremonies which seem so elaborate and seem so vague and confusing they all were actually pointing towards something that an actual historical figure would do one day so there was a lot of significance in those Old Testament rituals which they were asked to do because every ritual held so much meaning so much significance it was all pointing towards what Jesus would one day accomplish so let's now come to the New Testament and we will look at how Jesus did what the goats did so we will look at certain scriptures which talk about that and when we are talking about the sacrifice of Jesus the atonement work of Jesus we would obviously have to begin with Hebrews Hebrews is the book which talks about the high priestly work of Jesus it also talks about the sacrificial work of Jesus so coming here to the to the Hebrew passage if we could have someone read out for us Hebrews 912 Hebrews 912 please Hebrews 912 he hinted once for all into the holy places not by means for the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption yes so here it talks about how Jesus Christ went into the holy of holies not on the earth the holy of holies in heaven where you have the throne of God so Jesus goes into the holy of holies carrying not the blood of some animal carrying his own blood he goes over there and he makes atonement a little background regarding this from the Old Testament times we basically see that in the Old Testament the high priest in Leviticus 16 once a year he is allowed to go into the holy of holies carrying the blood of that goat and then he would sprinkle it on the covering of the Ark of the Covenant and also in front of the Ark of the Covenant he was basically supposed to do that so once a year he is allowed to go inside he is allowed to sprinkle that blood on the Ark of the Covenant and come out now Jesus is paralleling that but Jesus is doing it at a whole new level because this high priest who is going in once a year he performs a lot of sacrifices on his own behalf before even entering because he is imperfect he is sinful he is just like all of us so he has to first of all make sacrifices for himself to cleanse himself and then he goes into the most holy place with the blood of the animal but here in Hebrews 9 12 what do we see here this high priest is at a whole new level he is sinless he is perfect he doesn't need to perform any sacrifices for himself so because of who he is in his perfect righteousness this high priest just confidently walks into the holy of holies and he doesn't take the blood of some animal because the blood of animals was never really sufficient to wash away the sins of the people eternally every morning, every evening animals had to be sacrificed on a daily basis to keep the people of Israel covered from the anger of God every morning, every single evening animals had to be sacrificed on the altar just to keep the people of God alive that is the sea so the blood of animals could never really fully accomplish what God had in mind and Jesus Christ, this high priest he walks in confidently with his own blood which can cleanse permanently, eternally so we see that explained in Hebrews 9 28 where it says so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many and he will appear a second time not to bear sin but to bring salvation so it talks about how this high priest is now playing an intercessory role at a much superior level what that human high priest really could not do for the people Jesus Christ is doing it for us today which is what we see in Romans 8 34 if you could have someone read out for us Romans 8 34 please who is he who condemns it is Christ who died and the furthermore is also risen who is even at the right hand of God which also makes intercession for us yeah now this human high priest who used to go into the holy of holies in the Old Testament he is an imperfect person if he has been careless in the way he has done the sacrifices for himself when he goes into God's presence chances are that he will actually drop down dead in the most holy place and if anyone dares to go inside and collect the dead body they also would fall down dead so basically they would tie a rope to his foot now that's not something that is recorded over here in the scriptures it's part of their other writings in the other writings you would see mention of this so they would tie a rope to his leg so that in case he drops down dead inside at least they will be able to pull him out with a rope that was the seriousness of the situation in the Old Testament times so you can't really depend upon that high priest to do much of an intercession for you but today this greater high priest Jesus he is now even as we are having this class right now he is literally standing there at the right hand of God and he is interceding for each one of us sitting over here in this class so even though all of us have our sins our imperfections in fact some of us may even be having some unconfessed sins which we are holding on to even though we are in that condition right now in this moment Jesus the high priest is literally standing at the right hand of God and every time God looks at Jesus he is reminded oh okay Jesus has paid the price for this particular student so yes this person is now covered this person is now atoned for why because Jesus is standing over there as an intercessory figure so he is a reminder to God the Father always that we are not to be touched you and I we are under the covering the protection the intercession of this Jesus so therefore this is not a license for us to live in sin we should be honored at this privilege which has been given to us and we must make every effort to work towards sanctification so this is not a license where we can say oh God is standing Jesus is standing over there interceding for me so I can get away with whatever I want no that would be a completely wrong attitude with which to approach this amazing thing which Jesus has done for us so we understand that this higher high priest has able to do something for us which the human high priest were unable to do first Peter 224 makes an interesting point about this about the sacrifice of Jesus let's look at that first Peter 224 if someone could read out he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed such a lovely verse see it says over here all our sins he carried them he bore them in his own body why did he go through that so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness so he has done this great sacrifice so that we can live in a new way in a different way so just like that bird in the Old Testament upon which the uncleanness of the house was placed just like the goat in the Old Testament upon which the sins of the Israelites was placed here your sin and my sin have literally been placed upon Jesus and he has carried those sins for us so when he was hanging on the cross on his shoulders on his head your sin was resting my sin was resting he was literally carrying those sins for us on that cross and when the anger of God came down upon him it was basically on our sins that the anger was coming down upon but he paid the price so this is the privilege which we have been given where he literally carried our sins in his own body so in that way he substituted himself for us and took the punishment so because of what Jesus has done this is what our status is Hebrews 10 14 if someone could read out for us Hebrews 10 14 for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified he has perfected for all time so which is why even though you and I sometimes may sin and it may take us a few days to confess our sin and repent the anger and wrath of God does not immediately come its not unleashed upon us because spiritually he has made us perfect he has covered us with his blood so we are now under his righteousness therefore we have been made perfect in that sense however we must realize that we are also being made wholly on a daily basis and allow God to sanctify us on a daily basis so yes there are some questions here in the chat the first is actually from Lucy who asked about those resources that I had mentioned a long time ago so in the google classroom page I did put up that pdf in the place in our google classroom where we post the text book the notes in that same place I had also posted the pdf but then I think after that I removed it after a month or so fine I will repost it once again so that contains the names of some good books which you can use it also gives mention of some websites which will have more details that you can refer to and it also makes mention of of an online library where you can get access to such things so yes I think I will repost it once again yeah that pdf I had put it up earlier now Gertrude has a question so yes please unmute and go ahead sister my question is you said the first goat Jesus resembled because he took all our sin sin and everything on himself what about the second goat that is left in wilderness what does it resemble in New Testament yeah so we have a verse in which it says that ok Romans 5 10 it says while we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him that phrase reconciled basically over there is saying that God does not consider us enemies anymore so in the same way that goat carried all the sins upon itself and went away never to be found again in that way God also when he looks at us he does not see our sins anymore our sins have been taken away by Jesus and you know atoned for so in that sense the live goat talks about how far away because that word kafa if you remember it talks about taken away something that is taken away our defilement our sin has been permanently taken away which is why we saw in the earlier scripture Hebrews 10 14 that we have been made perfect forever how have we been made perfect forever our sins were taken away like that live goat carrying it into the wilderness and no one will be able to find that goat and bring it back and say assi these are all the sins which they have to account for so it was supposed to symbolize the permanency of the taking away of our sins so God now when he looks at us he does not regard us as enemies he considers us as people that he has reconciled with yes so the second goat is supposed to symbolize that aspect of the permanency of the taking away of the sins and Anusha had asked just says verse and I not particularly sure which verse she wanted if you were to go through the recording later you know maybe it would help to figure out which particular verse you were chasing after I am not but yeah so any significance of Jesus Christ crucified outside of the city yeah because that is where the unclean things were placed so after the sacrifices were performed the leftovers of the sacrificial animal all the spare parts you know the the hoofs and the horns and the portions of the animal which are of no use all those were always taken and thrown outside the city because they are representing sin they are representing defilement so it is not something that you would want to have inside the city so Jesus when he went outside the city outside the town boundaries to be crucified over there you know he is saying that I am going to become all that uncleanness for the behalf on behalf of the people so he goes out as one who is rejected because if you remember in the Old Testament anyone who sins is cast out you know certain some of the more serious sins those people are expelled from the Israelite community they are they are made to leave the city and go away outside so Jesus becomes sin for us takes our punishment upon him and goes outside the city like one who has been rejected by God like one who has become an enemy of God so in doing that by going outside the city is representing all the sinners who you know spiritually are outcasts they do not have the right to be inside the city of God they are meant to be outcasts on the outside and Jesus goes and joins all those outcasts and he becomes their representative and he sacrifices himself for them so that God's anger will not come down on these outcasts who belong outside it will rather come down upon him so that we can be incasts you know there is no such word but the thing is now because of him we are inside the city of God we are inside the kingdom of the Son of God so he went outside so that we can come inside and enjoy the citizenship privileges so that would be the significance of him being punished outside the city thank you thank you so yes we looked at the permanence of the atonement which God has got for us so therefore God the Father will never be angry with us he will not regard us as enemies anymore but something nice has happened even on our side because of the atonement we no longer treat God like an enemy not only is God not treating us like enemies another implication of this atonement is that now we can stop treating God like an enemy and I think it is important for our Christian walk so Romans 8 verses 7 to 9 if someone could read out Romans 8 7 to 9 for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law indeed it cannot those who are in the flesh cannot please God verse 9 you however are not in the flesh but in the spirit if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belongs to him so here it is saying you know Paul is writing to these Christians and he says you know what you people are no longer in the world you are supposed to be in the realm of the spirit you know you are in the kingdom of God so now your mind should be in line with God's mind on the other hand if you are still living like a person whose mind is hostile and against God then it is like as if you are still in the realm of the world so he says understand who you are understand what your citizenship is right now you are supposed to be inside this kingdom you are not still in the old kingdom so therefore he says examine your mind in your mind are you still an enemy of God if that is the case then you need to kindly bring your mind to this new kingdom where you are a citizen so he says the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God it still looks at God as the enemy and it wants to rebel against God but we believers are not supposed to rebel against God we are supposed to consider God our friend so all our choices all our priorities should be in line with honouring him rather than treating him like an enemy so it is all very nice for us to say oh God does not look at us as enemies anymore excellent it is true that God does not look at us as enemies but how are we looking at him on a daily basis are we treating him as an enemy and working against him or are we walking in line with the spirit because if we are walking in line with the spirit then we are not treating him like an enemy it is very very wrong it is a very great sin he is not treating us like an enemy anymore but we in our choices and our behaviour if we are still rebelling against him it would mean that we are still treating him as an enemy and that is a very very wrong thing to do okay so atonement is supposed to enable us to treat God as our friend now onwards and honour him rather than continuing to treat him as an enemy alright there are some basic criticisms which are raised against the whole doctrine of atonement we will look very briefly at some main criticisms that are raised the first of course is that they say where was the need for God to send Jesus into the world he could have just simply forgiven the sinners and they say we human beings who are so imperfect we have the grace and the mercy to show forgiveness to other people so when we can be so generous in our forgiving attitude why couldn't God do the same thing why couldn't He just forgive all the sinners but when they say that they forget the fact that God is completely holy and righteous so in Habakkuk 113 it says your eyes are too pure to look on evil you cannot tolerate wrong doing so therefore wrong doing has to be punished God just cannot say I forgive you and leave it at that if God forgives me then who's going to give justice to the person who got hurt you know you go and murder a person and then stand over the dead body and say you know oh I'm so sorry and then God is just supposed to say ok I forgive you then what about that per person who's dead over there on the ground who's going to give justice to him justice has to be done so that justice that punishment was released upon Jesus the price was paid somebody paid the price for every single sin so it would be very superficial for God to say I forgive you and leave it at that what about the people who have been wronged what about justice for them so therefore Jesus Christ had to make the atonement he had to pay the price he had to take the punishment for all the sinful things which we have done somebody has to pay the price so Jesus paid it another argument that they raise and they say that it is so unfair that God released the punishment upon Jesus we are the culprits we are the ones who should get the punishment so why was he made to give atonement it's very very unfair so is God being unfair it's another question which is raised and this is the example they use they say it's like a judge who you know has the entire court trial and at the end of the court trial it is very clearly proved and established that the criminal is the one who is wrong and then after knowing who the criminal is perfectly wrong the judge points to somebody in the audience and he says you know you take the punishment for this guy so they say it's like that it's so unfair but the the explanation that we can give is that Jesus volunteered to take it upon himself it's not like I said God randomly pointed at his finger at Jesus and said now you have to rise no we see in the scriptures that this is a voluntary thing which Jesus chose to do that's what it says in John chapter 10 verses 17 to 18 where Jesus very plainly says no one takes my life from me but I laid down of my own accord so it's something that Jesus volunteered to do so God the Father and God the Son together did this for us so there's no unfairness involved it's a voluntary action which God decided to do for us just a third argument which is raised they say so does this mean does atonement mean that God is very very angry God the Father is very angry and then Jesus had to speak on our behalf and kind of calm him down does this mean that there is a conflict in the Trinity God the Father is against us and God the Son is for us so was that the reason why atonement had to be done so that God the Son can speak on our behalf and calm down God the Father who is very much against us and hates us again that's a very foolish argument simply because we know we have John 3 16 where it says God is the one who sent the Son God the Father sent the Son so it's not like any conflict between God the Father and God the Son both of them together wanted to do this for us so there is no conflict in the Trinity so we cannot say that there is any conflict in the Trinity so okay these are all some of the arguments which people try to raise to argue against the work of atonement but then we have good solid scriptures to contract what they are saying alright we have 3 minutes left if anyone has any profound questions we shall tackle that otherwise we close order then let's just close with a word of prayer Lord we just thank you so much for your work of atonement and so Lord even though you were fully divine you chose to become fully human so that you can do this work of atonement for us so that when God looks at us he does not even think about our past our sins have been taken away permanently God does not look at us as that simple person instead he regards us as somebody who has been made perfect so we pray oh Lord that we would cooperate with you cooperate with the Holy Spirit in sanctifying ourselves and cleansing ourselves on a daily basis so that we may honour you by doing this thank you Lord in Jesus name amen thank you so much