By Reese Currie, Compass Distributors
I know a lot of my regular readers are wondering why I would be writing about this. The answer is so obvious to Christians. But it is not obvious to everyone who would claim to be Christian.
I received an e-mail from an Arian recently. An Arian is a person who believes Jesus Christ is just a sinless man and not God, and that the Holy Spirit does not exist as a Person. The name of the heresy is based on the name of its founder, Arius. This belief first died out around 500AD, but it resurfaced in the 1800's with the outbreak of rationalism. The more rationalistic churches of today are eagerly adopting Arianism over Biblical Christianity.
Modern Arianism differs slightly from historic Arianism in that the first Arians did not deny that the Holy Spirit is a Person, but they claimed that He was created and therefore not God. Some modern Arians, like Jehovah's Witnesses, believe that Jesus Christ was an angel and not just a man. No matter, the crux of it is all the same.
Besides informing me that I'm not a believer in his opinion, the Arian also noted that it makes no sense that Jesus could be God, since Jesus had to be equal with Adam to atone for Adam's sin. Jesus had to come into this world as a man, and had to make it through this world sinless in order to make up for the sin of Adam, and thereby (somehow) make it possible for people to be saved.
Really, the major difference between Arianism and Christianity is a matter of mathematics. Arians see it as an eye for an eye - Jesus, one man, atones for the sin of Adam, one man. So we would lose our so-called Adamic sin, and that would be all. The mathematical formula is "one man's sinlessness pays for one man's sinfulness."
There are a couple of glaring problems with this. First, the notion that Adam's sin was imputed to anyone but Adam is an incorrect presumption. Ezekiel 18:20 explains, "The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him."
Definitely, through Adam sin entered the world, and all of his offspring are inflicted with the propensity to sin. Romans 5:12 explains, "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned." Do not lose the significance of the last words, "because all sinned." We are sinners because we personally have sinned, due to the propensity we inherited from Adam, not because Adam's sin was imputed to us.
Romans 5:19, the basis for the erroneous Arian doctrine, reads, "For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one will many be made righteous." But the Bible explicitly states that Jesus' righteousness would be imputed to those who believe in Him (see Romans 4). The Bible at no point states that the sin of Adam is imputed to anyone. We are sinners by nature, but righteous by imputation.
So, what about our sins? These sins we have committed ourselves? This is then the second major flaw with Arianism. Any person who can tell me that they have never consciously committed a sin is a liar. Scripture tells us as much in 1 John 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
If Jesus paid the price for all of our sins, there is no mathematical justification for any notion that Jesus is anyone but God. Right now there are over six billion people in the world, and the Bible tells us all of them could potentially be saved. "The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is longsuffering towards us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
That's just at this point in history. This atonement has been available for ages. How could one man's sinlessness pay for the sinfulness of over 6,000,000,000 people? It couldn't happen. Even an angel couldn't die to atone for six billion people. An angel is only of slightly more value than a human. Hebrews 2:6-7 says, "But one has somewhere testified, saying, 'What is man, that you think of him? Or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor." Man is only a little lower than the angels, so no single angel could atone for the sins of billions of humans.
Arians necessarily do not believe in this atonement for individual humans. They believe that once Adam's sin is removed from them, they can lead pure lives thereafter and inherit the kingdom that way. If the Bible should show, however, that Christ's atonement is applied to people today and not just Adam, their entire theological system is destroyed. If the Bible should show that their own righteousness will not save them, their theological system is doubly destroyed.
3:20 because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law [cometh] the knowledge of sin.
3:21 But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
3:22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction;
3:23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
3:24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
3:25 whom God set forth [to be] a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God;
3:26 for the showing, [I say], of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. (ASV)
Romans 3:20 tells us that no one will be justified by their "works of the law." Romans 3:24-26 unquestionably shows that Jesus' atonement is applied to all who believe.
Romans 3:25 is greatly misinterpreted by Arians. First, Romans 3:25 contains the term "propitiation." Many Bible versions, including the World English Bible we are using for the other quotations in this article, fail to translate this properly, which is why we are quoting Romans 3:20-26 from the American Standard Version. It is not just an "atoning sacrifice" or "sacrifice of atonement" as some versions put it. It is a propitiation which is a total payment for all of the sins of an individual, bringing them instantly into full reconciliation with God for all sins committed, past, present, and future.
Arians and many other cultists believe that the so-called "atoning sacrifice" applies only to sins in the past, but the proper translation "propitiation" means a total and irreversible reconciliation to God. The term "sins committed aforetime" is particularly well translated in the American Standard Version; it means the sins committed before Jesus died on the cross.
Romans 3:26 shows that God alone is the justifier of those who believe in the present time based on the one time sacrifice Christ made for sin. It is impossible to understand from these verses that Jesus' atonement for sin applies only to so-called Adamic sin, so the mathematical principle at the base of Arianism is proven false. Furthermore, it shows that the Arian belief that they justify their own sin except for Adamic sin is a falsehood and a conceit.
2:17 Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
Jesus atones for the sins of the people, not only the sins of Adam. Arianism is proven false again.
In the Gospels, Jesus Christ repeatedly speaks of forgiving people for their sins. Not Adam's sin - their own, personal sins. There are far too many examples to list. At one point, Jesus' opponents, having heard Him say He had forgiven someone's sins, said, "Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? He blasphemes! Who can forgive sins but one - God?" (Mark 2:7). Exactly - even the Pharisees had the spiritual discernment to know who Jesus claimed to be. It is amazing that Arians, calling themselves Christians, lack the discernment of even an unbelieving Pharisee.
One very interesting passage is Luke 1:76-79, "And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the face of the Lord to make ready his ways, To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God, Whereby the dawn from on high will visit us, To shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; To guide our feet into the way of peace."
There was no talk of the remission of Adam's sin specifically. The talk was centered on giving knowledge of salvation to God's people by the remission of their personal sins.
It is interesting to note that John the Baptist is here spoken of going before the face of the Lord to make ready His ways. Before Jesus' birth, there was no question who you were talking about when you said "the Lord." That meant God! And the word translated "face" here (prosopon) implies also the presence of the Person of the Lord!
This coincides very well with God's testimony from Zechariah 12:8-10. In these verses, God (in Hebrew, YHWH or "Yahweh") describes Pentecost.
12:8 In that day Yahweh will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of Yahweh before them.
12:9 It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
12:10 I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.
So Yahweh, God the Father, says, "they will look on Me whom they have pierced." This very Scripture is applied to Jesus Christ in John 19:37. John 19:33-37 reads:
19:32 Therefore the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him;
19:33 but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs.
19:34 However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
19:35 He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you also may believe.
19:36 For these things happened, that the scripture might be fulfilled, "A bone of him will not be broken."
19:37 Again another scripture says, "They will look on him whom they pierced."
Given the connection between John 19:37 and Zechariah 12:10, only the Biblically illiterate or willfully ignorant could continue to contend that the Trinity doctrine is untrue, or that it was in any way unknown to the apostles.
All of the Arians I have ever known have been self-righteous, self-deceived worshippers of their own intellect, insistent on denying any doctrine of Christ that they cannot instantly comprehend. They are no different from rationalists in any particular regard except for the legalism they think is necessary for them to attain salvation. Both groups choose those Scriptures that conform to their personal philosophies and deny or attempt to explain away all the rest. Those Scriptures supporting their views are to be treated literally, and those against their views are to be treated allegorically. They lord their "intellect" over believers, which would be really quite funny if it weren't so sad. They do not know even the elementary principles of Christ, yet they accuse believers of being completely deceived and ignorant about the nature of God.
This comes from having set their minds on things too high for them to understand. The best advice for them would be from King David, "Yahweh, my heart isn't haughty, nor my eyes lofty; Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Or things too wonderful for me" (Psalm 131:1). One other piece of advice for them would be directly from the lips of Jesus, "Repent, and believe in the gospel." Jesus did not call us to believe those parts of the gospel that conform to our presuppositions, but to repent of our presuppositions and believe the whole truth.
Did Jesus Atone for Our Sins? Copyright © 1999 by Compass Distributors
Scripture quotations taken from the World English Bible, a version of Scripture in the public domain.
Scripture quotations marked ASV taken from the American Standard Version (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson and Sons), 1901