Romans 5:9-11 // Reconciliation

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:9-11)

This word "atonement" is in the KJV OT 69 times and the KJV NT once, that is here.

According to Young's Literal Translation the word here means "reconciliation". The Hebrew Torah's usage of "atonement" is quite different to this, but I think Paul is simply meaning "reconciliation" in this passage. We should bear in mind when reading other passages that atonement means something different. This is the passage where we get "at-one-ment" from, but don't go back and retrospectively apply this definition to passages like Leviticus 14:33-57, because it just doesn't make sense.

But back to this passage.

We have already shown that we might be said to be righteous by the power of Jesus' blood. But what about our rightful punishment for the things we have done? If Jesus has said you are righteous, then he will save you from the punishment you deserve. Why is this? Think about it, we were God's enemies once, and God was willing to give his Son to bring us back to his side. Now that we are back on God's side why would he turn around and kill us? That doesn't make sense. Since God has gone to all this trouble to get you onto his side he is going to do whatever he needs to do to keep you there, alive and happy. In addition you can have the joy of knowing that Jesus loved you so much that he gave everything to restore his friendship with you, to win your love.

The word atonement is normally used for the time when the priest would finish the symbolic salvational work after the sacrifice. After Jesus' sacrifice he like the priest of old has gone on to the work of atonement.

How much do you sacrifice to forgive and to win over your enemies to be friends? It's not an easy thing. But if we want to be like Jesus it's something we ought to think about.