THE ATONEMENT Episode 1 | Introduction. 19 Aug 2025, Dublin

Over

2,000 years ago,

our sovereign God

came down to this earth

as a man.

And he died

on a cross.

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>> Why?

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Heat. Heat.

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imagine

if all of history revolved olved around

a single event.

Then this is it.

It is the hinge upon which all of

history turns.

And long after this world has gone and

eternity has begun,

it will still be the center of heaven.

It all happened during those six hours

under a darkened sky on a hill called

Golgatha.

That day,

two worlds collided. The world of man

and the heart of God.

During those six intense hours, a single

act of brutal execution rewrote the

pages of history.

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What truly happened on that day?

Was it a payment or was it a punishment?

Was it fate or was it judgment?

Was it defeat or was it victory?

Was it a man who died or was it God?

Can God die?

This is the story of the atonement.

The story of how we were brought back to

God.

And it begins not with a simple

explanation,

but with a profound and terrible

question.

Why did Jesus have to die?

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The Christian doctrine of the atonement

is the heart of the gospel and it is

central to Christian theology.

The doctrine of the atonement seeks to

explain

how the death of Jesus

reconciles

humanity with God.

But this atonement is such a profound

mystery that it cannot be just explained

easily. It raises a lot of questions.

It's very very deep. And that is why

over the centuries

various theological models have emerged

to help Christians understand what Jesus

accomplished on the cross.

God is infinitely holy while we are

extremely fallen and sinful and we can

never ever approach this holy God. We

heard about him in the miniseries we

just concluded.

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Nonetheless,

an impossible program of reconciliation

was launched through the life, death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ

and that is the atonement.

The word atonement itself comes from the

middle English phrase at one minute

symbolizing

a restored unity with God.

This unity with God that Adam lost in

the Garden of Eden is restored through

Calvary.

It's very sad that many Christians

think that the narrative of the cross is

just a basic topic for new Christians.

There are many Christians I know who

think that Jesus died merely to save us

from sin.

That is all the gospel is about. Jesus

died for the sinners. And because of

this shallow attitude, shallow

understanding of the sacrifice of

Christ, this greatest truth of

Christianity has been compromised and

ignored.

But for the few faithful pastors who are

still preaching the gospel, this truth

might have almost been lost.

Today Christianity hardly resembles the

original historic Christianity of the

apostles. That is how much it has

deviated and changed.

There are millions today who think they

are Christians because they are either

born to Christian parents or at some

point decided to go to church. They

think they are Christians because they

said the sinner's prayer.

A few years ago when God began to deal

with me, I became quite concerned

because I realized that many many church

members were not really converted. Even

I myself had a false conversion as I

shared with you all many times.

So with grave concern, I began to go

around asking church members to tell me

their conversion story.

How were you saved? I asked them.

I was genuinely seeking to know their

Christian beginning.

And I was shocked to find out that

almost 100% of those who professed that

they were believers for over 30 years

had no conversion at all.

Almost every one of them said the same

thing.

When I was 18 years old, I decided to

give my heart to Jesus. Another person

said, "One day I thought, let me become

a Christian."

Christianity is not about our decision

for Christ.

It's not something we do.

Christianity is something that is done

to us by God himself.

So I became greatly concerned that there

are thousands upon thousands of u let's

call them churchgoers.

They had never experienced the blessings

of the atonement.

I found that most of them simply want to

be blessed materially on earth. They

want their problems to be solved. They

want to live a happy life and then live

in some utopia in heaven.

My friend, God is better than that.

Surely God wants to bless you not just

financially and materially but in every

possible way.

Listen to what Paul says.

He who did not spare his own son but

delivered him over for us all.

How will he not also with him freely

give us all things?

Did you know that with him?

That is why it is so important for us to

know the story of Jesus and the cross.

So in order to understand the most

important truth of the atonement,

let us start from the beginning.

Heat. Heat.

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When you think about God, how do you

picture him in your minds?

Is he old and gray-haired?

Do you see him with a long beard?

Does he have sharp features,

brown or blue eyes?

And I'm curious,

does he ever smile?

Or is he always serious and grave?

And how big is he? Is he bigger than the

universe?

And why is he so distant? Why doesn't he

speak more clearly?

I'm sure we would all love to see God.

But as we heard in the previous series,

the saints in the Bible were really

afraid to look upon God.

Not because he was evil or hot-tempered

or cruel or some kind of a monster.

No, the saints knew exactly why they

could not look upon him.

They knew that if they did, but glimpses

face, they would die and they were right

because God is so exceedingly holy and

we are utterly sinful.

And that is why Isaiah reacted like that

in God's presence.

He felt utterly exposed and wretched

before God.

When Moses, the friend of God, asked

God, "Can I see your glory?"

God told him, "No,

you cannot see my face. For if anyone

sees me, they will die. They will die.

They will die. They will die."

Today

a great number of Christians have got

rid of the fundamental truth that God is

holy.

Christianity now has a different God, a

new God, a re-imaged God. This new God

of Christianity is an elderly loving

grandfather who sits in a rocking chair

and coups over his children all day.

This loving God never says no.

He always says yes to our requests.

So what does God really look like? Is he

attractive or terrifying? Does he look

like a saint or a celebrity?

Ghostly or guruike?

When I was young, maybe around 17, I

became aware of a desire to know God.

This was not some passing fantasy. It

was a seed, a divine seed planted in my

heart.

I also realized that this passion to

know God was way too strong to be my

own.

I understood that God was somehow

reaching out to me, knocking at the door

of my heart, waking me up from my

stuper.

And that's when I found a passage in the

Bible that described my situation. These

are the words of the bride of Christ

recorded in the Songs of Solomon.

This scenario describes the state of the

bride long before she realized the value

of Jesus.

>> I was asleep, but my heart was awake. A

voice, my beloved was knocking.

>> Open to me, my sister, my darling, my

dove, my perfect one. For my head is

drenched with dew, my locks with the

damp of the night.

>> I have taken off my dress. How can I put

it on again? I have washed my feet. How

can I dirty them again? My beloved

extended his hand through the opening,

and my feelings were aroused for him. I

arose to open to my beloved, and my

hands dripped with myrr, and my fingers

with liquid myrr on the handles of the

bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my

beloved had turned away and had gone.

My heart went out to him as he spoke. I

searched for him but I did not find him.

I called him but he did not answer me.

>> This is exactly where I found myself.

God had been reaching out to me for a

while. But by the time I got up and went

after him, he was gone.

The more I sought him, the more distant

he seemed. And I remember those days.

My heart was breaking because I really

wanted him. But he was too elusive, too

hidden, too transcendent.

I could never reach him.

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But somewhere along the way, I met some

great saints of God. They were admired

in church as gifted and mightily

anointed.

Their prophecies were dynamic and

powerful. They spoke about the love of

God. They spent much time in prayer and

God spoke to them. And of course I

envied them. And because I could not see

God myself,

I viewed him through the lens of these

saints.

They became a thumbnail impression of

the God whom I could not know.

Little by little as I observed them I

began to form a picture of God in my

head.

Their attitude,

their expressions,

their conduct, their mannerisms, their

attire, their reactions,

their words, their life choices.

These were all the pieces of the jigsaw

that I assembled and silently

constructed an image of God in my head.

And that is where all my confusion

began.

Because we say God is love.

But many of these saints who were on

fire for God had fiery tempers too.

Their anointing was awesome, but their

anger was awful.

They were saints.

Yet somehow I never sensed loneliness

but loftiness.

When I looked at them, I found not

humility but highmindedness.

They always appeared condescending,

looking down at everyone.

We say God is gentle.

But I found these saints bossy and

controlling.

They always expected

implicit obedience.

We say God is gracious and kind and

tender. But these role models of

saintliness,

they hardly smiled. In fact, I felt they

were making an effort to appear

unfriendly because being unfriendly

somehow made you appear godly.

This made me understand that we have a

god who never smiles,

a god who always frowns.

These saints were aloof and cold and

distant. And so I perceived God to be

like that.

Can you imagine how confused and scared

a young and impressionable teenager

would become of such a god? I really

became scared of him. My Christian

worldview never developed. I could not

make out what Christian life was really

all about. When the very role models of

God who claim to be close to his heart

are like this,

then our whole theology goes off the

rails.

So tell me, what was wrong with these

people? Was something wrong with their

salvation?

I did not think so. Did they not love

Christ?

Well, I thought they did. Were they

hypocrites and Pharisees?

I don't think so. They seem to be

sincere and passionate.

So then what really was wrong?

If I must say it in one line, it is

this.

Theirs was a Christianity without the

cross.

They did not understand the cross at

all. I grew up never knowing the

importance of Calvary because nobody

around me talked about the cross.

When you begin your Christian life

without the gospel, without a

fundamental teaching of the cross,

without understanding why Jesus came and

died for us,

then what you have is no longer

Christianity, but counterfeit

Christianity.

Fake diamonds look real.

They can fool you easily.

There is something genuinely fake called

fake Christianity. It is a fake diamond.

Yes, it looks authentic. It looks

precious. You attend church regularly.

You read the Bible daily. You say your

prayers faithfully. You sing a lot of

hymns. You speak in tongues. You have a

disciplined life. You know your

doctrine. You pay your tithes. And you

seem very moral and godly and holy. Yes.

Yes. It all looks authentic.

And yet that is not Christianity.

My dear friend, have you never read the

New Testament? Both Jesus and Paul

constantly warned about this.

They warned about a religion of good

works and righteousness.

We believe that by being righteous we

please God.

There are many such religious groups

that use the Bible but their

interpretation of the Bible and their

worldview is like a building without a

foundation.

We are fooled by the attractive

structure, the marvelous edifice, not

realizing that something huge is

missing.

The following illustration is really

going to help you.

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Consider a father who loves his

daughter.

Why does he love her? What is the basis

of his love for her?

Is it a conditional love? Does he tell

her? Listen, girl. When you learn to

help mommy with household chores and you

tidy your bed and dust the furniture and

wash the dishes and clean the toilet and

do your homework,

then I will accept you as my daughter

and give you a bed to sleep in my house.

Is this what he tells her? Does it sound

ridiculous to you?

Well, this is a picture of salvation by

good works.

And do you know how many Christians are

going down this road trying to win their

father's heart by their good deeds?

They began their Christian journey on

the wrong road.

And listen,

a wrong road does not lead to the right

destination no matter how much you pray

and fast and believe.

So what is the right way?

The only way is salvation by grace

alone.

Think of the father and daughter again.

Here are some facts for you.

The girl plays no part in her birth.

Her birth is the decision of her

parents. She's not forced upon her

father by an agency. Her birth is her

father's choice, his free will. And he

begins to love her long before she's

born, before she even senses his

presence.

And after she is born, he delights in

her. She may not be pretty, but his eyes

are wide in admiration. She hasn't even

begun to crawl, but look how excited he

is over her. Now, mind you, she's not

easy. She's quite a handful.

After she learns to walk, she becomes

really naughty and demanding and

controlling.

She sleeps whenever she wants and gets

up in the middle of the night and wants

to play. She loves messing up the house.

Yet he patiently cleans after her. He

picks up all the toys and she feels his

care. She senses how much he loves her.

She always needs nappy changing. She

vomits on his best suit. She scratches

and screams and demands that he carry

her. She is stubborn and loud and breaks

things and scribbles on the walls and

cries all night. But what is more

powerful than all these things is his

love for her.

He never complains, never regrets his

choice because his daughter is too

precious to him.

And then as she grows, he begins to

educate her and train her to be

responsible and do good works. Yes, she

does good works, but not to win his

heart, but because he has won her heart.

She loves it. And little by little, she

grows into a beautiful woman of God.

Imagine

how shocked I was when I heard a man of

God preach this. I had an existential

crisis.

I realized that all my life I had

misunderstood God. I had listened to

wrong ideas and teachings and watched

the lives of saints who misrepresented

God. And I had absorbed unsound ideas

and concepts of God from the radical

culture of a Christian religion of works

and self-righteousness.

I had worked hard all my life to get

God's attention, to please him, to win

his heart, not realizing that he was my

father who loved me.

This is called legalistic Christianity.

It was a rewardbased

system.

If you follow the rules, then you are

rewarded with his love.

The more obedient you are, the more you

earn his love.

How different this is from the

illustration of the loving father and

his naughty daughter.

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Does this little girl do anything to win

the father's heart?

Oh, if we can increase or improve God's

love toward us in any way, then do you

know what that means? It means his love

was not complete in the first place.

Then he is not God.

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My dear friends, do you know what the

first message of Christ after his

resurrection was? The first thing that

Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene after his

resurrection was this. Go find my

brothers and tell them, I am ascending

to my father and your father. To my God

and your God.

The first message of the New Testament

was that the father of Jesus was now our

father. The God of the Bible, the father

of our Lord Jesus Christ is just like

the father of this girl.

He loved us dearly long before we were

conceived.

He birthed us of his own will. He

forgave our sins of his own kindness. He

gave us his holy spirit as a free gift.

We did not earn it. We did not qualify

or become worthy of it. There were no

works on our part at all. There is

nothing you earn by working for it by

being good enough for it. You don't have

to go to church or read the Bible. You

do not have to pray or pay your tithes.

You do not have to make any vows or

change your clothes or remove your

makeup or put away your jewelry. You do

not have to stop being worldly or become

a very good person before God can love

you.

No matter how bad you are, he is now

your father, your loving dad.

This is the miracle of reconciliation

that the atonement brings.

You just believe it because the Bible

says so.

God loves you and embraces you. And

there begins your wonderful journey of

joy.

And thereafter your father trains you to

become responsible and mature. And do

you know that there is a sign that shows

you are going the right way?

And that sign is that you begin to do

things not because you have to, but

because you love to.

There are things that are wrong in us

naturally.

And because this father loves you and me

so much, he will lovingly correct us and

we obey him because we love him.

Yes, sometimes it may be hard. We may

struggle. We may fall and this may go on

for a long time but it's okay. We can be

honest with him and tell him how hard it

is. He is very very patient. We don't

have to hide anything from him. We can

openly and honestly share our deepest

and most embarrassing and shameful

secrets with him. And his love never

changes.

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All my life I tried to win God's

affection by being good. But I could

never be good enough.

Church was never a place where I enjoyed

God and learned more about him.

Church was never a place where I could

be excited in the company of people who

love God. Rather, do you know how it was

for me? It was a place where I felt

scared of God. I was always shamed and

guilted because of my failures. And then

I was forced to run to a god. Yet I was

running from him.

I was terrified of him, but I was forced

to praise him for how good he was.

I was constantly trying to earn my

salvation, but I could never feel saved.

How I wish I knew the simple

illustration of the father and his

daughter. Then I would have understood

this simple but powerful truth straight

away that good works will never bring us

to true salvation. But true salvation

will bring us to good works. And this is

what Paul meant by you are saved unto

good works.

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So how wonderful it is to know our

father like this.

Have you ever tried to assemble a jigsaw

puzzle of a thousand pieces

and after hours and hours of hard work,

you discover that one or two pieces are

missing?

>> Oh no.

>> Yes. One piece lies somewhere under a

bed or in a couch.

Yes. In my analogy of the father and the

daughter,

a big piece is missing.

I didn't tell you.

Although he is our loving father and we

are his children.

What you and I and every man, woman,

boy, and girl needs to know is this that

by nature

we are enemies of God even though we are

his children.

We are born that way because of Adam. We

were born in the enemy camp. We did not

land in the wrong camp as innocent

prisoners. No, we were born guilty and

depraved and completely cut off from

God.

And as we grew, our rebellion grew, our

sinfulness grew, our hatred of God grew.

By default, we want to be free from God

and godliness.

We do not want this God. We are stubborn

and self-filled. We do not want anything

or anyone to control us or correct us.

We want to be free and independent and

autonomous. We want to do whatever we

like to do to be in a place where we can

do whatever we feel like live as we

like. We are constantly trying to break

free from God and his sovereignty. We

are longing for a place where total

freedom from God oh is a reality and

good news. There is such a place. We can

be free from God forever and ever in

this place called hell.

But no, there is a father who steps in.

A father who loves us so much that he

would rather die than let us perish.

And so he devised a plan to help us all.

And this plan is the atonement.

The atonement is the missing piece in

the puzzle. The atonement is God's

provision to bridge the gap between an

infinitely holy God and totally wretched

sinners.

That gap between God and us, it hurts

us.

That gap is the reason for most of our

problems.

Our problems are simply a symptom of a

deeper underlying issue and that is we

are far from God.

Many Christians are hurt and troubled

and broken. Many are sick.

Some travel for thousands of miles to go

to some prophet who can lay his hands on

them and heal them.

And what happens

in the end?

The prophets get richer and these

victims simply continue in their abject

problems.

God is grieved with such prophets and

healers.

Listen to what he says through prophet

Jeremiah.

From the least to the greatest, their

lives are ruled by greed. From prophets

to priests, they are all frauds. They

offer superficial treatments for my

people's mortal wound. They give

asurances of peace when there is no

peace.

Now what about the atonement?

Ha,

this story is either totally bypassed or

casually or superficially mentioned.

Gone are the days when the truth about

the cross would be preached.

Now, many preachers preach about

themselves, about how to obtain God's

blessings, about becoming wealthy and

great in this world. Or they turn church

into a place of entertainment. Some

others promote Christianity as a

religion. So they preach about a

controlling God to whom you must submit,

whom you must be terrified of, a God

whose rules you must obey. in crave and

fear and whom you must please if you

want to escape hell.

And what is your greatest hope? To spend

your miserable eternity in a miserable

heaven unto this evercontrolling God.

And here's another thing. The gospel of

the cross has been cunningly twisted by

many progressive preachers. They teach

that the need for a cross makes God

appear to be a cruel cosmic monster.

They argue like this. They say if God is

our father, then why does he need a

blood sacrifice to forgive us? Why can't

he just forgive us like we forgive all

those who wrong us?

And then what do they teach? They say

that the cross was not the original plan

of God, but that it was men who

crucified Jesus.

Can you see what is happening? Satan is

really corrupting and twisting the

truths of the Bible. And that is why we

must return to our Bibles and not books

written by men.

The atonement is the Bible central

message. It is all about how sinners

need to be reconciled to God through the

atoning sacrifice of Jesus. This is the

heart of the gospel. The story of the

father and his daughter. It is your

story. My story history.

Our story begins where we are that girl

as a prodigal daughter. We are born as

God's estranged prodigal children as

rebels.

This is the message right from Genesis.

The son and daughter that is Adam and

Eve rebelled in the garden and lost

their glory and their relationship with

the father. Filled with shame and guilt,

they tried to cover up their nakedness

and their sin. But God removed that

covering of fig leaves and gave them the

skin of an animal that was killed. What

was the message in that act?

You cannot cover your sinfulness with

fig leaves of good works and then come

before God and say hello God. No, a life

has to be sacrificed to give you a true

covering.

So right from the beginning, God was

pointing at the cross and telling us not

to cover up our sins but to come to

Calvary.

Every Old Testament sacrifice points to

the cross.

If we do not understand the cross, then

we are finished. The rest of our

Christianity, no matter how many years

and how established, no matter how

beautiful our denomination, our

churches, our Christianity will be

completely flawed. And that is the main

problem today.

We have left the foundation of the rock

and we are building upon sea sands.

Dear friend, the atonement is not a

university course or philosophy or

history that must be grasped

intellectually.

It is much more than mere doctrine.

The gospel

is the best thing that could ever happen

to you.

And may God give us a clear vision of

the cross as we continue to study

the atonement.

[Music]

Heat

up

here.

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