Bible Lesson: Substitutionary Atonement

Bible Lesson: Substitutionary Atonement.

When we as Christians speak of vicarious atonement, we are referring to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

II Corinthians 5:21 KJV
For He (God the Father) hath made Him (Christ His Son) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

II Corinthians 5:21 NLT
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

I Peter 2:21-24 KJV
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:
23 Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

John 1:29 KJV
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.


Simply put, Christ, took our place in judgment.
We, sinners, deserved judgment and death (separation from God).

Romans 3:23 KJV
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Ezekiel 18:20 KJV
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die..."

Romans 6:23 KJV
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.


Substitution: The substituting of one person or thing for another. (New World Dictionary of American English)

Romans 3:23-25; 27,28 NLT
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins.
25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood...
27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.
28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

Galatians 1:3-5 KJV
3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
5 To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 3:13 KJV
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Hebrews 9:28 KJV
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.


God's love to mankind:
(Who is this suffering Messiah?) It is the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only Son.

Isaiah 53:1-12 NLT
1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed His powerful arm?
2 My Servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.
3 He was despised and rejected— a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins!
5 But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter. And as a Sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open His mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned, He was led away. No one cared that He died without descendants, that His life was cut short in midstream. But He was struck down for the rebellion of My people.
9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But He was buried like a criminal; He was put in a rich man’s grave.
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in His hands.
11 When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied. And because of His experience, My righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins.
12 I will give Him the honors of a victorious soldier, because He exposed Himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

John 3:16-18 KJV
16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

I John 3:16,KJV
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

I John 4:9-11 KJV
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.


The Lord Jesus Christ is called “The Redeemer.”

Redeem: To buy back. To get back; recover as by paying a fee. To set free by paying a ransom.

Ransom: The redeeming or release of a captive...by paying money or complying with other demands.
The price thus paid or demand. (New World Dictionary of American English.)

Matthew 20:28 KJV
Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45 KJV
For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.

I Timothy 2:3-6 KJV
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
6 Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

I Corinthians 5:7 KJV
"...For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us..."

Ephesians 1:1,2 KJV
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.


Christ our High Priest, Saviour, Mediator.

Hebrews 9:11-28 KJV
11 But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15 And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
25 Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the High Priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
26 For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

I Peter 1:18,19 KJV
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot:

Galatians 4:4-7 KJV
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Philippians 2:5-11 KJV
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Romans 5:19 KJV
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Romans 10:4 NLT
For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in Him are made right with God.


Reconcile (Reconciliation): To make friendly again or win over to a friendly attitude. To make compatible, bring into harmony. (New World Dictionary of American English.)

Romans 4:25 KJV
He was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised to life to make us right with God.

Romans 5:6-9 KJV
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

II Corinthians 5:17-19 KJV
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Ephesians 2:14-18 NLT
14 For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.
15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups.
16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from Him, and peace to the Jews who were near.
18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

I Peter 3:18 KJV
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:


Christians declared to be righteous, by the finished work of Christ.

Romans 3:23-26 NLT
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins.
25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood...
26...God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

Romans 5:8 KJV
Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Isaiah 47:4 KJV
As for our redeemer, the LORD of Hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel.

Revelation 7:9-12 KJV
9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.