The word Atonement is one of our most important words in the English language. And it is a sacred expression. There is no such thing as an atonement as an independent entity. The Atonement, as we use it, refers to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which was His sacrifice in order to permit eternal life and immortality to become a reality. [MUSIC PLAYING]

We recall that God made the statement that His work and His glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Both of those objectives were enabled by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, there would be no immortality, no resurrection, and no possibility of eternal life. So whenever we speak of the Atonement, let's speak of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Or if it isn't spoken, it's clearly inferred that we're talking about the power that God gave through His Son, Jesus Christ, to lift us from our sins and to give us immortality and eternal life. So I feel very sincerely about making sure that we understand what we're really talking about when we mean the Atonement. It's the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I get insights about the word Atonement as I read the Bible in the Greek language, the New Testament in the Greek language. The word from which Atonement was translated is katalage. Kata in the Greek language means "downward direction," like in catastrophe or catabolism. Lage means "a counting down." Now, you might ask, "Why can't I atone for my own sins?" Well, in a way you can. If you put a baseball through your neighbor's plate-glass front window, you can atone totally. You can get him a new window, a new paint job, and you can make it look brand-new. But there are some sins for which we cannot make total atonement, or we can't make totally right. For example, if one takes an innocent life or robs another person of their virtue, there's no way you can restore all that. So you do all that you can do. And then the balance due, the counting down, is made up to you through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He came to pay a debt that He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay. Katalage. [MUSIC PLAYING]