The Bible’s first chapter , Genesis 1, comprehensively details God’s all-good spiritual creation and man created in God’s image and likeness. But Genesis 2 and 3 propose its opposite—man shaped from dust and disposed to sin. Based on this narrative, humanity is widely designated a race of sinners separated from God. A materially based concept of atonement springs from this assumption. 

Texts about atoning for sin and finding reconciliation with God fill Hebrew Scripture. A psalmist writes, for instance, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalms 51:10). And the prophet Isaiah pleads, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). Sacrificial ceremonies were instituted to show repentance and seek forgiveness for sin.

With the advent of Christ Jesus, however, man’s sinless nature becomes clear—and atonement, rather than assuming sinfulness and ritualizing material sacrifices, celebrates oneness with God, good. Even when people identify themselves and others as wrongdoers, God’s mercy and love are preeminently shown in sending His Son, in Jesus’ supreme sacrifice on the cross, and in his resurrection and ascension out of all mortality.