Atonement= ‘at one with God’ THROUGH the sin atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
There are many in Christendom who embrace what is known as ‘universal atonement’; believing that Christ shed His blood for everyone and now it is only a choice (free will) left up to the individual as to the efficacy of the blood atonement.
However the whole of Scripture teaches us that those whose sins Christ atoned for on the bloody cross HAVE BEEN (past tense) reconciled fully to God and that God Himself has accomplished this reconciliation through Christ Jesus. We cannot reconcile ourselves to God by choosing to be reconciled, just as we can’t be saved by choosing to be saved. If universal atonement is in fact a truth (which we know it is not) then there also HAS to be universal reconciliation, universal faith and universal salvation.
(2 Corinthians 5:18) “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
(Romans 5:10) “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.”
(Ephesians 2:16) “And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.”
(Colossians 1:20-22) “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.”
We know of this reconciliation in our own individual experience (regenerated mind) when the Spirit reveals to us the blessed truth of the Gospel and by faith we see and rejoice in all the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. That is when we know that God has peace with us as He looks to the blood atonement and we know that NOW we can have peace with Him. Atonement and reconciliation decreed from eternity, accomplished in time at the cross, applied to and embraced by only those for whom it was intended. “It is finished” He cried and it was.
Grace and Peace!