Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Christ, Part 8.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We've been talking about the person of Christ, and today we want to turn to a new section on the work of Christ.

The operative question in the person of Christ is who is Christ?

The operative question with respect to the work of Christ is what did he do?

And the work of Christ has traditionally been analyzed by Protestant theologians

in terms of the three offices held by Christ, namely prophet, priest, and king. And we want to look

especially at Christ's work with respect to his priestly office.

And this is called the doctrine of the atonement.

Now, the word atonement is unique among theological terms in that it does not derive from Latin or Greek, but rather derives from a middle English

expression at onement, indicating a state of harmony or union. The closest New Testament word for atonement in this sense is the term

catalogue, which means reconciliation, specifically the reconciliation of God and man.

Reconciliation is the overarching theme of the New Testament,

and other important New Testament motifs, such as the kingdom of God or justification, or

salvation or redemption, are subservient to this overarching theme of reconciliation with God.

So, atonement in this sense, is at the very center of the Christian faith.

But I need to alert you to a narrower sense of the word atonement, which is expressed

by the biblical words that are usually translated by the English word atonement or to atone.

In the Old Testament, the word atonement and its cognates translate forms of the

Hebrew having the root K-P-R. That's the Hebrew root that then is differently inflected.

The best known of these expressions is doubtless, Yom Kippur, the Jewish Holy Day, or Day of Atonement,

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