The Need for an Atonement
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many people today assume that we're generally good by nature—but this is a deadly mistake. Today, R.C. Sproul emphasizes our need as sinners for the atonement that Jesus accomplished on the cross.
Request a 4-resource bundle with your donation: R.C. Sproul's book Holy Week, his book The Truth of the Cross, digital access to The Truth of the Cross teaching series, and the digital study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/
Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Get the ebook editions, digital teaching series, and digital study guide with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global
Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we get to today's episode, I want to invite you to Ligonier's |
| 0:05.2 | 2026 National Conference, happening on April 9th through 11th. |
| 0:10.0 | Gather with thousands in Orlando, Florida to hear gifted Bible teachers address fundamental questions facing Christians today. |
| 0:17.1 | Questions about God, our identity, and life in an increasingly hostile society. |
| 0:22.9 | Go to ligeneer.org slash 2026 to register and learn more. |
| 0:30.1 | If there's anything that's been lost from our culture, |
| 0:34.3 | it is the idea that human beings are privately, personally, and individually, |
| 0:41.6 | ultimately, inexorably accountable to God for their lives. |
| 1:00.8 | Growing up in a non-Christian family, in a largely secular country, Australia, I had no cultural or shared societal knowledge that I was accountable to my creator, that I was |
| 1:06.9 | estranged from him, and that delusion that we're all okay, and if there is a heaven, |
| 1:12.2 | we'll all go there when we die, is even more prevalent today. |
| 1:17.1 | This is renewing your mind, and it's good to have you with us for a week of messages on the |
| 1:22.2 | cross of Christ. It's especially important, in light of the widespread biblical illiteracy that our gospel presentations |
| 1:30.3 | explain the need for an atonement and what Christ has marvelously and graciously accomplished on the cross. |
| 1:38.3 | This week's series, along with R.C. Sproles' book, The Truth of the Cross, will help you understand and defend |
| 1:45.2 | the riches of the cross. You can learn how you can access both resources, plus a copy of |
| 1:50.8 | his book, Holy Week, at renewingyourmind.org. So why was the atonement necessary? Why was Christ's |
| 1:58.5 | death more than a good example of self-sacrifice? |
| 2:01.6 | Here's Dr. Spurall to explain. |
| 2:04.6 | We're going to be focusing our attention on the atonement of Christ. |
| 2:12.6 | In the field of systematic theology, we divide that discipline into various subheadings, such as theology |
| 2:20.8 | proper, pneumatology, which is the study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit and so on. |
... |
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