“We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” – Romans 5:11

The doctrine of the atonement is very simple. Christ is treated as if He were the sinner, and the sinner is treated as if He were the righteous one.

It is a change of persons — Christ becomes the sinner; He stands in the sinner’s place; He was numbered with the transgressors; the sinner becomes righteous; He stands in Christ’s place, and is numbered with the righteous ones.

Christ has no sin of his own, but He takes human guilt, and is punished for human folly. We have no righteousness of our own but we take the divine righteousness; we are rewarded for it, and stand accepted before God as though that righteousness had been earned by ourselves.

“In due time Christ died for the ungodly,” (Romans 5:6) that He might take away their sins.

- Charles Spurgeon