The dictionary defines “atone”: to reconcile or harmonize.  To conciliate; appease.

  And that is just what Jesus Christ did on the cross.  He has reconciled, harmonized and appeased God’s requirement for the payment of sin.  My sins and yours.
  The atoning work of Christ can never be overestimated in its importance.  It can never be put aside as unimportant.
  What about the word “atonement”?  Again the dictionary defines it as:
The redemptive life and death of Christ.  The reconciliation of God and man thus brought about by Christ. 

  Without the atonement of Christ, we are forever sinners before the holy God of the Bible.

(NASB) 1 Peter 2:24 “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”

  Only through the Lord Jesus Christ can anyone know the true freedom which God promised in Genesis 3:15.  At that very instant of the first sin, God promised Messiah to save all who believe in Him from their sin.
  Only through the Lord Jesus Christ can anyone live a righteous life before God.

(NASB) 1 Peter 2:25 “For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”

  Note the key word: “returned” to the One Who alone can be your true Shepherd and the Guardian of your souls…the ‘real’ you.  God calls us to ‘return’ to Him.

  There is no one who has power to forgive sin…only through faith in Jesus Christ…it is His atonement which has effected this all important work.    

  Christ Jesus has atoned for your sins…He alone has reconciled, harmonized and appeased God’s requirement for the payment of your sin.  Have you received Jesus’ atonement?  Do you know someone who needs it?