When we sin, how do we put matters right? This question keeps coming to the forefront even in politics and popular culture.

The former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, faced that question this week after his personal sins became public knowledge. On Monday, the New York Times quoted Spitzer as saying that he had spent the last several days with his family, “atoning for his personal failings.”

Consider also Atonement, Ian McEwan’s 2001 quintessential postmodern novel (which, in its film version, was nominated for this year’s Academy Award for best picture). The story opens with the main character, Briony, as a 13-year-old. With her mind wrapped up in the fantasies of her fictional stories, she destroys a young man’s life by falsely accusing him of a crime. The novel closes with Briony at 77, Alzheimer’s on the horizon, writing alternative realities as she still tries – unsuccessfully – to atone for that sin. She writes,

How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.

For Briony – and, apparently, McEwan – atonement is necessary but impossible. Those sinned against are dead. Yet the sin is there. The guilt exists. The heavy burden presses down, and won’t go away.

In Spitzer’s case, his victims live. But how can atonement take place? What could he possibly do over several days, or even over his entire life, that would pay the price of those sins?

What about in your own life? What sins have you committed that, no matter what you do, you can never pay for? What burdens do you carry that, on your own, you will never put down? Can you find atonement – even for serious sins that cannot be repaid?

The answer is yes. But the first step towards that answer is to recognize the seriousness of sin. That is, to acknowledge that sin is more serious than taking a few dollars, or a few thousand dollars, or a few tens of thousands of dollars – for theft can always be repaid. Briony sees this correctly: Left to our own devices, atonement is an impossible task (Micah 7:9).

The second step is seeing and acknowledging what Briony never does: that there is a God, a Judge, the Moral Authority of the universe, and that every sin is ultimately and fundamentally against Him (Psalm 51:4). And what could we ever pay Him, ever give to Him, to compensate Him for our sin?

The third step is seeing that God Himself has provided the means of atonement. God prefigures this truth time and again in the Old Testament: Through the ram substituting for Isaac (Genesis 22), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, Leviticus 16), and the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53), and in many other passages, God paints the picture of a substitute on whom sin will be laid, who through death will pay the penalty for sin on our behalf. In God’s perfect timing, Jesus Himself comes to this world, lives the perfect life, and offers Himself on the cross “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23) for the sins of all who would believe in Him. And by raising Him from the dead, God showed that the penalty paid was sufficient (Romans 4:24).

The fourth and final step is not only believing in the facts of Jesus’ life and death, but responding in faith. How great of a Savior is this Jesus! How marvelous the joy of knowing Him! How wise is He! What better Master and Lord could there be! What greater treasure could we ever receive?

To those who receive Him as Savior, Lord, and Treasure, to those who believe in Him, He graciously gives the “right to become children of God” (John 1:12) – children of the One in whom there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) – accepted by God, loved by Him, the burden removed, reconciliation received, atonement complete.

As Eliot Spitzer and Ian McEwan show, time and again we see our desperate need for atonement. But know that you will never atone for sin on your own. God is the primary aggrieved party in every sin, and only He can provide the payment of the penalty. And He has chosen to provide His perfect Son as your atonement and as your delight – if you believe. As we, in these next ten days, remember and celebrate the last week of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection , may we all turn to Him in humble faith. May we receive the atonement of the sacrificial Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world.

Praying that we all might trust in Christ alone for atonement.