There are many people who believe atonement requires that they beg God for forgiveness of sins or that they must experience some form of punishment. To atone really means “to reconcile; restore to harmony.” We are not punished for making mistakes, but experience the results of our mistakes. Mathematics does not punish us for making an error in some calculation. However, if we do make an error we experience the results of that mistake as long as we allow it to stand uncorrected. Once we reconcile the figures, the mistake is corrected and the results of the error cease to affect any future calculation. In the process of fixing the mistake, we do not have to beg or make any promises to the principles of mathematics in order for the error to cease to affect us. We only have to change our minds. In the condensed version of Jesus’ main message found in Mark 1:15 we are told, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”

The Correspondence Course Annotations clearly illuminate this portion of the Statement of Faith.

The original meaning of the verb “atone” in English was “to make at one” by reconciling differences between those who had been at variance. God is the principle of good, good in its perfectness. Men in their primitive state of knowing have felt themselves separated from goodness and peace by looking upon God as a “holy Being” and feeling their iniquity (inequality) in not being able to measure up to His standard of holiness. Jesus of Nazareth taught at-one-ment. ... God and man as one is the all important truth taught in these lessons. Jesus, the man, taught the relationship of God and man as father and son. He showed men their likeness to God ... encouraged them to claim and prove this oneness as He had done ... instructed them how to put away all their limited beliefs in sin and lack by denials and release the God nature through claiming their divinity, their oneness. Jesus did not make the atonement for them. He showed them how to re-establish the ideal in which they were created and through this agreement to work out their own salvation.
—Series 2, lesson 4, Annotation 12.

How important is the simple statement, “we can regain our estate as Sons of God!” It does not say that we will once again become sons of God because we never cease to be God’s children. We are like the prince who was raised by paupers who finally realized who he was and claimed his inheritance as a royal child. Once we catch a glimmer of the Spirit within ourselves, we no longer accept the information gained through the senses as the Reality of our existence. Neither do we attempt to manipulate things in the world. We recognize them for what they are, effects which are the result of an invisible cause which is found in the formative power of thought linked with feeling. None of us can inhibit or destroy the divine plan because we are not the allness of God. But we do form and shape our own life experiences by the state of our consciousness.

We have been taught by the church that Jesus died for us—as an atonement for our sins. By human sense this process has been materialized into a flesh-and-blood process, in which the death of the bodv on the cross played the important part.... Jesus of Nazareth played an important part in opening the way for every one of us into the Father’s kingdom. However, that way was not through I lis death on the cross, but through I lis overcoming death.
—Charles Fillmore, Talks on Truth, 164.

Are you trying just from yourself to be free from the traditions of the outer world, or are you resting in the understanding and assurance that you are a son of God?
—Charles Fillmore, Christian Healing, 116.

Realisation means at-one-ment, completion, perfection, wholeness, repose, resting in God.... as man lays hold of the indwelling Christ he is raised out of the Adam or dark consciousness into the Christ consciousness. This at-one-ment with God brings a lasting]oy that cannot be taken away.
—Charles Fillmore, Jesus Christ Heals, 40.

We say to our feet, our hands, and every part of our body, ‘You are now one with God; you are perfect in His sight. ” We do not think and speak of ourselves alone; we think and speak God’s thoughts after Him, which rush through our mind like a mighty wind. Then tongues of fire come upon us, because we are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Neither do we have possessions of our own nor cares nor troubles about our life or our families; we leave all these things to God - we are absolutely without responsibility when we have fully denied ourselves and followed the Christ.
—Charles Fillmore, Keep A True Lent, 53.