The God of Second Chances: The Day of Atonement

picture rights: © 2013 Piper Green

 

On that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. Lev. 16:30

So Christ also having been once offered to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him unto salvation. Heb. 9:28

I love the Jewish feasts, Jesus celebrated the feasts, and each one is a beautiful illustration of the person of Jesus Christ. The feasts are not just Jewish holidays; Leviticus refers to them as God’s appointed days. For Christians, Jesus fulfilled the feasts for us. Now we can celebrate them with our focus on the atonement of Christ. But it does not end there; every event in Jesus’ life, beginning with His birth, through His ministry, and with His death and resurrection—all occurred on a festival of Israel—God’s appointed time. Many scholars argue that events yet to be fulfilled will coincide with the feasts of Israel. 

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies to offer a sacrifice on behalf of the sins of Israel. Jesus Christ is our High Priest and was the perfect sacrifice for our sin, illustrated in the liturgy of the Day of Atonement; the first offering was a sin-offering and a burnt-offering for Aaron and his house. Then two goats for a sin offering and a ram for the burnt-offering for the congregation.

On the Day of Atonement, there were certain requirements of the high priest and the people. First, it was a day of humiliation for the priest. The priest was required to put off all his priestly garments of glory. Jesus, the King of Glory, laid aside the garments of His glory and left them with the Father; from the foundation of the world; to redeem the world. Jesus’ humiliation on that day cries to us still through His Passion in the Scriptures.

On the Day of Atonement, two goats were brought; their fate decided by the priest’s lots. The Lord’s lot would determine which goat would die for the sins of the nation. The other— the scapegoat. Aaron the high priest would lay his hand upon the scapegoat and send it into exile in the wilderness or Azazel; representing the people’s sin lost in the wilderness—to be remembered no longer. The act of killing the goat, laid the judgment of death upon it—it represented the people’s sin.

The casting of the lots to determine the scapegoat is displayed on the world’s stage between two men; Jesus and Barabbas. Their fate lies in the judgment of the people—who will die and who will escape…the scapegoat. The people’s voice was heard that day in Pilate’s court—choosing a brutal murder to escape forever—laying the sin of the people on Jesus. Jesus would be the sacrifice the Lord’s lot fell upon that day—fulfilling the atonement offering.

Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. John 11:50 ESV

The word atonement is used in the book of Leviticus forty-eight times, and it means covering. The blood offering was sprinkled on the mercy seat once and before it seven times. The high priest placed incense of the altar before the mercy seat and a sweet cloud covered the mercy seat. The blood and the cloud of incense covered the mercy seat and this illustrated the work and worth of our precious Lord Jesus Christ—His blood causes the believer to be drawn near to Him.

This beautiful prose is part of the liturgy for Yom Kippur; a precious prayer of repentance:

We have become guilty, we have betrayed, we have robbed, we have spoken slander. We have caused perversion, we have caused wickedness, we have sinned willfully, we have extorted, we have accused falsely. We have given evil counsel, we have been deceitful, we have scorned, we have rebelled, we have provoked, we have turned away, we have been perverse, we have acted wantonly, we have persecuted, we have been obstinate. We have been wicked, we have corrupted, we have been abominable, we have strayed, you have let us go astray (Artscroll, 777).

The story of Jonah is recited on this night of atonement, revealing the God of second chances. Jesus fulfilled the sin offering for us, and absorbed God’s wrath.

I pray this inspires Christians to meditate on this Day of Atonement, of Christ and His sacrifice for and instead of each one of us.

May God bless you on this, the Day of Atonement—He is the God of second chances…

May you be inscribed in the book of life...

Shalom,
Piper

Piper's Pen and Prose: For Contemplatives

Picture Copyright

© 2013 Piper Green

 The Message Of Hope the contemplative offers you, then, brother, is not that you need to find your way through the jungle of language problems that today surround God: but that whether you understand it or not, God loves you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you ever found in books or heard in sermons. The contemplative has nothing to tell you except to reassure you and say that if you dare to penetrate your own silence and risk the sharing of that solitude with the lonely other who seeks God through you, then you will truly recover the light and the capacity to understand what is beyond words and beyond explanations because it is too close to be explained: it is the intimate union in the depths of your own heart, of God’s spirit and your own secret inmost self, so that you and He are in all truth One Spirit. I love you in Christ. 

Thomas Merton from “Message of Contemplatives to the World.”

Taste And See That The Lord Is Good

God is good. His goodness is all around us and woven through every part of our life. The first time we see the goodness of God is in His good creation;

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.Genesis 1: 3-4 NASB

 

God is summum bonum, the highest good.

“All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good: as it is written, ‘And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold it was very good.’ (Gen. 1:31). Thus, the ‘goodness’ of God is seen first in creation. The more closely the creature is studied, the more the beneficence of its Creator becomes apparent” (Arthur Pink, 1975, 58.)

We must begin with this understanding, that God is good, in this dark world, with its evil, poverty, disease, rumors of war…He is the Light of the World, and He causes darkness to flee. 

It is hard for us to understand this from our perspective, because we seem to have darkness before us whichever way we turn. There are few constants in this life, one of them is evil. Jesus promised that we would suffer trials, and they will remain in the earth until Christ once again kisses the earth with His glorious coming. In the Old Testament, specifically in the prophetic books, the prophets bring warning of coming destruction and punishment for Israel, should they not turn from their idolatrous ways and run back into the arms of their loving Father. But always riding the coat-tails of impending doom, comes the promise of redemption—another constant. Always. The trouble may not go away, but God promises to be with us through it, and when we come out the other side. The goodness of God brings hope and healing in the midst of our circumstances, and keeps us from falling into despair, if we but dare to trust Him:

I would have fainted, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13 NASB

 

“The goodness of God appeared most illustriously when he sent forth His Son ‘made of woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons’ (Gal. 4:4-5).” (Pink, 59).

The goodness of God desires your healing. The goodness of God desires to deliver you.

Prophecy: 

Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way (Ps. 25:8)

For thou Lord, art good, and ready to forgive (Ps. 86:5)

The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works (Ps. 145:9)

For the Lord is good;His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations (Ps. 100:5)

Fulfillment:

I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.Jn. 10:11 NASB

Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me? Jn. 10:32 NASB

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38 NASB

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Rom. 2:4 KJV

For the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Eph. 5:9 NASB

To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power. 2 Thess. 1:11 NASB

If you are hurting, suffering a trial, or just feel hopeless or despair, look for the goodness of God in the land of living…even if the land you’re in feels desolate—God is there too, He is the God who sees you, just as He saw Hagar wandering, running away from an abusive situation:

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”Gen. 16:13 NASB

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Ps. 34:8 NASB

The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him. Nah. 1:7 NASB

In His Grace,

Enjoy this beautiful prayer that I cannot stop listening to...

 

The Wonders of God's Word: The Blood of Jesus Cries Out

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away {Isaiah 64:6 NASB}

I am unclean. It doesn’t matter how many good works I perform; how many times I go to church in a given week; how big my offering is. I am unclean. The only way that God can look at me and not see unrighteousness, is through His Son Jesus Christ, and the Blood that He shed. For that to be possible, Jesus had to be a sacrifice that was without sin—without spot or blemish. 

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption {1 Cor. 1:30 NASB}.

Righteousness comes from a root word that represents “rightness” or being right in all things. The Ancient of Days spoke of the righteousness of His Son, and Jesus fulfilled all that was spoken of Him. 

Prophecy:

As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities {Is. 53:11 NASB}.

Fulfillment:

But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness above Your companions {Heb.1:8-9 NASB}.

Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus {Rom.3:25-26 NASB}.

If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him {1 Jn 2:29 NASB}.

It is through faith in Jesus Christ that we are made righteous. It has nothing to with us or anything we have done. It is all about the person of Christ and the rightness of His life, that we can stand righteous before God. 

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous {I Jn 3:7 NASB}. 

When we sin we need to repent and go and sin no more {Jn. 8:11}. Then we can apply the Blood of Christ and are righteous in His eyes. Do you know that just as Abel’s blood cried out to God for justice, Christ’s blood also cries out to the Father for you? 

And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel {Hebrews 12:24 NASB}.

Though the blood of Abel cried out for justice, Christ’s blood proclaims justice; that the wrath of God has been satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death {Rev. 12:11}.

To read all the posts in this series: The Wonders of God's Word