NO BIBLE NO BREAKFAST DAILY BIBLE REFLECTIONS AND MORE

REFLECTION

The theme for our reflection is “Atonement: our sins lifted and carried off.” The High Priest, the chief religious functionary in the Temple of Jerusalem, whose unique privilege was to enter the Holy of Holies (inner sanctum) once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood to expiate his own sins and those of the people of Israel. To atone is to suffer the penalty for sins, thereby removing the effects of sin from the repentant sinner and allowing him or her to be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ was the only one capable of carrying out the Atonement for all mankind.

It is important to note that in the Old Testament concept of Atonement, the priest himself was deemed to be impure until he had gone through the process of purification before he could make an Atonement on behalf of the people and on his own behalf. (Leviticus 16:3-6). How can a man who is deemed to be impure make atonement for an equally impure people? The High priest and the animals used for the atonement were also deemed to be impure until they were consecrated for the atonement purpose. All these rituals did not transform the people, they kept on sinning and will return every year for the Day of Atonement. It is for this reason God offered His only Son to play two important roles in the final and everlasting Atonement which was an Atonement of true repentance, faith, grace and total salvation. 

The first role Jesus played in the everlasting Atonement is that He represented the animal used for Atonement by being the scapegoat. The scapegoat in Leviticus 16:22-23 was offered yearly as an atoning sacrifice to lift and carry off the sins of the people but Jesus the scapegoat was offered once and for all, anyone who believes in Him, repents and is baptized is saved by grace through faith. We are being invited to embrace Jesus our Saviour who is the scapegoat that bore the sins of humanity on the cross, died, resurrected, ascended to Heaven and will come back to judge and save His faithful servants. John the Baptist rightly said of Jesus “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29). The Sacrifice of the lamb of God which atoned for our sins was done on the Cross through Jesus Christ. It is for this reason “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30).  In Mark’s account, it was written “And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mark 15:37-38). The veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom, indicating that Christ’s body has been broken for us so that man can now have free access to God through salvation in Christ.  We are no longer required to slaughter any animal or make lift and carry our sins into the wilderness for atonement, Jesus’ sacrifice is eternal and completes the requirement of atonement “it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-47). Again Hebrews 9:11-12 reminds us that “… when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” Beloved in the Lord, Jesus’ Atonement as our sacrificial lamb is efficacious in that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:9-10).  

Secondly, Jesus was not only the sacrificial lamp but He is indeed our perfect High Priest who intercedes on our behalf during the atonement offering.  “No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he(the High Priest) enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel.” (Leviticus 16:17-19). In other words, unlike Aaron and other High priests before Jesus, Jesus had no sin therefore He does not intercede on His own behalf, He only intercedes on our behalf. “… every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”  then he adds,  “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”  Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:11-18) Jesus is at the same time the sacrifice of Atonement and the High Priests who make the Atonement, in Him we have our full salvation but remember that “just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)

In summary, we have reflected on the theme, “Atonement: our sins lifted and carried off” We have discovered that in the New Covenant Jesus represents both the atoning sacrifice and the High Priest who intercedes on our behalf. Shalom.

PRAYER 

“Therefore, brothers (and sisters), since we have the confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Amen (Hebrews 10:19-23)