Atonement, Forgiveness, And Us

Leviticus 16:29-31 states: "This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or an alien living among you-because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance." The Day of Atonement was a Sabbath of rest, but it wasn’t just any Sabbath. It was the Sabbath of Sabbaths. It is a shadow of the move that would occur from religion to Christianity through Jesus. Religion is what you can do for God, Christianity is about what God has done for you. Because of what God has done for us through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we are cleansed. He is our day of atonement...perpetually. Our sins are forgiven, not because of anything we have done, but because the sacrifice has been made and the scapegoat has carried our sins into the wilderness, never to be remembered again!

And don't miss the last part of those verses. The day of atonement was a day of rest, and not only for the need to atone for our own sins. Now we have the ability to deny ourselves. When our own natural desires are pushing us to be fulfilled illegitimately (which is the root source of sin), we are not longer dependent upon our resources to control them (we can't do it anyway). We can now put our efforts to rest...we have His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). His righteousness, His atonement, now empowers us!

Verse 34 concludes: "This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites." And it was done, as the LORD commanded Moses." Because of this one day a year, their sins were atoned (amends have been made) for the entire year. That is a great deal. But Jesus took it so much further. He was sacrificed once and for all, for all sin, for all of us, for all time. Our sins have been made right, they have been forgiven, and they have been released into the desert of God's grace. Now that's good news! That's the Gospel!