Notes from Saturday

Atonement

Session Three: Jesus Our Savior

We Have A Debt To Pay

We are sinners. The word sin basically means, “to miss the mark.” We are constantly missing the mark; we cannot meet the standard, which is God. God says in Leviticus 11:44, “Be holy, for I am holy.” This is the mark we missed, and so are separated from God.

1. Dead

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind…” Ephesians 2:1-3.

2. Irreversible

We are, by our very nature, sinful. Paul explains this in Romans 5— we are born to sin. Through the disobedience of our first parents (Genesis 3) we inherit a will that is bent on sin. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned,” Romans 5:12.

3. Inescapable

And we cannot escape this sinful nature, we cannot correct it. Paul goes on to explain this when he says even when we desire to do what is right, we fail. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me,” Romans 7:18-20.

The penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23), each sin, every sin. With each sin we perpetrate an injustice against God, and we have no ability to pay the penalty except with death. So like Paul in Romans 7:24, we can say “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

The Day of Atonement

We are condemned to die. God is holy and He told the people of Israel, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

1. God’s Dwelling Place

This they could not do, so God set up a system that would allow Him to dwell among them (Ex 29:45). To accomplish this, God set up a dwelling place (Hebrews 9:1-5) and a system of Law to show the people their sin and a sacrificial system whereby people would sacrifice a perfect, unblemished animal to pay the penalty of death for their sins.

God’s holy dwelling place was called the tabernacle or the tent of meeting. To read about the design more fully check out Exodus, chapters 25-28. There is a courtyard, inside of that was the “tent” which actually had two rooms. The first was called the holy place, where members of the priesthood were burning incense and offering sacrifices each day. The second room, within the first but behind a veil, called the “Most Holy place.” This is where the presence of the Lord was, and no one could enter (Lev 10:1-2, 16:1-2).

2. Kepher

In Hebrew the word translated as “atonement” is kepher. It generally means “cover over” and “pacify” and “propitiation.” God set aside one day specifically for the purpose of atonement. It was the only day of the year when any one could access the presence of the Lord, and then it was only the High Priest (Lev 16).

For God’s people, this was a day of mourning, a day of remembering their crimes against God. Leviticus 16:29-31 instructed them thus-“You shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, that you may humble your souls…”

On this day the high priest would first sacrifice a bull as a sin offering for himself and his family, so that he would be able to be God’s agent for the people. He would then cleanse himself with water and put on the holy garments (see Ex 28). All the people of Israel would be gathered around the tabernacle, the men in the courtyard. There would be two goats taken from the people- two animals perfect and unblemished. Lots would be cast and one goat would be sacrificed for the sins of the people, its blood sprinkled on the “mercy seat,” which represented God’s throne, in the Most Holy Place. God required this blood offering, instructing the high priest to “make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities,” Leviticus 16:16.

The other goat would be the “scapegoat.” When, through the blood of sacrifice, atonement was made, the high priest was to offer the live goat. He would put his hands on the goat and confess all of the sins of Israel, “and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness…The goat shall bear on itself all of their iniquities to a solitary land” Leviticus 16:21.

3. But Sin Remains

And yet, for all of this, the people did not have access to the presence of God. The author of Hebrews puts it best, explaining the deficiency of this to propitiate the sins of the people. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” Hebrews 10:1-4.

Once and For All

Jesus’ work so fully satisfied God. There is no more need for the Old Testament system. Through His sinless life, His death and His resurrection He became our perfect sacrifice, our eternal scapegoat and our permanent high priest.

1. Jesus our Sacrifice

Jesus died for our sins. Isaiah 53:3 says “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. Jesus was, like the sacrifices of the Old Testament, perfect, unblemished, without the stain of sin.” See also Hebrews 5:9.

Jesus is our perfect sacrifice because he truly freed us from the penalty of our sins, bearing our suffering and the death we deserved in our place. Romans 8:1-3. We have been justified by Jesus’ death; His blood has cleansed us and will cleanse us, bringing us into relationship with God, Romans 5:8-10.

He was more perfect because He is infinite; therefore the death He died only needed to occur once to cover all sins of all people, Hebrews 9:22-26. A once and for all sacrifice required not a finite being but an eternal one. Jesus’ life was the only payment an infinite God could accept for full atonement, Hebrews 10:10-12.

2. Jesus our Scapegoat

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, Jesus bore all of our sins upon Himself.

Jesus’ lived to take away our sins (1 John 3:5) and when He died He bore the weight of every sin (1 Peter 2:22-24). As it says in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus is our scapegoat, bearing our sins and then rising from the dead, defeating sin, and our sins are atoned for. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men,” Romans 5:18

Therefore, Jesus was both our unblemished sacrifice and eternal scapegoat and because of this we now have right standing before the Lord (Romans 3:21-26). Jesus died to vindicate the righteousness of God. Because God is perfectly satisfied with Jesus as our sacrifice and scapegoat, we now have this justification.

3. Jesus our High Priest.

God, being perfectly satisfied with the work of His Son, is also perfectly satisfied with those who put their trust in Him. In this way, Jesus is our High Priest, representing us (the people) before the Lord (1Timothy 2:5). And Jesus has surpassed the office of high priest, as the author of Hebrews tells us in 4:15-16, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The point is that we have a High Priest. Jesus. He is our mediator, our confessor, our intercessor (Hebrews 7:23-8:2). And Jesus as our high priest offered up for us the most perfect offering, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified,” Hebrews 10:14.

In light of what we have gained, undeservedly and at terrible price, look at Hebrews 10:19-22. “Therefore, brothers, since we have 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.”