~ Jesus Christ and The Feast of Atonement
~
Background ~
“Search the
Scriptures—they testify of Me” — Jesus Christ (John 5:39).
“And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, Jesus explained to
them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). “Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or
regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the
substance is of Christ. Let no one
cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of
angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast
to the Head, from whom all the body [the
true Church of Jesus Christ], nourished and knit together by joints and
ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God” (Colossians
2:16-19).
The Scripture ~ … “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Also the
tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you
shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of
Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord
your God. For any person who is
not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same
day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your
dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath
of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month
at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath’” (Leviticus
23:26-32). …
note: Additional Scripture for
your review is found in Numbers 29:7-11.
The Messiah ~ This
speaks of the cleansing work of Jesus Christ—The Messiah which was accomplished
on the Cross of Calvary. The word
atonement has a root meaning of covering (i.e., the covering of sin). Under the Old Covenant God did not remove
sins but rather He covered them! It was
not until God sent His Only Son to be His perfect Lamb that sins could be
forgiven and removed. Consider for
example: “In the past God overlooked
such ignorance, but now He commands all
people everywhere to repent. For He
has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has
appointed. He has given proof of this to
all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).
“For
I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest
you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to
Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will
come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My
covenant with them, when I take away their sins’” (Romans
11:25-27).
“Now when these things had
been thus prepared, the priests
always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the
services. But into the second part the
high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for
himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit
indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest
while the first tabernacle was still standing.
It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices
are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard
to the conscience concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and
fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. But Christ came as High
Priest of
the good things to come, with the
greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this
creation. Not with the blood of goats
and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all,
having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the
ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the
flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God? And for
this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under
the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:6-15).
~ Robert
Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE
NOW
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