Morning by Morning, September 28 - Day of Atonement, Fulfilled in Jesus, “Once for All”
Good morning, Lord Jesus. On this Day of Atonement, I look to You -- the One who alone can atone for our sins and set things right between our holy God and an unholy people. ...
“But when Christ came as a High Priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), He entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” (Hebrews 9:11-14).
Under the Old Covenant, the sacrifice for the sins of the high priest and the people of Israel was to be made once a year on the Day of Atonement, throughout all their generations forever (Exodus 30:9-10; Leviticus 16:1-35). It was to be a day of complete rest, with no work, as the people fasted and prayed in repentance for their sins.
The blood of a bull was shed and offered for the sins of the high priest and the blood of a goat was shed and offered for the sins of the people. Then the high priest was commanded to “lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:21-22).
All of this was a type and a shadow of what was to come and be fulfilled in You as our Eternal Sacrifice, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) and our “Great High Priest” who has forever offered Yourself as our Sacrifice and dashed Your own blood upon the Mercy Seat of God that our relationship with God may be set right and restored through Your mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:14-16).
The Messianic Prophecy of Isaiah written nearly eight hundred years before the coming of the Messiah and Savior of all the world, Jesus the Christ, speaks of the One who will take upon Himself all our sins and set us free: “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.... For He shall bear their iniquities....” (Isaiah 53:6,11).
Speaking of the One to come who would be our Sacrifice and Atonement once and for all, Your Prophecy of Isaiah Chapter 53 declares of our Messiah and Savior:
“Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him,
nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
He was despised, and we held Him of no account.
Surely He has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted Him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon Him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by His bruises (“stripes” KJV) we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and He was afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so He did not open His mouth.
By a perversion of justice He was taken away.
Who could have imagined His future?
For He was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
They made His grave with the wicked
and His tomb with the rich,
although He had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in His mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him with pain.
When You make His life an offering for sin,
He shall see His offspring, and shall prolong His days;
through Him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
Out of His anguish He shall see light;
He shall find satisfaction through His knowledge.
The Righteous One, My Servant, shall make many righteous,
and He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great,
and He shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because He poured out Himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet He bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-2).
Today is the holiest day of the Jewish people, when they fast and pray throughout the earth on this Yom Kippur. Yet there is no longer a high priest or temple or a sacrifice of bulls and goats for sin. The temple was destroyed, just as You said. The veil of the temple, where the high priest would go behind into the Holy Place one time a year before the mercy seat of God, was ripped in two, from top to bottom, at the moment of Your Sacrifice upon the cross for us all -- both Jew and Gentile (Matthew 27:51).
As You proclaimed, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). And on this holy day, the Day of Atonement, I thank You and praise You for Your Sacrifice for me and for all, “once for all” (Hebrews 9:12). All my sins were laid upon You, that I am now forgiven and free, restored in righteousness by Your blood to be right with God (Hebrews 9:23-28). So today, in both deepest humility for my sins but also with highest praise that they are all forgiven in You, I praise You and thank You that every day I can “come boldly to the throne of grace” where I have obtained mercy and grace through what You have done for me, once and for all! (Hebrews 4:16) In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
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