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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Day of Atonement
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:26-28)
The sixteenth chapter of the Book of Leviticus describes the ceremonial obligations of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
There were two principal observances that made an atonement for Israel on the Day of Atonement. The first observance involved the slaying of a goat. The blood of the goat was sprinkled upon and before the Mercy Seat as a sin offering for the people.
Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: (Leviticus 16:15)
The Day of Atonement was the only day of the year during which the High Priest was permitted to enter past the veil into the Most Holy Place.
The second observance was conducted with a living goat. The High Priest confessed the sins of Israel, putting them on the head of the living goat. The goat then was led away into the wilderness, bearing on itself all the iniquities of the people of Israel.
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:21,22)
First came the sin offering, the appeasing of God's wrath through the blood of the innocent goat offered in place of the death of the sinner. Second came the removing of the sin from Israel.
First the paying of the debt owed to God because of the violation of His sense of justice. God could forgive the transgression because the shedding of innocent blood satisfied the need for vengeance.
God cannot arbitrarily forgive and forget the transgressing of His laws. The consequences of misbehavior must follow sinful deeds. Death must come to the sinner unless God is willing to accept a substitute in the sinner's place. Only then can God forgive and forget. Without the shedding of blood there can be no pardoning of the debt of guilt.
The reason God forgives the sins of Christians so readily is that the penalty for each transgression fell on the righteous Jesus.
Many Christians of today are living under Divine condemnation without realizing it because they have not expressed godly sorrow concerning their sins and have not repented of (turned away from) them with nearly enough vigor and resolution. Their sense of God's approval is a deception. They are not discerning correctly the extent of God's wrath on their sins.
To be continued.