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Perfect Atonement
In ancient Israel, as well as in Judaism today, the greatest of the holy
days was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
It was the day that gathered up the worship of every other day. The high
priest would stand before the people as their divinely appointed
representative, bearing the names of all of the twelve tribes engraved on
his breastplate and shoulders.
He would perform the rituals of animal sacrifice using the blood of a
bull and a goat, and as the representative of every Israelite, confess the
sins of the whole nation.
Only on this one day each year the high priest, and only the high priest,
after performing special rituals for his own cleansing and
self-consecration, would enter the most holy and sacred chamber of the
Temple, the Holy of Holies, on behalf of all Israel, praying for the people
and sprinkling the sacrificial blood for all their sins.
The New Testament writers saw this sacred ceremony as the foreshadowing
of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, who came from God as the true High
Priest, our perfect representative and substitute, in solidarity with all
humanity, bearing the names of all people throughout all times.
As the book of Hebrews explains in chapter 2, verses 11 and 12:
“Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of
the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the
congregation I will sing your praises” (Hebrews 2:11-12 NIV).
Jesus’ whole life of love, including his prayer and obedience as one of
us on our behalf, is his self-consecration for us. He does not offer an
animal; he offers himself as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of
the world. He does this, not to appease an angry Father; but rather in
acknowledgement of the Father’s love for a sinful world, sealing by his own
blood God’s covenant love and devotion to humanity.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,” the apostle Paul
wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
Jesus became the broken and sinful humanity that needed healing
redemption. As theologian James Torrance once put it:
“Christ does not heal us by standing over us, diagnosing our sickness,
prescribing medicine for us to take, and then going away to leave us to
get better by obeying his instructions – as an ordinary doctor might. No,
he becomes the patient! He assumes our very humanity that is in need of
redemption, and by being anointed by the Spirit in our humanity, by
a life of perfect obedience for us, by dying and rising again, our
humanity is healed in him.”
Jesus is the perfect revelation of the Father, who loves us so much that
he will never leave us to our own destruction. And Jesus is our perfect
substitute and representative in the Father’s presence.
That means that in Jesus, God has already forgiven us and accepted us as
his beloved children. We have nothing to fear – we can put our faith and
hope in Jesus knowing that he has already done everything necessary for our
salvation. Isn’t it time that we came home to the loving embrace of our
heavenly Father?
I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of life.
Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that
I am?" We have a free booklet, A Brief Introduction to Trinitarian Theology,
to help you answer that question. In the United States, to request your
free copy, see www.wcg.org/lit Or call
us toll-free at 1-800-423-4444.
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