Biblical Essays
DAY OF ATONEMENT
Introduction
Certainly one of the most precious and important sections of Inspiration, this chapter presents the doctrine of atonement with uncommon fullness and power.
Historically and typically, this chapter of Leviticus offers a record of transactions on the great Day of Atonement in Israel, whereby Jehovah’s relationship with the assembly was established and maintained, atoning for all the people’s sins, failures, and infirmities, so that the Lord God might dwell among them. The blood shed on this solemn day formed the basis of how a holy God could take up His abode in the midst of the people, in spite of their uncleanness. “The tenth day of the seventh month” was a unique day in Israel. There was no other day in the year like it. The sacrifices on this one day formed the ground of God’s dealing in grace, mercy, patience, and forbearance.
Leviticus 16
We encourage a reading of this chapter before proceeding further. Historically, we learn from this portion of inspired Scripture, “that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest.” God was hidden behind a veil and man was at a distance. “And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord, and died; and the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times unto the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.”
At this time, the way was not open for man to be in God’s divine presence at all times, nor was there any provision, in the entire range of the Mosaic ritual, for his abiding there continually. God was shut in from man; and man was shut out from God. “The blood of bulls and goats” could not open a permanent meeting place – “A sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood” was needed to accomplish this. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:1-4).
Neither the Levitical priesthood or the Levitical sacrifices could yield perfection. Insufficiency was stamped on the latter, infirmity on the former, imperfection on both. An imperfect man could not be a perfect priest; nor could an imperfect sacrifice provide a perfect conscience. Aaron was not competent or entitled to take his seat within the veil, nor could his sacrifices rend that veil.
We now consider this chapter typically. “Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering” (v. 3). Here, we have the two grand aspects of Christ’s atoning work – maintaining the divine glory, and perfectly meeting man's deepest need. Throughout all the services on this unique and solemn day, there was no mention of a meat offering, or a peace offering. Our blessed Lord’s perfect human life is not here foreshadowed. Neither is the communion of the soul with God (consequent on His accomplished work) unfolded. The one grand subject is “atonement” and that in a double way: first, meeting all the claims of God – the claims of His nature – His character – His throne; and second, as perfectly meeting all man's guilt and necessities. If we are to have a clear understanding of the truth presented in this chapter, or the doctrine of the great Day of Atonement, we must keep the following two points in mind. (1). “Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place,” with atonement, securing the glory of God – regarding His counsels of redeeming love toward the church, toward Israel, and toward the whole creation, or in reference to all the claims of His moral administration; and (2). With atonement as fully meeting man’s guilty and needy condition. These two aspects of atonement will stay in our view as we ponder the precious inspired contents of this chapter. Their importance cannot possibly be overestimated. “He shall put on the holy linen coat, and be shall have the linen breeches upon his Flesh, and he shell be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on” (v. 4).
Aaron’s person, washed in pure water, and robed in white linen garments, furnishes a lovely and impressive type of Christ performing His work of atonement – personally and characteristically pure and spotless. “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19). It is peculiarly precious to be called, as it were, to gaze upon the Person of our divine Priest, in all His essential holiness. The Holy Spirit delights in everything that unfolds Christ to the view of His people; and wherever we behold Him, we see Him to be the same spotless, perfect, glorious, precious, peerless Jesus, “the fairest among ten thousand, yea, altogether lovely.” Unlike Aaron, our Lord did not need to do or to wear anything, in order to be pure and spotless. He needed no pure water, no fine linen. He was, intrinsically and practically, “the holy One of God.” What Aaron did, and what he wore – the washing and robbing are but faint shadows of what Christ is. The law had only a “shadow,” and “not the very image of good things to come.” Blessed be God, we do not have the shadow, but the eternal and divine reality – Christ Himself. “And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, Which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house” (vv. 5, 6).
Aaron and his house represent the Church, not as the “one body,” but as a priestly house. It is not the Church as we find it developed in Ephesians and Colossians, but rather as we find it in the First Epistle of Peter, in the following well-known passage: “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (2:5). So also in Hebrews: “But Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (3:6). We must always keep in mind that there is no revelation of the mystery of the Church in the Old Testament. There are types and shadows, but no revelation. That wondrous mystery of Jew and Gentile forming “one body,” “one new man,” and united to a glorified Christ in heaven, could not be revealed until Christ had taken His place above. Of this mystery Paul was, pre-eminently, made a steward and a minister, as he tells us in Ephesians 3:1-12, a passage we commend to your prayerful attention. “And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness” (vv. 7-10).
In these two goats, we have the two aspects of atonement, as previously referred to. “The Lord’s lot” fell on one; and the people’s lot fell on the other. In the case of the former, it was not a question of the persons or the sins which were to be forgiven, or of God’s counsels of grace toward His elect. These things are of infinite importance; but are not involved in the case of “the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell.” This latter typifies the death of Christ as perfectly glorifying God, with respect to sin in general. This great truth is fully set forth in the remarkable expression, “the Lord’s lot.” God had a peculiar portion in the death of Christ – a portion quite distinct – a portion that would be eternally good even if no sinner was ever saved. In order to see the force of this, it is necessary to keep in mind how God has been dishonored in this world. His truth has been despised; His authority distained; His majesty slighted; His law broken; His claims disregarded; His name blasphemed; and His character defamed.
The death of Christ made provision for all this; perfectly glorifying God in the very place where all these things have been done. It perfectly vindicated the majesty, truth, holiness, and character of God. It divinely met all the claims of His throne. It atoned for sin, furnishing a divine remedy for all the mischief which sin introduced into the universe. If the death of Christ affords a ground on which the blessed God can act in grace, mercy, and forbearance toward all; furnishes a warrant for the eternal expulsion and perdition of the prince of this world; and forms the imperishable foundation of God’s moral government. Because of the cross, God can act according to His own sovereignty. He can display both the matchless glories of His character and the adorable attributes of His nature. In the exercise of inflexible justice, God could have consigned the human family, together with the devil and his angels, to the lake of fire. But, to do that, He would have to put aside His love, grace, mercy, kindness, long-suffering, compassion, patience, and perfect goodness.
Then, on the other hand, if God allowed these precious attributes to be exercised in the absence of atonement, He would have given up justice, truth, majesty, holiness, righteousness, governmental claims – His entire moral glory. How could “mercy and truth meet together” or “righteousness and peace kiss each other”? How could “truth spring out of the earth” or “righteousness look down from heaven?” Nothing but the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ could have fully glorified God. It reflected the full glory of the divine character, even more than the brightest splendors of an unfallen creation. By means of that atonement, in prospect and retrospect, God has been exercising forbearance toward this world, for thousands of years. Because of that atonement, the most wicked, daring, and blasphemous among us “live, move, and have their being;” eat, drink, and sleep. The very morsel a blaspheming infidel puts in his mouth, he owes to the atonement which he knows not, and impiously ridicules. The sunbeams and showers fertilize the atheist’s field, because of the atonement of Christ. The very breath spent by an infidel or atheist in blaspheming God’s revelation, or denying His existence, they owe to the atonement of Christ. If it wasn’t for that precious atonement, humankind (sinners all) would be weltering in hell.
The aspect of atonement we are presently contemplating is strikingly foreshadowed by “the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell.” God’s pardoning and accepting a sinner is one thing; His bearing with that man, showering temporal blessings on him, is quite another. Both are because of the cross, but each are totally different in aspect and application.
This distinction is so important that if overlooked, there will only be confusion regarding atonement. But this isn’t all. A clear understanding of God’s ways in government, whether in the past, present, or future, is involved in this profoundly interesting point. And, finally, in it is found the key needed to understand a number of texts with which many Christians have considerable difficulty. We offer only a few of these passages as examples.
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). Connect with this a kindred passage in John’s first epistle, in which the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of as “the propitiation for the whole world” (2:2).1 In both these passages the Lord Jesus is referred to as the One who has perfectly glorified God with respect to “sin” and “the world,” in their broadest acceptation. He is seen here as the great Antitype of “the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell.” This gives us a most precious view of the atonement of Christ, and one which is too often overlooked, or not clearly apprehended. Whenever the question of people and the forgiveness of sins is raised, in connection with these and similar passages of Scripture, the mind runs into insuperable difficulties.
Those passages, in which God’s grace to the world at large is presented, are also founded on that special aspect of the atonement. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16). “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life, For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16, 17). “I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:1-6). “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11). “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
We should never avoid the plain sense of the above and similar passages. They offer a clear and unequivocal testimony of divine grace toward all, without the slightest reference to man’s responsibility, or to God’s eternal counsels. These things are just as clearly, just as fully, just as unequivocally, taught in the Word. Man is responsible, and God is sovereign. All who bow to Scripture admit these things. However, at the same time, it’s important to recognize the wide aspect of the grace of God, and of the cross of Christ. It glorifies God and leaves man wholly without excuse. The grace of God and the atonement of Christ are as wide as the universe. The words, “any” – “every” – “whosoever” – and “all,” belong to God – shutting no one out! When God sends a message of salvation, He surely intended to do so. What could be more impious than to reject God’s grace, make Him a liar, and then give His secret decrees as a reason to do so? In one sense, it would be honest for someone to say, “The fact is, I do not believe God’s word, and I do not want His grace or His salvation.” This is understandable. But, to cover one’s failure to accept God and His truth with the drapery of a false one-sided theology is the highest form of wickedness. The devil is never more diabolical than when he appears with Bible in hand.
If it is true that God’s secret decrees and counsels prevent us from receiving the Gospel which He has commanded to be preached, then on what principle of righteousness will we be “punished with everlasting destruction” (2 Thess. 1:6-10) for not obeying that Gospel? Is there a single soul throughout all the gloomy regions of the lost who can honestly lay blame on God’s counsels for being there? No not one. God has made ample provision in the atonement of Christ, for the salvation of those who truly believe, as well as for the aspect of His grace toward those who reject the Gospel, by removing their excuse. It is not because a person cannot, but because one will not believe that many “shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” Never was there a more fatal mistake than one taking shelter behind God’s decrees while deliberately and intelligently refusing His grace. This is all the more dangerous because so many modern-day churches support the dogmas of a one-sided theology. God’s grace is free to all; and if we ask, “How is this?” the answer is, “Jehovah’s lot” fell upon the true victim – Jesus Christ – in order that He might be perfectly glorified as to sin, in its widest aspect, and be free to act in grace toward all, and “preach the gospel to every creature.” This grace and this preaching must have a solid basis, and that basis is found in the atonement. Though man might reject God, He is nevertheless glorified in the exercise of grace, and in the offer of salvation, because of the basis on which both the one and the other rest. He is glorified, and He shall be glorified, throughout eternity's countless ages. “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again . . . Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me” (John 12:27-32).
We have focused on one special theme, namely, “the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell.” Now, we consider the fullest confirmation of that precious truth in the fact that the blood of the slain goat, together with the blood of the bullock, was sprinkled on, and before, Jehovah’s throne, in order to show that all the claims of that throne were answered in the blood of atonement, and full provision made for all the demands of God’s moral administration. “And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself. And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil. And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not.”
Here we have a most vivid and striking presentation. The blood of atonement is carried within the veil, into the holiest of all, and there sprinkled on the throne of the God of Israel. The cloud of divine presence was there; and for Aaron to appear in the immediate presence of the glory, and not die, “the cloud of incense” ascends and “covers the mercy-seat,” on which the blood of atonement was to be sprinkled “seven times.” The “sweet incense beaten small” expresses the fragrance of Christ’s Person – the sweet odor of His most precious sacrifice. “And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward; and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the Blood with his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and before tile mercy-seat” (vv. 14, 15).
“Seven” is the perfect number; and in the sprinkling of the blood seven times before the mercy-seat we learn that whatever the application of the atonement of Christ, whether to things, places, or persons, it is perfectly estimated in the divine presence. The blood which secures the salvation of the Church – the “house” of the true Aaron; the blood which secures the salvation of the “congregation” of Israel; the blood which secures the final restoration and blessedness of the whole creation – that blood has been presented before God, sprinkled and accepted according to all the perfectness, fragrance, and preciousness of Christ. In the power of that blood God can accomplish all His eternal counsels of grace. He can save the Church, and raise it into the very loftiest heights of glory and dignity, despite the power of sin and Satan. He can restore Israel's scattered tribes – He can unite Judah and Ephraim – He can accomplish all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He can save and bless untold millions of the Gentiles. He can restore and bless the whole creation. He can allow the beams of His glory to lighten up the universe forever. In the view of angels, men, and devils, God can display His own eternal glory – the glory of His character – the glory of His nature – the glory of His works – the glory of His government. All this He can do, and will do; but the one solitary pedestal on which the stupendous fabric of glory shall forever rest is the blood of the cross – that precious blood which has spoken divine and everlasting peace to your heart and conscience, in the presence of Infinite Holiness. The blood which is sprinkled on the believer’s conscience has been sprinkled “seven times” before the throne of God. The nearer we get to God, the more importance and value we find attached to the blood of Jesus. If we look at the brazen altar, we find the blood; if we look at the brazen laver, we find the blood; if we look at the golden altar, we find the blood; if we look at the veil of the tabernacle, we find the blood: but, within the veil, before Jehovah’s throne, in the immediate presence of the divine glory, we find more about the blood. “And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.”
The same truth faces us all – the claims of the sanctuary must be provided for. Jehovah’s courts, as well as His throne, must bear witness to the value of the blood. In the midst of Israel’s uncleanness, the tabernacle must be fenced in by the divine provisions of atonement. In all things, Jehovah provided for His own glory. The priests and their priestly service, the place of worship, and all therein, must stand in the power of the blood. If it were not for the power of the blood, the Holy One could not have remained, even for a moment, in the midst of the congregation. The blood freed God to dwell, act, and rule, in the midst of an erring people. “And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel” (v. 17).
Aaron needed to offer up sacrifice for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. Only in the power of the blood could he enter into the sanctuary. In verse 17, we have a type of the atonement of Christ in its application both to the church and to the congregation of Israel. The church now enters into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus (Heb. 10). Regarding Israel, the veil is still on their hearts (2 Cor. 3). They are still at a distance, although full provision has been made in the cross for their forgiveness and restoration when they turn to the Lord. This entire period is the Day of Atonement. With His own blood, the true Aaron went into heaven itself, appearing in the presence of God for us. His house, that is to say, all true believers, are associated with Him, having boldness to enter into the holiest, being purified by the blood of Jesus. “And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel” (vv. 18, 19).
Thus the atoning blood was sprinkled everywhere, from the throne of God within the veil, to the altar which stood in the court of the Tabernacle of the congregation. “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world (at the end of everything earthly, everything human) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation” (Heb. 9:23-28).
There is only one way into the holiest of all – a blood-sprinkled way. There is no other way. Men may attempt to work themselves in, pray themselves in, buy themselves in, get in by a pathway of ordinances, or half-ordinances, half-Christ; but it is of no use. God speaks of only one way, and that way has been thrown open through the rent veil of the Savior’s flesh. Patriarchs, prophets, Apostles, martyrs, saints in every age, from Abel downwards, have trod that blessed way, finding sure and undisputed access. The one sacrifice of the Cross is divinely sufficient for all. God asks no more, and He accepts no less. To add thereto is to cast dishonor on that with which God has declared Himself well pleased – in which He is infinitely glorified. To diminish therefrom is to deny man's guilt and ruin, and offer an indignity to the justice and majesty of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit – the eternal Trinity. “And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and The altar, he shall bring the live goat. 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.”
Here we have the other grand idea attached to the death of Christ – full and final forgiveness of the people. If the death of Christ forms the foundation of the glory of God, it also forms the foundation of the perfect forgiveness of sins to all who put their trust in it. Forgiveness of our sins, blessed be God, is a secondary and inferior application of the atonement, though our foolish hearts regard it as the very highest possible view of the cross, because it puts away all our sins. This is a mistake. God’s glory is the first thing; our salvation is second. To maintain God’s glory was the chief object of the heart of Christ. This object He pursued from first to last, with an undeviating purpose and unflinching fidelity. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17). “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him” (John 13:31, 32). “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people from far: the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft: in his quiver hath He hid me; and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified” (Isaiah 49:1-3).
The glory of God was the paramount object of the Lord Jesus Christ, in life and in death. He lived and died to glorify His Father’s name. Does the Church lose by this? No. Does Israel? No. Do the Gentiles? No. In no way could their salvation and blessedness be so perfectly provided for than by being made subsidiary to the glory of God. Hearken to the divine response to Christ, the true Israel, in the sublime passage just quoted. “It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Is it not a blessed thing to know that God is glorified in the putting away of our sins? We may ask, “Where are our sins?” Put away. By what? By that act of Christ on the cross, in which God has been eternally glorified. The two goats, on the Day of Atonement, give the double aspect of the one act. In one, we see God’s glory maintained; in the other, sins put away. The one is as perfect as the other. By the death of Christ, we are as perfectly forgiven as God is perfectly glorified. Was there one single point in which God was not glorified in the cross? Not one. Neither is there one single point in which we are not perfectly forgiven. The congregation of Israel is the primary object contemplated in the beautiful and impressive ordinance of the scape-goat; yet, in the fullest way, it holds good with respect to every soul that truly believes in the faith of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22) – perfectly forgiven as God is perfectly glorified, by the atonement of the cross. How many of the sins of Israel did the scape-goat bear away? “All.” How precious this word. Not one left behind and where did He send them? “Into a land not inhabited” – a land where they could never be found, because there was no one there to look for them. Could any type be more perfect? Could there possibly be a more graphic picture of Christ’s accomplished sacrifice? – its primary and secondary aspects? We can hang with intense admiration over such a picture, and, as we gaze, proclaim, “Of a truth, the pencil of the Master is here!” “And this shall be a statute for ever unto you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you. For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It shall be a Sabbath of rest and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever” (vs. 29-31).
“Afflict your souls” means observe a fast, as indicated by Psalm 35:13 and Isaiah 58:3, 5. This was the only fast enjoined in the Mosaic Law (v. 26). The Jews understood the command to “afflict your souls” as a command to abstain from “food, drink, bathing, perfuming, sandals, and intercourse” (v. 27).
What has all this to do with us today? We are expected to respond to the Great Atonement provided for us in the Great Antitype, of whom these ancient symbols were eloquent witnesses. As the author of Hebrews put it: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water . . . let us provoke one another to love and good works, not neglecting the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day drawing nigh” (10:22-25).
Leviticus 17
We recommend a reading of this chapter before proceeding further. Our study would not be complete without at least briefly considering this chapter. In it we find two special points: life belongs to Jehovah; and, the power of atonement is in the blood. The Lord attached peculiar importance to both. He would have them impressed on every member of the Church of our Lord. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them, This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying, What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord, before the tabernacle of the Lord; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people.”
This was a most solemn matter; and we may ask what was involved in offering a sacrifice that was not in the manner prescribed above? It was nothing less than robbing Jehovah of His rights, presenting to Satan that which was due God. Someone might say, “Why can’t I offer a sacrifice in one place as well as another?” The answer is simple: life belongs to God, and His claim to it must be recognized in the place He has appointed – before the Tabernacle of the Lord. That was the only meeting place between God and man. To offer some other place proved that the heart did not want God.
This has a plain moral. There is only one place approved by God where He meets the sinner – the cross, antitype of the Brazen Altar. There and there alone, God’s claim on life has been duly recognized; to reject this meeting-place is to bring judgment down on oneself, trampling underfoot the just claims of God, and arrogating to oneself a right to life which all have forfeited. This is important to see and understand. “And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savor unto the Lord.”
The blood and the life belonged to God. The blessed Jesus fully recognized this. He surrendered His life to God – voluntarily walking to the Altar and there giving up His precious life; and the fragrant odor of His intrinsic Excellency ascended to the throne of God. Blessed Jesus; how sweet it is to be reminded of You every step of our way.
The second point referred to above is clearly stated in verse 11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
The connection between the two points is deeply interesting. When you duly take your place – possessing no title whatsoever to life; when you fully recognize God’s claims on you, then the divine record is, “I have given you the life to make an atonement for your soul.” Atonement, God’s gift to man, is in the blood, and only in the blood. “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” – not the blood and something else. The Word of God is most explicit, attributing atonement exclusively to the blood. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). It was the death of Christ that rent the veil. It is “by the blood of Jesus” we have “boldness to enter into the holiest”; “We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14;
“Having made peace by the blood of his cross”; “Ye who were afar off are made nigh by the blood of his cross”; “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7); “They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7); “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12).
We call your earnest attention to the precious and vital doctrine of the blood, in the hope that you will see its true place. The blood of Christ is the foundation of everything. It is the ground of God’s righteousness in justifying an ungodly sinner that believes in the faith of the Son of God (Rom. 3:22); it is the ground of the sinner’s confidence in drawing close to a holy God whose pure eyes cannot behold evil. God would be just in condemning the sinner; but, through the death of Christ, He can be just, and still justify those who trust in Him and who have faith in the faith of Jesus Christ. God is truly a just God and Savior. The righteousness of God is His consistency with Himself – acting in harmony with His revealed character. Without the cross, His consistency with Himself would of necessity demand the death and judgment of the sinner. But thanks be to God, in the cross death and judgment were borne by Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus, the divine consistency is perfectly maintained, allowing a holy God to justify an ungodly sinner through faith. It was and is accomplished through the blood of Jesus – nothing less – nothing more – nothing different. “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” This is conclusive. This is God’s simple plan of justification. Man’s plan is much more cumbrous, much more roundabout. And not only is it cumbrous and roundabout, but it attributes righteousness to something quite different from what is found in the Holy Scriptures. If we look from Genesis 3 down to the close of Revelation, we find the blood of Christ put forward as the only ground of righteousness. Pardon, peace, life, and righteousness – all come by the blood, and nothing but the blood. The entire book of Leviticus, particularly from this chapter on, is a commentary on the doctrine of the blood. It seems strange to insist so much on a fact so obvious to the dispassionate, teachable student of Holy Scripture. Yet it’s necessary. Our minds are prone to slip away from the plain testimony of the Word. We are too often ready to adopt opinions without calmly investigating them in the light of divine testimonies. By so doing, we step into confusion, darkness, and error.
May each of us learn to give the blood of Christ its due place. It is so precious in God’s sight that He will not allow anything to be added to or mingled with it. “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
Conclusion
The central significance of the Tabernacle symbolized the way of approach to God by means of expiation, propitiation by the mercy-seat, God’s presence with His people, and our communion with Him.
The New Testament use of the word tabernacle is very suggestive. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is the symbol of spiritual things. Christ is called “A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitch, and not man” (8:2). Not being of the Aaronic priesthood, Jesus was not permitted to enter the temple itself. Under the Law, He could not officiate in the temple, which had the same significance as that of the Tabernacle, but is the minister of the true tabernacle of which the other was a symbol, called the “shadow of heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5). This truth is emphasized by the statement: “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:8, 24).
Jesus Christ is the true High Priest of our redemption, ministering for us in the true, spiritual tabernacle.
In the opening chapter of his Gospel, speaking of the incarnate Lord, John declares that He dwelt among us, meaning that He tabernacled among us. As the tabernacle symbolized the presence of Jehovah so in Christ God reveals Himself – the greatest self-revelation of God (John 1:14). In John’s vision of the new heaven and new earth he heard the voice saying, “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” – He will tabernacle with them (Rev. 21:3).
The temporary Tabernacle of the earthly life is contrasted with the eternal building of God in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1, 4). In the same terms Peter speaks of his earthly life, and the putting “off this my tabernacle” – passing from the mortal to the immortal (2 Pet. 1:13, 14).
(Unless noted, King James Version translation used in this study)
