Understanding the Atonement*

The Feasts of the LORD give vital pointers of who the Messiah is, and how He comes, and they illustrate God's plan for creation. We just observed the Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah, as it is also known, and in a few days, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur will occur: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement (kipur/kapar - atonement, purge, expiation, redemption, reconciliation, forgive, propitiation, cover over, cleanse): it shall be a 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. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people...it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath." (Lev. 23:26-32). The feasts are not just for the Jewish people, or for the time of the Old Testament only, but forever. The Hebrew pictographic letters that make up the word for atonement, kipur/kapar, have the meaning "to cover by the mouth of the Most High". The promise out of the mouth of God in Genesis was the seed of the woman to redeem. The atonement has come forth from the mouth of God, and has been fulfilled in Christ, and will be fulfilled again by Christ. The LORD established a testimony in Jacob, not for that generation only, but to tell their children, who in turn, would arise and tell the testimony to their children: "That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God...they did flatter him (God) with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant." (Ps. 78:5-8, 34-37). This psalm said that even so, God forgave them, and didn't destroy them because He remembered that they were mere flesh. However, they repeatedly provoked and grieved Him, turning their back to Him, and limiting the Holy One of Israel (v. 38-41). We limit God if we forget His repeated mercies to us, and again turn away from Him. Psalm 79 asks God not to remember our sins, because we have been brought low: "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake." (v. 8-9). The word "purge away" in these verses is the word kapar, atonement. The psalmist asks the LORD to hear the sighing of the prisoner, and to preserve those who are appointed to die (v. 11). Jesus, our Atonement, after His death, descended into hell, and led the captives of death out, and ascended with them into heaven, fulfilling the psalmist's prophetic prayer, and the Word of God. The prophet Zechariah received a vision of the LORD in which the high priest, Joshua, standing before the Angel of the LORD, was cleansed and his filthy garments were changed into clean garments. Satan was resisting the cleansing of Joshua until the LORD rebuked him: "The LORD rebuke thee O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" (Zech. 3:1-3). As Joshua's filthy garments were ordered to be taken away by the LORD, He said: "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." (v. 4). This reminds us of the pure, white linen of righteousness granted to the Bride to be worn for her marriage to the Lamb in Revelation 19. This was the charge that was given to Joshua at the time of his cleansing: "If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." (v. 7). At the cleansing of Joshua, the LORD also prophesied of the One whom He would send, the Messiah: "...behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH...and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day...shall ye call every man his neighbor, under the vine and under the fig tree." (v. 8-10). The atonement cleansing of Joshua the high priest also brought the promise to remove the iniquity of that land, the prophecy of the Messiah to come, and the Millennial Reign of the Messiah, Jesus. Who must be cleansed? Paul wrote: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God", but we have been justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God sent to be "the propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." (Rom. 3:22-26). Paul is describing the atonement, and it is not achieved through religion or our own efforts, but by faith in His atoning blood. There is a song that says "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus" can wash away our sins. Even when we were enemies of God, "we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Rom. 5:7-10). Here is the reconciliation of the atonement, not with the blood of animals, or even the blood of a man, but by the blood of the Son of God. Because of this atonement by the Son's own blood, we are no longer to yield to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but "to yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:11-14). After being freed from being servants to sin, we have become servants, even slaves to God, bearing fruit of holiness and the end being eternal life, rather than receiving the wages of sin, which is death (v. 22-23). We have been reconciled and saved by Jesus' life, the atoning blood, given for us. Therefore, we are no longer to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing and washing of our minds in the Word of God, washed by the water, the blood, and the truth. Sin is still sin, although many churches have compromised this truth. We are to bring sin under His authority. The Book of Hebrews, in saying that Jesus Christ, our High Priest, entered into the perfect tabernacle in heaven, making atonement for us, obtaining eternal redemption for us, not by the blood of animals, but by His own blood, then asks, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?". He then became also the mediator of the new testament by means of His death. (Heb. 9:11-15). This is the simplicity of the Gospel. It's not about going to church, but going to Christ in our hearts. It's not about the name on the door, but about the name on our hearts. In the third epistle of John, John wrote that he prayed that we would be prospered as our soul prospers, and that he has no greater joy than when he hears that his spiritual children are "walking in truth" (v. 1-4). This upcoming Feast of the LORD, the Day of Atonement, calls us to prosper in our souls, and walk in the truth of Christ's atonement for us. *Based on Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 10/2/2022 message to the church. To contact us, submit a prayer request, give a praise report, or to support this ministry: P.O. Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 OR Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, theshroudofturin.org, and END TIME SCHOOL, also on Facebook.