Atonement - Good Friday

Because of our sin, we deserve God’s judgement.

We are all guilty of betraying God’s holiness and turning away from Him to serve ourselves.

We deserve for God’s holiness to respond in white-hot anger toward us.

We deserve eternity alone, separated from God because of what we have done.

We all have a past that we remember.

I have an unbelievable capacity to forget important things.

My schedule is always jam packed because I forget what’s on it.

I’ll forget how many years Hilary and I have been married

I’ll forget to call someone back

I’ll forget to do something I said I would.

I have an impressive skill to remember my past.

The shame and guilt that comes from the wrong that I’ve done.

When I am crippled because of the guilt of my past, I can be comforted in the atonement.

Say atonement

That’s not often a word that we think of when we need comfort, but its the most comforting reality that we can experience when our world is in shambles.

Leviticus 16:15–19

The Day of the Atonement

The Day of Atonement was a massive day for God’s people.

It was a day when Israel would fast, be cleansed in the sanctuary of impurity,

The Temple was the place where the God was and where people would go to offer sacrifices to atone for their sins.

The Day of Atonement focused around two goats.

Leviticus 16:15–19 “15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven…”

The first goat is slaughtered in the Temple, and its blood is taken into the Holy of holies.

Only God sees it. The priests can’t see it because there is smoke everywhere from the burnt offerings.

The goat is slaughtered in the presence of God to show how atonement is achieved.

For sin to be cleansed, it must be substituted onto another.

For the wrath of God to be diverted, it must be diverted onto something else.

So the first goat’s life is sacrificed, it’s blood is shed—instead of me.

This is how the atonement is achieved.

God doesn’t just forgive sin behind the scenes with this one slaughtered goat.

He gives the people a public representation of what has happened.

He demonstrates the application of the atonement on their lives.

Leviticus 16:20–22 “20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall 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, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.”

They take the second goat, and the priest would lay his hands on it, signifying the transfer of guilt from us to the goat.

The goat now possesses all the sins of the people.

Then he sends the goat away. It’s banished.

Sometimes they would put a giant rock around its next and send it over a cliff.

They do this to show that this goat is never coming back.

What is this supposed to teach me about what the atonement has acheived for me?

God the Father sacrificed His Son on the cross so that He could love you.

The only way for us to be made right with God was for the perfect blood of His Son Jesus to be shed on the cross.

When Jesus hung on the cross, as a man—He was our sacrificial Lamb.

God placed all of our sins onto Jesus and slaughtered Him on the cross so that our guilt could be taken away.

Jesus’s blood was shed in the presence of God like the first goat.

In order for our sins to be forgiven, my sin had to be taken by a substitute.

Jesus’s death on the cross diverts God’s wrath that was coming to you because of your sin.

Jesus took God’s wrath for you.

Jesus was crushed and crucified under the weight, not just of the cross, but of God’s holy anger toward sin because of you and for you.

Jesus was also banished from the presence of God instead of you.

Jesus’s burial was the banishment like the second goat.

It wasn’t enough for Jesus to be beaten for you.

He had to die with our sins.

They died and are never coming back.

Jesus laid down His life on the cross, to satisfy the wrath of God for your sins.

He served us as both the Priest and the sacrifice

Hebrews 9:11–14 “11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 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 serve the living God.”

His blood was shed and He was banished instead of us.

He took the punishment that had our name on it so that we could be clean in the sight of God.

When I’m confronted with problems, the atonement centers me with what’s important most.

You may be confronted with

The bills are due/internet is cut off

Family drama is increasing/health is decreasing

Someone put an empty jug of milk back into the fridge

I’m not even out of bed yet and I’m ready to go back.

Because I’ve trusted in a crucified Christ

Sins washed away

Wrath of God is satisfied.

Though my relationships may be panicked, my relationship with the God of the universe is at peace.

Even if my circumstances are wild, the atonement lets us say: “It is well with my soul.”

God the Father has forgiven your sins because God the Son died for them.

Let’s ponder the atonement and think on how deep God’s love truly is.