When my son was small, I would mostly tell him Bible stories, but sometimes I would tell him history, stories about kings. I remember once telling him about the Mysore Raja and the great Dasara procession parade, describing how the king would come sitting on the Jumbo Savari elephant with a big procession of elephants, dancers, horses, different kinds of long colorful dolls dancing, chariots, and various depictions of palace life, forests with animals, and varied Karnataka history and culture. I kept describing the amazing sight. It created a big dream and desire in him to see the Mysore Dasara procession. Inevitably, we took him once, but you know how crowded it gets. His grandfather and I tried to get near, but there were four or five rows of people standing on footpaths and walls; the whole street was jammed. He could hear the dancing and music and maybe catch an occasional glimpse of the marching band or clowns, but he couldn’t see anything clearly. He was very upset, stretching to get even a momentary clear view of it all. Then I decided to stand on a small, tall stone and said, “See, John, Daddy cannot stand here for a long time. If I fall, you will also fall. So I will stand on this stone and you sit on my shoulder, and slowly you can stand up and watch the procession for one or two minutes.” So, for two minutes, I still remember the smile and joy on his face and him shouting as he saw the beauty and color of his very first parade. But it was just for a few minutes. At that age, it was the thrill of a lifetime. Now, he doesn’t even care.
Well, the Old Testament believers were like little John. They had heard so many things about the Messiah from their childhood. He would come and do marvelous things. Like little John, they yearned to get a clear glimpse of this Messiah and his work. But there were many centuries standing between them and the coming of Christ. They only caught a fragmentary glimpse, just a few glimpses, of the coming King of Kings through the old covenant types and shadows.
However, in Leviticus 16, the Heavenly Father compassionately lifts the Old Testament saint upon his shoulders and shows him a clear view of the Messiah’s work in these 34 verses. It’s to catch an almost clear sight of the coming Savior of the world on the Day of Atonement. Old Testament saints like Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and David would feel thrilled like John for those two minutes when they could see the glorious work of the Messiah in this chapter. We come to that chapter today. The sacred law of Moses attains its highest and supreme glory in this chapter. If Isaiah 53 is the highest Messianic prophecy in all the books of the prophets, Leviticus 16 is the highest Messianic chapter in all of Moses’ books of law. The coming Messiah and the great need for his work are pointed to us with a clear distinctness here like in no other place in the entire Old Testament. In fact, Leviticus 1-15 is preparation for us to come to this chapter. So we have come to a very high, majestic, lofty point in the book of Leviticus. This is the highest festival for Jews: Yom Kippur, the great Day of Atonement, the high point of the year in the life of Israel.
And this hour in our brief time together, with the limited strength of a Sunday evening, we are going to superficially gaze upon the glory of this chapter and maybe dip into this deep well of living water for another week or two to drink in the wonderful truths here.
Two headings: a dangerous flashback (1-2) and a glorious mediator of God.
Notice verse 1: “The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died.” This takes us back to the shocking flashback event in Leviticus 10. When the people of God, joyfully after instituting the temple and anointing the priest, gathered to offer their first worship in Leviticus 10, these two priests, with all their eagerness and sincerity, came to worship God with a “strange fire” which he had not commanded, but what was right in their own minds. There was nothing wrong in the eyes of all the Israelites, elders, and other men; no one stopped them. Maybe men clapped and whistled for them when they smelled the sweet fragrance. They came with a casual, irreverent attitude to worship and fatally misjudged the holiness of God. What did God do? He did not break their legs or give them leprosy, but God killed them on the spot in a second, with a destruction by way of consumption.
On a good day, starting a wonderful chapter, what is this unfortunate flashback? I believe this is one verse that opens the door to see the glory of this chapter. The Holy Spirit wisely makes us realize that flashback of this event, but also all that God taught from chapters 11-15. Because if we don’t stop and realize the lessons from this flashback, you will never be able to see the glory of this day.
In my language, there are two lessons God wanted us to learn in all these Leviticus chapters. Leviticus 1-10 teaches us “Who is God?” Leviticus 11-15 teaches us “Who is man?” These are two amazing realities. The more we understand the depth of these two questions, the more we will be able to see the glory of the Day of Atonement.
Through all the five sacrifices, ordaining the priests, and tabernacle rules, what is God teaching? Again and again, almost 150 times, using the word “holy” in Leviticus, God is making them realize, “I am a holy God.” In Leviticus 10, when Aaron’s two sons died, remember how Moses interpreted that. Verse 3: “And Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.'” That is the sharp lesson. These men misjudged God’s holiness. “Realize who is God? I am not a god of your imagination, I am not one of the idols your father taught you to worship; I am one true, living, holy God of heaven and earth. I am a God of glory, a God eternally worshipped as holy, holy, holy. I have historically showed my holiness from the beginning. I banished sinful Adam from the Garden of Eden for only one disobedience. When I smelled the whole world corrupted in sin, smelled the hearts of men that were always sinful at all times, it became so unbearable that I destroyed the whole earth with a flood and had to control myself by a covenant with a rainbow. When I heard the outcry of the sin that came up from Sodom and Gomorrah, I buried it under a heap of fire and brimstone. Now I chose you, in infinite mercy, and I condescended, humbled myself to come and dwell among you in a most holy place. So, because I have humbled myself and am dwelling with you daily, have come closer to you, I know that anything with man that is closer and more frequent becomes common and is taken for granted. Familiarity can breed a casual contempt. But don’t do that with me. Don’t fall into casual thoughts about me and my worship; don’t become irreverent. I am holy. This means don’t get so used to me and take me and my worship casually. Remember, O Israel, the Lord God who dwells among you is holy.” Who is God? This is a holy God. We will be amazed by that reality of God dwelling with man if we grasp one side, that is, who is God, and secondly, who is man?
Who is man? Leviticus 11-15 taught deep lessons about man. Chapters 11-12 say man is not only born defiled and depraved, but he lives fully surrounded by uncleanness in the land, water, and air. Remember the unclean animals and foods that can defile a Jew anywhere he goes. Chapters 13 and 14 show that this birth defilement can get worse; a soul’s leprosy can break out in the soul, with outward traits, and in houses. Then the terrible chapter 15 gives a terrible picture of a continuous bodily discharge. Mark 7:21-23: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” It is continuously flowing and defiling us. We are an ever-flowing stream of uncleanness in the eyes of God; this is the distressing vileness of our cursed nature.
Think of these two beings: on one side, this thrice-holy God, and on the other side, this unclean man. If you understand the distance between these two, the most universally impossible thing is to bring them together. Every man’s conscience realizes this: “I am a sinner, and God is holy. How can I come to him?” All the miseries of man are because of this distance.
How? When you again ask who is man, man was not created so sinful like this. He was created holy in the image of God. The bond between the Creator and his creature is the most profound, intricate, and powerful relationship conceivable. A dim example of that is the bond between a mother and child. Whatever pain or fever the child may have, if it can get into its mother’s lap, it can feel warmth and sleep so peacefully. That mother didn’t form the child in her womb, but this God formed every nerve, artery, and bone. This bond between man and his God is woven into the very fabric of existence, foundational to our being, and ultimately, our purpose. God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” That bond makes every breath yearn for a bond with his creator. We do not just exist because God created us; we continue to exist because He sustains us every second. In him we live, move, and have our being. Our life force, our very animation, comes directly from Him. The image of God creates an inherent likeness that forms an unbreakable connection that no fallenness can fully erase. This indescribable bond was created for eternal communion, and no fall can erase this.
All souls listening to me, every soul breathing on earth now, all our restlessness in life is because we are living outside this great bond. That is what accounts for the restlessness of humanity. It is the cry of the human spirit for the face of God who created me, like a child separated from its mother. You can show it some toy or some entertainment and make it temporarily stop crying, but after some time, it will keep crying to see its mother’s face.
We can never be happy in life until we have a face-to-face encounter and satisfying communion with the living God. That kind of relationship alone fills every aching void of our lives. If God makes you see deep within your heart, you would find a hunger and a cry after that very thing.
The devil, through sin, snatched us from our Father from whose breath we came to live. Whatever we do, we can never forget the fact that we were made to walk in daily fellowship in the cool of the garden with a living God. We still long for that, and no human relationship can quite satisfy that yearning. We have all found that even the nearest and dearest to us can go only so far in meeting that desire. Then their efforts begin to fade, and a void is left unfulfilled. That void, that cry for something more than your dearest companion can give you, is the cry of your spirit for the face of God. “Our hearts are restless until they find Thee,” is a famous quote from Saint Augustine of Hippo.
But do you see the great problem of mankind? We cannot live without God, but we cannot enjoy face-to-face fellowship with this God because on one side he is so holy, and on the other side we are so sinful. If this is how holy God is, and if this is how defiled I am, with all this defilement from birth, inside and outside, continuously affecting me, with the shameful habits of our life, the memory of what we have done and been comes back to haunt us, completely clouds and veils us from the face of God and doesn’t give me any boldness or confidence. In one word, my greatest problem is that I have a defiled conscience, and I cannot come to see the one face for which I was created. Oh, this is the problem of all mankind. This is what every son and daughter of Adam is struggling with daily.
The great question is, “How can I come and enjoy his relationship that fills every aching void in my life?” The answer is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Here, beautifully, God shows in Old Testament types how God deals with the delicate matter of defiled consciences.
Even as Christians, is this not a great struggle? “I know that God has forgiven me, saved me. And yet I seem to feel so guilty all the time, my conscience is so haunted, and I feel ashamed to come to God. I feel that I am unworthy.” We wrestle with these problems and are troubled by thoughts even while we are trying to pray. Why? Because we have not grasped the glorious atonement. This is the great need God is dealing with on the great Day of Atonement. When we grasp this truth and grasp it with faith, we will be able to see the Father’s face clearly and enjoy his presence regularly and daily, and live with all the peace, joy, and love in his presence.
How does God bridge this vast problem between him and man? Ages were asking this question. Old Testament saints were yearning for a full understanding, like John wanting to see the parade. We will see five scenes of a procession that show how God deals with this great problem.
Five steps: Appointment, humiliation, righteousness, atonement, entrance of the mediator. (AHRAE).
First: The Appointment of a Mediator. Since a sinful man cannot come before a holy God, God’s great wisdom appointed a mediator between these two estranged parties. This mediator will stand between the two and bring full and satisfactory reconciliation for both parties. We see that mediator as the High Priest Aaron here. Imagine the drone view: a full desert, with all twelve tribes’ camps in an outer circle, then the Levites’ camps, and in the center, the tabernacle. It has an outer court, a Holy Place, and a Most Holy Place. The whole nation is trembling, “Who can go into the presence of God for us?” God says Aaron can come for the people. This mediator was not selected by the people; this was not Israel’s or man’s idea. God, in his great mercy, appointed and anointed this mediator as we saw in chapter 8. Hebrews 5:4 says no one takes the honor to himself. It is God who initiates and appoints a mediator.
Blessed be God for the Lord Jesus Christ. To accept us into his awful presence and solve our deep problem, to redeem us, Revelation 5 shows how impossible it is. An angel announces, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” the scroll of God’s salvation plan for the whole universe. Verse 3: “And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll.” John weeps unbearably. Verse 5: “But one of the elders says, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.'”
Praise God. He didn’t choose a prophet, an angel, or an archangel. No, our problem was so deep; it needed someone infinitely great. The living God called his only beloved Son to do this wretchedly irksome task. God-man alone was capable for this great task of bearing all our sins, who alone can stand between the consuming fire of God’s wrath and our destructible sinnerhood. Praise God for this God-appointed mediator. 1 Timothy 2:5: “There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus.” He said, “I am the only way. No man comes to the Father except through me.” 100% exclusive! Because no one can do what he did. Christ alone! People in their arrogance question, “How can there be only one way?” May God make us realize the depth of our problem so that we are filled with amazement and praise God that there would be one way. He alone is that way. So we see the appointment of a mediator.
Second: The Humiliation of the Mediator. The mediator can come to God, but how should he come? Notice verse 4 says how: not wearing his royal dress. Remember we saw Aaron’s very expensive priestly uniform dress in chapter 8. What a description! Beautiful colored materials, intricate embroidery, gold rings, a breastplate with precious stones, shoulder stones, an ephod, gold and jewelry made him look like a king. On this day of atonement, he should remove all that glorious outer garment and come inside with inner white garments. Notice verse 4: “He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on.” A shirt, shorts, a sash, and a turban, all made of linen. He should remove his whole high priestly uniform. This simple four-garment white linen dress actually made him look more like a slave, even plainer than the vestments of the ordinary priests and even all the Israelites standing there. On this great Day of Atonement, the High Priest was humbled to the lowest level. In those days and even today, when someone is officially made to remove all their uniform and walk with only inner garments, it is a big humiliation. The Israelites may have gotten a glimpse of this at the time.
But today, what a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus. How will this mediator redeem us? Not by coming with all his kingly royalty. No. Philippians 2 says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient, obedient to the point of death, even death upon a cross.” Oh, what a stoop. The King in history becomes a slave. God becomes a man. As Isaiah 53 sadly talks about the depth of his humility: “He has no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him… He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” So lowly. What a colossal stoop took place when the glory of heaven became a man and was even cursed on the cross. He became poor to make us rich.
Third scene: The Righteousness of the Mediator. Aaron’s linen garments were not only garments of lowliness, they were also garments of the purest white. Ask Google about the purest white dress; it is linen. It talks about glorious, majestic righteousness. Yes, we are by birth unclean, defiled by uncleanness in the world around us, defiled by our actions, leprosy from head to toe, defilement continuously flowing like an unstoppable gutter. But look at my mediator. Oh, wherever you look, it is all purity and righteousness. You see his birth; he was born pure and holy, not like us, as we saw in Leviticus 12, defiled with the curse of original sin. Luke 1:35: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”
Think of his inherent, spotless purity of nature and character. Personal righteousness, inner righteousness which only God can see, the righteousness of his thoughts, his attitudes, his reactions. Not like my heart proceeding with all evil thoughts. Not one single thought of lust, murder, covetousness, deceit, or pride. I am an ever-flowing stream of uncleanness in the eyes of God, but he was an ever-flowing stream of righteousness. What he thought, felt, and willed was all righteousness. In all the life of the Lord upon the earth, there was not one moment when that inner righteousness was not perfect. Not only negative sins; a catechism says sin is not transgressing law, but any lack of conformity. So our mediator not only did not negatively break the law, but he positively always conformed perfectly, every single second. He loved God with all his mind, heart, strength, and soul all the days of his life. He never fell short of the standard and perfectly met all the requirements of the law of God. So that all-piercing eye of God opened the sky and said, “This is my beloved son; I am pleased with him.” So spotless.
Though he lived with the same uncleanness and defilement everywhere—land, air, water—he was tempted in every way, but never once was there a yielding to the pressure to sin. He did not even allow the whole world to give him one sinful thought. Never an impure thought, or word, or act. Hebrews 7:26 says, “For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners.” We see Aaron had to offer a sheep and a bull for his sins and his family’s sins because he was a type, but he was sinful. Our high priest comes sinless from the virgin’s womb, unstained by Adam’s sin, unstained internally, unstained externally by the world. Pure, spotless, inherently. So Christ didn’t need any sheep or bull offering. He himself was the innocent, pure lamb of God.
We see Aaron wearing such a pure white dress, and then it says he has to bathe; he was preparing himself to enter the Most Holy Place on this great day. In the same way, our High Priest girded himself with white purity throughout his life. He prepared himself to enter the most holy place of heaven for 33 years, earning a perfect righteousness. He lived a perfect, pure life without committing one sin, preparing himself as spotless by putting on the linen of perfect obedience to the Father through glorious active and passive obedience so he could enter the true Holy of Holies which is heaven, and this tabernacle was just a model of that.
Fourth: Atonement of the Mediator. We see the atoning sacrifices of the mediator. Verses 5-6 talk about Aaron giving a sin and burnt offering for himself and his house. Here is the provision made for the fact that Aaron was not, like Christ, without sin. Hebrews 7 points out that Jesus needed no sacrifice for himself. Verse 7 talks about the highlight of the Day of Atonement with two goats. I want to see that in detail next week. It is a type packed with marvelous truths. Before he entered, he did the two-goat ceremony, sacrificing one and sending another away into the wilderness. It could never come back. This shows the glorious work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
This work shows how perfectly the work of Christ satisfied God’s justice and holiness. We always see it from our angle—Jesus died on our behalf, which is true—but there are glorious truths from God’s side, and the cross of Christ glorified God’s holiness like nothing else can do.
Forgiveness is not an easy thing for God. He can’t forgive as many people seem to think he can—simply look at our evil and say, “Oh, well, that’s all right. Forget about it. I love you anyway. Just go on.” If that were the way that we are forgiven, then God would deny his character as a just God. His justice chases us away from his presence and drives us far away never to come back to see his face. We have to be forsaken, like the scapegoat driven away, and we have to be punished for all our sins. That is shown in the two-goat ceremony, both of which our mediator fulfilled. He took upon our sins and he was also driven away from God’s presence. He cried, “My God, why did you forsake me?” That was the great atonement Christ fulfilled.
Now since God’s justice is satisfied in the death of Christ, when he hung on the cross, God did not spare him a thing! He poured out upon him every bit of his wrath against sin. Every bit of his justice was satisfied in the death of his Son upon the cross. Thus God is vindicated. The whole world can now look at that event and say, “Yes, God is just—but through that work of atonement, God can show grace and accept us.” The death of Jesus freed God to show his love to us and welcome us. Apart from his death, you and I would never have known that he is a God of mercy, of compassion, and of tender, forgiving grace. We would never have seen that he is willing to suffer for us on our behalf, that he had that kind of heart. Thus, God himself is magnified, his character is glorified before us by the death of Jesus. It is the atoning work of this mediator that freed God to shower his grace and love on us and accept us as reconciled children.
Fifth: The Entrance of the Mediator. All this appointing, humiliation, righteousness, and atonement is all preparation for the mediator to enter the presence of God. The awesome event of the Day of Atonement is the High Priest entering the most holy place. Verse 3 says Aaron is allowed to enter. In the Old Testament type, Aaron was a type of Christ, the perfect High Priest, but Aaron was a sinful High Priest, so there were limitations. Verse 2 says he “should not come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, lest he die.”
Think of the scene if we see it from a drone angle in that desert. The living God is among these people, yet he is separated from them. Our drone view shows a full desert and neatly arranged tents, with twelve tribes arranged neatly in the outskirts like concentric circles. The next circle is the camps of the tribe of Levi, as the first level of security. Then a circle of priests, the second level of security. With these different circles as a target, in the center of the concentric circles is the tabernacle. There is an additional layer of separation in the tabernacle compound. You enter the outer court and its bronze altar, and then you enter more inside, behind the first veil, into the Holy Place. Then, only after you cross the Holy Place do you have the Most Holy Place. No Gentile can enter the outer court compound. Only Jews are allowed in the outer court, and then only priests are allowed inside the Holy Place; no Jew can come. Into the Most Holy Place, no one, only the High Priest, only once a year on this Day of Atonement. He cannot enter presumptuously. Verse 1 reminds us of the flashback of his sons’ death, and verse 2 says he “should not come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, lest he die.” He should come only when I summon him on this day and how I tell him to come with the right dress and sacrifices.
Though there was all kinds of noise outside, verse 2 talks about inside the veil, a wonderful phrase. Remember, “within the veil.” It is a very thick curtain between the Holy and Most Holy Place. The presence of God is inside that veil, a profound presence of God. Just like at the burning bush, a place of majestic and awful silence. No one can go inside the veil. There was the Ark of the Covenant, a rectangular box, on top of which were two cherubim with covering features. It was called the mercy seat. Inside the box were the Ten Commandments, the objective expression of the moral glory of God.
When they moved, the Levites would remove the veil and wrap those items; no eyes were to see the place and the Ark of the Covenant. This was the separation and barrier between the holy God and sinful man.
Aaron alone is allowed to come inside the place, once a year. It was like Aaron entering into another world, another higher dimension. No human eyes were ever to gaze directly upon the Ark of the Covenant inside, so notice verse 13. He “shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat.” It is like another veil, another screen to prevent even the High Priest from directly seeing the Holy presence. It says if he doesn’t have such smoke, he will die.
So Aaron comes, and in verse 14, where the blood of the bull is to be sprinkled on the mercy seat. And in verse 15, the blood of the goat is to be sprinkled on the mercy seat. This blood was sprinkled for the sins of the nation and propitiated them. Sprinkling it on top of the Ten Commandments indicates the satisfaction of the law’s demands through sacrifice. The law had been broken. The blood of sacrifice sprinkled on the mercy seat on which the ten commandments lay intercepted the condemning justice of God. The blood sprinkled by the mediator effected reconciliation between God and man. Remember, the High Priest is coming, representing the twelve tribes. The blood sprinkled satisfies the justice and holiness and intercepts the wrath of the living God. Notice verse 14 says seven times, which means perfect satisfaction. There is full atonement. There is appeasement. There is satisfaction for the vast mountains and oceans of sins of the entire nation, accumulated sins throughout the year, all atoned for at once on this Day of Atonement.
What is all this? Oh, what a wonderful type of the true mediator. Hebrews 9:24 says this tabernacle was a copy of the true holy place, heaven itself. This appointed, humiliated, righteous, atoning High Priest entering this tabernacle. I see a direct view of Christ’s redemptive work. Standing on his shoulder, we get a colorful picture of the work of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Day of Atonement in Jerusalem offered up Himself on Golgotha, and rose again. Hebrews 9:24-25: “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another.” Verse 28: “so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” Leviticus 16 is a shadow and a copy. But the Lord Jesus Christ entered heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. For whom? For the elect.
He didn’t take all the sins of one year, but what a high, what a broad, what a wide mountain range of sins of all the people of God the Lord Jesus Christ swallowed up in the sea of His mercy by absorbing the wrath of God on our behalf. He took his blood and sprinkled it seven times, satisfying all the demands of the law that we broke, and perfected us before God eternally by one sacrifice and once entering heaven for us. Hebrews 10:12: “He offered one sacrifice for sins for all time. And He sat down.”
That is when he said, “It is finished,” and died. Matthew 27:51: “the curtain of the temple inside which Aaron went was torn from top to bottom.” What does this mean? The barrier between sinful men and the Holy God is removed by our High Priest.
All those for whom Christ died come to God without any hindrances or barriers. They are broken now. At that time, even a Jew entering the presence would die, but now even Gentiles can cross the Jewish camps, the Levites, the priests, and enter the outer court, the Holy Place, and even the Most Holy Place.
Men and women, boys and children, your greatest need is to come back to the Father and see him face to face. God has removed all those hindrances objectively in the work of his son. The great hindrance for us to come to God today, even as believers, is a guilty conscience. Satan complicates the problem by accusing us constantly with “fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:16), all those little suggestions to us that we really aren’t accepted and loved by God. Evil thoughts even before we pray. We come to pray, but some filthy thought, some hostile reaction, anger, a welling up of anger or impatience comes in. All the haunting memories of our past shame, our feelings of unworthiness, our filthy thoughts, and the flashes of fear that come upon us. What do you do with that? Your immediate temptation is to say, “Good night, what’s the use? I am not coming to God today.” We live far away from our greatest need of seeing his face. Now, what do we do?
Well, we are simply to imagine putting them right on the head of Jesus and say, “Like that goat took away my sins, you have taken all my sins. You have atoned for all these things.”
You know how you can come to God today and see him face to face? Don’t listen to Satan. Accept and receive the truth that the blood of Christ not only completely satisfies God about you, but it completely cleanses your conscience.
Believe God welcomes you into his presence not on the grounds of your works, devotion, the depth of your knowledge, or victory, but on the ground of the blood of the Lamb. This discovery of this glorious secret has enabled saints not only to overcome an accusing conscience and Satan but to enjoy close communion with God; to enjoy free access to the throne of grace, and full liberty in their service. They believed that God fully accepted them.
The passage in verse 13 says Aaron has to come full of sweet incense. This is the first deodorant used in Scripture! When we come to God trusting in the righteousness and sacrifice of Jesus, God smells the sweetness of Christ and does not smell any of our defilement. This is the way by which the evil odor of our own failure is eliminated and the sweetness of Jesus Christ is sprayed completely on us. This is what we are to remember when we come before God in prayer at any time.
So, on the basis of the great work and life’s work of this great high priest here on earth and his continuing ministry in heaven, my greatest need is met: coming to God anytime and seeing him face to face. I can boldly come before God’s presence with a clean conscience. Our deep, dark, scarlet past sins are all covered and have become as white as snow. Here I am, Lord; I present myself. I want to serve with liberty and a clean conscience. That is the purpose of the great Day of Atonement.
Hebrews 10:19-22: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, 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.”
This is the great goal of the Day of Atonement. It teaches that as we come before his presence, we are to come clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, based on his blood. We are fully accepted and loved. We will experience the full satisfaction of his presence only through this.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 