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“This shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the
children of Israel for all their sins once a year.”-Leviticus 16:34.
The Jews had many striking ceremonies which marvellously set forth the death
of Jesus Christ as the great expiation of our guilt and the salvation of our
souls. One of the chief of these was the day of atonement, which I believe
was pre-eminently intended to typify that great day of vengeance of our God,
which was also the great day of acceptance of our souls, when Jesus Christ
“died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” That day of atonement
happened only once a year, to teach us that only once should Jesus Christ
die; and that though he would come a second time, yet it would be without a
sin offering unto salvation. The lambs were perpetually slaughtered; morning
and evening they offered sacrifice to God, to remind the people that they
always needed a sacrifice; but the day of atonement being the type of the one
great propitiation, it was but once a year that the high priest entered
within the vail with blood as the atonement for the sins of the people. And
this was on a certain set and appointed time; it was not left to the choice
of Moses, or to the convenience of Aaron, or to any other circumstance which
might affect the date; it was appointed to be on a peculiar set day, as you
find at the 29th verse: “In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the
month;” and at no other time was the day of atonement to be, to show us that
God’s great day of atonement was appointed and predestinated by himself.
Christ’s expiation occurred but once, and then not by any chance; God had
settled it from before the foundation of the world; and at that hour when God
had predestinated, on that very day that God had decreed that Christ should
die, was he led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers he was dumb. It was but once a year, because the sacrifice should be
once; it was at an appointed time in the year, because in the fulness of time
Jesus Christ should come into the world to die for us.
Now, I shall invite your attention to the ceremonies of this solemn day,
taking the different parts in detail. First, we shall consider the person who
made the atonement; secondly, the sacrifice whereby the atonement was
typically made; thirdly, the effects of the atonement; and fourthly, our
behaviour on the recollection of the atonement, as well set forth by the
conduct prescribed to the Israelites on that day.
I. First, THE PERSON WHO WAS TO MAKE THE ATONEMENT. And at the outset, we
remark that Aaron, the high priest, did it. “Thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place; with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt
offering.” Inferior priests slaughtered lambs; other priests at other times
did almost all the work of the sanctuary; but on this day nothing was done by
any one, as a part of the business of the great day of atonement, except by
the high priest. Old rabbinical traditions tell us that everything on that
day was done by him, even the lighting of the candles, and the fires, and the
incense, and all the offices that were required, and that, for a fortnight
beforehand, he was obliged to go into the tabernacle to slaughter the
bullocks and assist in the work of the priests and Levites, that he might be
prepared to do the work which was unusual to him. All the labour was left to
him. So, beloved, Jesus Christ, the High Priest, and he only, works the
atonement. There are other priests, for “he hath made us priests and kings
unto God.” Every Christian is a priest to offer sacrifice of prayer and
praise unto God, but none save the High Priest must offer atonement; he, and
he alone, must go within the vail; he must slaughter the goat and sprinkle
the blood; for though thanksgiving is shared in by all Christ’s elect body,
atonement remains alone to him, the High Priest.
Then it is interesting to notice, that the high priest on this day was a
humbled priest. You read in the 4th verse, “He shall put on the holy linen
coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be
girded with a linen girdle, and with linen mitre shall he be attired: these
are holy garments.” On other days he wore what the people were accustomed to
call the golden garments; he had the mitre with a plate of pure gold around
his brow, tied with brilliant blue; the splendid breastplate, studded with
gems, adorned with pure gold and set with precious stones; the glorious
ephod, the tinkling bells, and all the other ornaments, wherewith he came
before the people as the accepted high priest. But on this day he had none of
them. The golden mitre was laid aside, the embroidered vest was put away, the
breastplate was taken off, and he came out simply with the holy linen coat,
the linen breeches, the linen mitre, and girded with a linen girdle. On that
day he humbled himself just as the people humbled themselves. Now, that is a
notable circumstance. You will see sundry other passages in the references
which will bear this out, that the priest’s dress on this day was different.
As Mayer tells us, he wore garments, and glorious ones, on other days, but on
this day he wore four humble ones. Jesus Christ, then, when he made
atonement, was a humbled priest. He did not make atonement arrayed in all the
glories of his ancient throne in heaven. Upon his brow there was no diadem,
save the crown of thorns; around him was cast no purple robe, save that which
he wore for a time in mockery; on his head was no sceptre, save the reed
which they thrust in cruel contempt upon him; he had no sandals of pure gold,
neither was he dressed as king; he had none of those splendours about him
which should make him mighty and distinguished among men; he came out in his
simple body, ay, in his naked body, for they stripped off even the common
robe from him, and made him hang before God’s sun and God’s universe, naked,
to his shame, and to the disgrace of those who chose to do so cruel and
dastardly a deed. Oh! my soul, adore thy Jesus, who when he made atonement,
humbled himself and wrapped around him a garb of thine inferior clay. Oh!
angels, ye can understand what were the glories that he laid aside. Oh!
thrones, and principalities, and powers, ye can tell what was the diadem with
which he dispensed, and what, the robes he laid aside to wrap himself in
earthly garbs. But, men, ye can scarce tell how glorious is your High Priest
now, and ye can scarce tell how glorious he was before. But oh! adore him,
for on that day it was the simple clean linen of his own body, of his own
humanity, in which he made atonement for your sins.
In the next place, the high priest who offered the atonement must be a
spotless high priest; and because there were none such to be found, Aaron
being a sinner himself as well as the people, you will remark that Aaron had
to sanctify himself and make atonement for his own sin before he could go in
to make an atonement for the sins of the people. In the 3rd verse you read,
“Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin
offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.” These were for himself. In the 6th
verse it is said, “And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering,
which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.”
Yea, more, before he went within the vail with the blood of the goat which
was the atonement for the people, he had to go within the vail to make
atonement there for himself. In the 11th, 12th, and 13th verses, it is said,
“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 vail.
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.” “And he shall take of the blood of the bullock (that is, the bullock
that he killed for himself), 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.” This was before he killed the goat, for it says,
“Then shall he kill the goat.” Before he took the blood which was a type of
Christ within the vail, he took the blood (which was a type of Christ in
another sense), wherewith he purified himself. Aaron must not go within the
vail until by the bullock his sins had been typically expiated, nor even then
without the burning smoking incense before his face, lest God should look on
him, and he should die, being an impure mortal. Moreover, the Jews tell us
that Aaron had to wash himself, I think, five times in the day; and it is
said in this chapter that he had to wash himself many times. We read in the
4th verse, “These are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in
water, and so put them on.” And at the 24th verse, “He shall wash his flesh
with water in the holy place, and put on his garments.” So you see it was
strictly provided for that Aaron on that day should be a spotless priest. He
could not be so as to nature, but, ceremonially, care was taken that he
should be clean. He was washed over and over again in the sacred bath. And
besides that, there was the blood of the bullock and the smoke of the
incense, that he might be acceptable before God. Ah! beloved, and we have a
spotless High Priest; we have one who needed no washing, for he had no filth
to wash away; we have one who needed no atonement for himself, for he, for
ever, might have sat down at the right hand of God, and ne’er have come on
earth at all. He was pure and spotless; he needed no incense to wave before
the mercy seat to hide the angry face of justice; he needed nothing to hide
and shelter him; he was all pure and clean. Oh! bow down and adore him, for
if he had not been a holy High Priest, he could never have taken thy sins
upon himself, and never have made intercession for thee. Oh! reverence him,
that, spotless as he was, he should come into this world and say, “For this
cause I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth.”
Adore and love him, the spotless High Priest, who, on the day of atonement
took away thy guilt.
Again, the atonement was made by a solitary high priest-alone and unassisted.
You read in the 17th verse, “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.” No other man was to be
present, so that the people might be quite certain that everything was done
by the high priest alone. It is remarkable, as Matthew Henry observes, that
no disciple died with Christ. When he was put to death, his disciples forsook
him and fled; they crucified none of his followers with him, lest any should
suppose that the disciple shared the honor of atonement. Thieves were
crucified with him because none would suspect that they could assist him; but
if a disciple had died, it might have been imagined that he had shared the
atonement. God kept that holy circle of Calvary select to Christ, and none of
his disciples must go to die there with him. O glorious High Priest, thou
hast done it all alone. O, glorious antitype of Aaron, no son of thine stood
with thee; no Eliezer, no Phineas, burned incense; there was no priest, no
Levite save himself. “I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people
there was none with me.” Then give all the glory unto his holy name, for
alone and unassisted he made atonement for your guilt. The bath of his blood
is your only washing; the stream of water from his side is your perfect
purification. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, has wrought out the work of our
salvation.
Again, it was a laborious high priest who did the work on that day. It is
astonishing how, after comparative rest, he should be so accustomed to his
work as to be able to perform all that he had to do on that day. I have
endeavoured to count up how many creatures he had to kill, and I find that
there were fifteen beasts which he slaughtered at different times, besides
the other offices, which were all left to him. In the first place, there were
the two lambs, one offered in the morning, and the other in the evening; they
were never omitted, being a perpetual ordinance. On this day the high priest
killed those two lambs. Further, if you will turn to Numbers xxix. 7-11, “And
ye shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month an holy convocation; and
ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work therein: But ye shall
offer a burnt unto the Lord for a sweet savour; one young bullock, one ram,
and seven lambs of the first year; they shall be unto you without blemish:
And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals
to a bullock, and two tenth deals to one ram. A several tenth deal for one
lamb, throughout the seven lambs: One kid of the goats for a sin offering:
besides the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and
the meat offering of it, and their drink offerings.” Here, then, was one
bullock, a ram, seven lambs, and a kid of the goats; making ten. The two
lambs made twelve. And in the chapter we have been studying, it is said in
the 3rd verse: “Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young
bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering;” which makes the
number fourteen. Then, after that, we find there were two goats, but only one
of them was killed, the other being allowed to go away. Thus, then, there
were fifteen beasts to be slaughtered, besides the burnt offerings of
thanksgiving which were offered by way of showing that the people now desired
to dedicate themselves to the Lord from gratitude, that the atonement of sin
offering had been accepted. He who was ordained priest in Jeshurun, for that
day, toiled like a common Levite, worked as laboriously as priest could do,
and far more so than on any ordinary day. Just so with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, what a labour the atonement was to him! It was a work that all the hands
of the universe could not have accomplished; yet he completed it alone. It
was a work more laborious than the treading of the wine-press, and his frame,
unless sustained by the divinity within, could scarce have borne such
stupendous labour. There was the bloody sweat in Gethsemane; there was the
watching all night, just as the high priest did for fear that uncleanness
might touch him; there was the hooting and the scorn which he suffered every
day before-something like the continual offering of the Lamb; then there came
the shame, the spitting, the cruel flagellations in Pilate’s hall; then there
was the via dolorosa through Jerusalem’s sad streets; then came the hanging
on the cross, with the weight of his people’s sins on his shoulders. Ay, it
was a Divine labour that our great High Priest did on that day-a labour
mightier than the making of the world: it was the new making of a world, the
taking of its sins upon his Almighty shoulders and casting them into the
depths of the sea. The atonement was made by a toilsome laborious High
Priest, who worked, indeed, that day; and Jesus, thought he had toiled
before, yet never worked as he did on that wondrous day of atonement.
II. Thus have I led you to consider the person who made the atonement: let us
now consider for a moment or two THE MEANS WHEREBY THIS ATONEMENT WAS MADE.
You read at the 5th verse, “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 at the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th verses, “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.” The first goat I considered to
be the great type of Jesus Christ the atonement: such I do not consider the
scapegoat to be. The first is a type of the means whereby the atonement was
made, and we shall keep to that first.
Notice that this goat, of course, answered all the pre-requisites of every
other thing that was sacrificed; it must be a perfect, unblemished goat of
the first year. Even so was our Lord a perfect man, in the prime and vigour
of his manhood. And further, this goat was an eminent type of Christ from the
fact that it was taken of the congregation of the children of Israel, as we
are told at the 5th verse. The public treasury furnished the goat. So,
beloved, Jesus Christ was, first of all, purchased by the public treasury of
the Jewish people before he died. Thirty pieces of silver they had valued him
at, a goodly price; and as they had been accustomed to bring the goat, so
they brought him to be offered: not, indeed, with the intention that he
should be their sacrifice, but unwittingly they fulfilled this when they
brought him to Pilate, and cried, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Oh, beloved!
Indeed, Jesus Christ came out from the midst of the people, and the people
brought him. Strange that it should be so! “He came unto his own, and his own
received him not;” his own led him forth to slaughter; his own dragged him
before the mercy seat.
Note, again, that though this goat, like the scapegoat, was brought by the
people, God’s decision was in it still. Mark, it is said, “Aaron shall cast
lots upon the two goats: one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the
scapegoat.” I conceive this mention of lots is to teach that although the
Jews brought Jesus Christ of their own will to die, yet, Christ had been
appointed to die; and even the very man who sold him was appointed to it-so
saith the Scripture. Christ’s death was fore-ordained, and there was not only
man’s hand in it, but God’s. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole
disposing thereof is of the Lord.” So it is true that man put Christ to
death, but it was of the Lord’s disposal that Jesus Christ was slaughtered,
“the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.”
Next, behold the goat that destiny has marked out to make the atonement. Come
and see it die. The priest stabs it. Mark it in its agonies; behold it
struggling for a moment; observe the blood as it gushes forth. Christians, ye
have here your Saviour. See his Father’s vengeful sword sheathed in his
heart; behold his death agonies; see the clammy sweat upon his brow; mark his
tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth; hear his sighs and groans upon the
cross; hark to his shriek, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” and you have more
now to think of than you could have if you only stood to see the death of a
goat for your atonement. Mark the blood as from his wounded hands it flows,
and from his feet it finds a channel to the earth; from his open side in one
great river see it gush. As the blood of the goat made the atonement
typically, so, Christian, thy Saviour dying for thee, made the great
atonement for thy sins, and thou mayest go free.
But mark, this goat’s blood was not only shed for many for the remission of
sins as a type of Christ, but that blood was taken within the vail, and there
it was sprinkled. So with Jesus’s blood, “Sprinkled now with blood the
throne.” The blood of other beasts (save only of the bullock) was offered
before the Lord, and was not brought into the most holy place; but this
goat’s blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat, to
make an atonement. So, O child of God, thy Saviour’s blood has made atonement
within the vail; he has taken it there himself; his own merits and his own
agonies are now within the vail of glory, sprinkled now before the throne. O
glorious sacrifice, as well as High Priest, we would adore thee, for by thy
one offering hot hast made atonement for ever, even as this one slaughtered
goat made atonement once in a year for the sins of all the people.
III. We now come to the EFFECTS.
One of the first effects of the death of this goat was sanctification of the
holy things which had been made unholy. You read at the end of the 15th
verse, “He shall sprinkle it upon the mercy seat: 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 holy place was made unholy by the
people. Where God dwelt should be holy, but where man comes there must be
some degree of unholiness. This blood of the goat made the unholy place holy.
It was a sweet reflection to me as I came here this morning. I thought, “I am
going to the house of God, and that house is a holy place;” but when I
thought how many sinners had trodden its floors, how many unholy ones had
joined in its songs, I thought, “Ah! it has been made defiled; but oh! there
is no fear, for the blood of Jesus has made it holy again.” “Ah!” I thought,
“there is our poor prayer that we shall offer: it is a holy prayer, for God
the Holy Spirit dictates it, but then it is an unholy prayer, for we have
uttered it, and that which cometh out of unholy lips like ours, must be
tainted.” “But ah!” I thought again, “it is a prayer that has been sprinkled
with blood, and therefore it must be a holy prayer.” And as I looked on all
the harps of this sanctuary, typical of your praises, and on all the censers
of this tabernacle, typical of your prayers, I thought within myself, “There
is blood on them all; our holy service this day has been sprinkled with the
blood of the great Jesus, and as such it will be accepted through him.” Oh!
beloved, it is not sweet to reflect that our holy things are now really holy;
that through sin is mixed with them all, and we think them defiled, yet they
are not, for the blood has washed out every stain; and the service this day
is as holy in God’s sight as the service of the cherubim, and is acceptable
as the psalms of the glorified; we have washed our worship in the blood of
the Lamb, and it is accepted through him.
But observe, the second great fact was that their sins were taken away. This
was set forth by the scapegoat. You read at the 20th, “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.” When that was done, you see, the great and wonderful atonement
was finished, and the effects of it were set forth to the people. Now, I do
not know how many opinions there are about this scapegoat. One of the most
strange opinions to me is that which is held by a very large portion of
learned men, and I see it is put in the margin of my Bible. Many learned men
thing that this word scapegoat, Azazel, was the name of the devil who was
worshipped by the heathen in the form of a goat; and they tell us that the
first goat was offered to God as an atonement for sin, and the other went
away to be tormented by the devil, and was called Azazel, just as Jesus was
tormented by Satan in the wilderness. To this opinion, it is enough to object
that it is difficult to conceive when the other goat was offered to God, this
should be sent among demons. Indeed, the opinion is too gross for belief. It
needs only to be mentioned to be refuted. Now the first goat is the Lord
Jesus Christ making atonement by his death for the sins of the people; the
second is sent away into the wilderness, and nothing is heard of it any more
for ever; and here a difficulty suggests itself-“Did Jesus Christ go where he
was never heard of any more for ever?” That is what we have not to consider
al all. The first goat was a type of the atonement; the second is the type of
the effect of the atonement. The second goat went away, after the first was
slaughtered, carrying the sins of the people on its head, and so it sets
froth, as a scapegoat, how our sins are carried away into the depth of the
wilderness. There was this year exhibited in the Art Union a fine picture of
the scapegoat dying in the wilderness: it was represented with a burning sky
above it, its feet sticking in the mire, surrounded by hundreds of skeletons,
and there dying a doleful and miserable death. Now, that was just a piece of
gratuitous nonsense, for there is nothing the Scripture that warrants it in
the least degree. The rabbis tell us that this goat was taken by a man into
the wilderness and here tumbled down a high rock to die; but, as an excellent
commentator says, if the man did push it down the rock he more than God ever
told him to do. God told him to take a goat and let it go: as to what became
of it neither you nor I know anything; that is purposely left. Our Lord Jesus
Christ has taken away our sins upon his head, just as the scapegoat, and he
is gone from us-that is all: the goat was not a type in its dying, or in
regard to its subsequent fate. God has only told us that it should be taken
by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. The most correct account seems
to be that of one Rabbi Jarchi, who says that they generally took the goat
twelve miles out of Jerusalem, and at each mile there was a booth provided
where the man who took it might refresh himself till he came to the tenth
mile, when there was no more rest for him till he had seen the goat go. When
he had come to the last mile he stood and looked at the goat till it was
gone, and he could see it no more. Then the people’s sins were all gone too.
Now, what a fine type that is if you do not enquire any further! But if you
will get meddling where God intended you to be in ignorance, you will get
nothing by it. This scapegoat was not designed to show us the victim or the
sacrifice, but simply what became of the sins. The sins of the people are
confessed upon that head; the goat is going; the people lose sight of it; a
fit man goes with it; the sins are going from them, and now the man has
arrived at his destination; the man sees the goat in the distance skipping
here and there overt the mountains, glad of its liberty; it is not quite
gone; a little farther, and now it is lost to sight. The man returns, and
says he can no longer see it; then the people clap their hands, for their
sins are all gone too. Oh! soul; canst thou see thy sins all gone? We may
have to take a long journey, and carry our sins with us; but oh! how we watch
and watch till they are utterly cast into the depths of the wilderness of
forgetfulness, where they shall never be found any more against us for ever.
But mark, this goat did not sacrificially make the atonement; it was a type
of the sins going away, and so it was a type of the atonement; for you know,
since our sins are thereby lost, it is the fruit of the atonement; but the
sacrifice is the means of making it. So we have this great and glorious
thought before us, that by the death of Christ there was full, free, perfect
remission for all those whose sins are laid upon his head. For I would have
you notice that on this day all sins were laid on the scapegoat’s head-sins
of presumption, sins of ignorance, sins of uncleanness, sins little and sins
great, sins few and sins many, sins against the law, sins against morality,
sins against ceremonies, sins of all kinds were taken away on that great day
of atonement. Sinner, oh, that thou hadst a share in my Master’s atonement!
Oh! that thou couldst see him slaughtered on the cross! Then mightest thou
see him go away leading captivity captive, and taking thy sins where they
might ne’er be found.
I have now an interesting fact to tell you, and I am sure you will think it
worth mentioning. Turn to Leviticus xxv. 9, and you will read: “Then shalt
thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the
seventh month, in the day of atonement shall yet make the trumpet sound
throughout all your land.” So that one of the effects of the atonement was
set forth to us in the fact that when the year of jubilee came, it was not on
the first day of the year that it was proclaimed, but “on the tenth day of
the seventh month.” Ay, methinks, that was the best part of it. The scapegoat
is gone, and the sins are gone, and no sooner are they gone than the silver
trumpet sounds,
“The year of jubilee is to come,
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.”
On that day sinners go free; on that day our poor mortgaged lands are
liberated, and our poor estates which have been forfeited by our spiritual
bankruptcy are all returned to us. So when Jesus dies, slaves win their
liberty, and lost ones receive spiritual life again; when he dies, heaven,
the long lost inheritance is ours. Blessed day! Atonement and jubilee ought
to go together. Have you ever had a jubilee, my friends, in your hearts? If
you have not, I can tell you it is because you have not had a day of
atonement.
One more thought concerning the effects of this great day of atonement, and
you will observe that it runs throughout the whole of the chapter-entrance
within the vail. Only on one day in the year might the high priest enter
within the vail, and then it must be for the great purposes of the atonement.
Now, beloved, the atonement is finished, and you may enter within the vail:
“Having boldness, therefore, to enter into the holiest, let us come with
boldness into the throne of the heavenly grace.” The vail of the temple is
rent by the atonement of Christ, and access to the throne is now ours. O
child of God, I know not of any privilege which thou hast, save fellowship
with Christ, which is more valuable than access to the throne. Access to the
mercy seat is one of the greatest blessings mortals can enjoy. Precious
throne of grace! I never should have had any right to come there if it had
not been for the day of atonement; I never should have been able to come
there if the throne had not been sprinkled with the blood.
IV. Now we come to notice, in the fourth place, what is our PROPER BEHAVIOUR
WHEN WE CONSIDER THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. You read at the 29th verse, “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.” That is one thing that we
ought to do when we remember the atonement. Sure, sinner, there is nothing
that move thee to repentance like the thought of that great sacrifice of
Christ which is necessary to wash away thy guilt. “Law and terrors do but
harden.” but methinks, the thought that Jesus died is enough to make us melt.
It is well, when we hear the name of Calvary, always to shed a tear, for
there is nothing that ought to make a sinner weep like the mention of the
death of Jesus. On that day “ye shall afflict your souls.” And even you, ye
Christians, when ye think that your Saviour died, should afflict your souls:
ye should say,
“Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?”
Drops of grief ought to flow, ay, streams of undissembled sympathy with him;
to show our grief for what we did to pierce the Saviour. “Afflict your
souls,” O ye children of Israel, for the day of atonement is come. Weep o’er
your Jesus; weep for him that died; weep for him who was murdered by your
sins, and “afflict your souls.”
Then, better still, we are to “do not work at all,” as ye find the same
verse, 29th. When we consider the atonement, we should rest, and “do no work
at all.” Rest from your works as God did from his on the great Sabbath of the
world; rest from your own righteousness; rest from your toilsome duties: rest
in him. “We that believe do enter into rest.” As soon as thou seest the
atonement finished, say, “it is done, it is done? Now will I serve my God
with zeal, but now I will no longer seek to save myself, it is done, it is
done for aye.”
Then there was another thing which always happened. When the priest had made
the atonement, it was usual for him, after he had washed himself, to come out
again in his glorious garments. When the people saw him they attended him to
his house with joy, and they offered burnt offerings of praise on that day:
he being thankful that his life was spared, (having been allowed to go into
the holy place and to come out of it) and they being thankful that the
atonement was accepted; both of them offering burnt offerings as a type that
they desired now to be “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.”
Beloved, let us go into our houses with joy; let us go into our gates with
praise. The atonement is finished; the High Priest is gone within the vail;
salvation is now complete. He has laid aside the linen garments, and he
stands before you with his breastplate, and his mitre, and his embroidered
vest, in all his glory. Hear how he rejoices over us, for he hath redeemed
his people, and ransomed them out of the hands of his enemies. Come, let us
go home with the High Priest; let us clap our hands with joy, for he liveth,
he liveth; the atonement is accepted, and we are accepted too; the scapegoat
is gone, our sins are gone with it. Let us then go to our houses with
thankfulness, and let us come up to his gates with praise, for he hath loved
his people, he hath blessed his children, and given unto us a day of
atonement, and a day of acceptance, and a year of jubilee. Praise ye the
Lord? Praise ye the Lord!
