In our Leviticus reading today we see that the Lord loves his people and provides a means for their forgiveness. Through the very detailed sacrificial rites the high priest makes sacrifice for himself, for the people, even for the tabernacle itself. He ceremonially cleanses the entire place from the guilt of the people. Finally he confesses the sins of all the people over a goat and sends the goat out into the wilderness, from where it will never return alive. By the sacrifices, by the anointing with the blood of an offering, by the confession of sins, the sin of the people of Israel is taken away from them.
It is the fashion in some parts of evangelicalism today to say that the people of Israel are not forgiven their sins on the day of atonement. This is not so. God has appointed this means of approach to his holiness. He says that the sins of the people are atoned for. He says the transgressions of the people are imputed to the goat which dies in the wilderness. There is no reason to dispute this. What does not happen in the Old Testament is a permanent forgiveness of sin. We do not see the once for all sacrifice for sin which is accomplished in Jesus. We see a sacrifice which, though it atones for sin, must be repeated again and again.
Let us rejoice then that in these last days we are made participants in the atonement of Christ. Our sins have been confessed and placed on him. He, unlike the goat in Leviticus 16, is like us, a human. He is able to bear our sins and die as our substitute. This is a sacrifice for sin, once for all. This is a sacrifice by which our sin is taken care of in the person of Christ and by which Jesus' righteousness is given to us in place of our sin. This is the true atonement.
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