- Pastor Dr. Mensa Otabil at International Central Gospel Church, Christ Temple Accra || Sunday Service.
WORDS OF OUR SALVATION 6 : ATONEMENT
Today we will look at the word ‘atonement’, It is a powerful word that you find in scripture. Atonement means when two parties that have been separated are reconciled or made as one again. Atonement is an English word, it was two words at first ‘at one’ but over time they have been joined together to form the word ‘atone’.
Atonement is basically bringing people who are separated together, in the New Testament sometimes it is called reconciliation. The word is found exactly in the Old Testament , in the New Testament you don’t find the word atonement but the idea is very present.
I will go ahead to talk about the three main ideas that atonement represents.
- Atonement means to cover. Scripturally, it means when God hides our sins from His sight.
- Atonement means to remove. That means God doesn’t just cover our sins, he takes away our sin. In scriptures there is the covering of sin and the removal of sin, those are two different things.
- Atonement means to amend. When God repairs our relationship with Him.
When we talk about atonement, we should be conscious of these three things: first, sin that is covered, second, sin that is removed and thirdly relationship that is repaired. Church Gist. These are the things that God does for us in the process of atonement. It is another word for salvation in Christ.
Atonement always requires sacrifice, we see that in the New Testament and in the Old Testament . We will look at atonement in the Old Testament and then atonement in the New Testament, which is Christ. Church Gist. If you are familiar with the Bible, you should have found out that much of the word is used in the books of Exodus, Leviticus up to Numbers and also the word is used in the writings of the Prophets.
There are many ways atonement is done in the Old Testament but the height of atonement is what happens on what is called the Day of Atonement . So I am going to focus on that in the brief time that I have. The Day of Atonement occurs once in the Old Testament , on that special day, special sacrifices are made for the sins of the people. Church Gist. The Day of Atonement is still recognized and celebrated in Israel today. This year the Day of Atonement fell on the 16th of September, just last week Thursday. The Day of Atonement falls either in September or October normally.
On the Day of Atonement , a few things happen and I will walk through them, at the beginning of atonement, the High Priest is the one who normally celebrates the feast so he has to first atone for His sins because the High Priest is a sinner just like the people. Church Gist. He atones for His sins and then he does another sacrifice to atone for the altar, the temple and for the utensils of the temple because they have been contaminated by sin. Then after he has done that, he atones for the sins of the people. Today I am going to only focus on His atonement of the sins of the people.
At the beginning of the process of atonement for the people, the High Priest will bring two goats and cast a lot because they will do two different things. One goat will be killed and the other will live, that talks about two different aspects of our salvation and I will take time to work you through it.
The first goat is the goat of the sin offering, it is recorded in Leviticus 16:15 “Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring His blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat”
This goat that was killed, it’s blood was taken by the High Priest and he would go beyond the veil, in the Old Testament temple there was a place called the Holy Place and another place called the Holy of Holies, between the Holy Place and The Holy of Holies is a curtain called the Veil. Church Gist. The Priest will take the blood will take the blood and enter into the Holy Place, you only enter the Holy of Holies once and only one person can enter, the High Priest and he can only enter on the Day Of Atonement. If he enters any other day, he is gone.
On the Day of Atonement he takes the blood of the goat and enters into the Holy of Holies, and applies it on the mercy seat. When the blood of that goat is applied, it covers the sin of the people. Church Gist. The killing of the goat shows that the price of sin has been paid because the wage of sin is death. Since God cannot kill all the people, because if every one was to pay their own wages then everybody must die.
Remember God told Adam and Eve that the day they eat from the tree they shall surely die. But they ate from the tree and didn’t die because another animal was killed to make covering for them. God requires that man should die for His sin but if he kills a man that is the end of the story, no repentance again. So instead of the man dying, something else has to die in His place, in this case it is the goat.
The goat is killed, showing that the price of sin has been covered. The priest covers the mercy seat with the blood, showing that the sins of the people have been covered for the time being, secondly it means that the people have been reconciled to God. Church Gist. The Blood of the goat reconciled the people because it’s blood is applied to the mercy seat. It means that God now has mercy over His people. Also as the priest has gone through the veil a way has been opened for relationship with God who dwells in the Holy of Holies and His people who dwell in the Holy Place.
There is a second goat, this goat is called the scape goat and in Leviticus 16:21-22 we see the offering of the scapegoat.
Leviticus 16:21-22 (NKJV) – Aaron shall lay both His hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
Remember one goat has been killed, this one is not killed it is alive. The reason why it is alive shows that there are two sides to atonement, one requires that the price of sin be paid, the second requires that the sin must be removed. The live goat carries the sin of the people, it does not pay the price, it carries it. Church Gist. The High Priest lays His hands on the living goat and confess all the sins of the people. All of those sins are put on the head of that goat, so the goat now represents the people. Their sins have been transferred to this goat, so it is now carrying the sins of the people.
The first goat died for the sins of the people, the second goat carries the sins of the people, not only does it carry the sins of the people, it removes the sins of the people from God’s presence. A suitable person is chosen and is asked to take the goat far away from amongst the people and the presence of God. Church Gist. This person takes the goat to a place that is uninhabited and releases the goat to go into the wilderness. It means that God will not see the sin again because the goat has carried all the sins out of the people. That goat is where we get the English term “scapegoat”.
When all these happens, Israel can now say “our sins have been atoned for”. “Our sins have been removed from the presence of God and among us”. Church Gist. Many times when we talk about sin, we know our sins have been forgiven but we still think we are sinners, the sin that has been forgiven is not still with you, you are forgiven and your sins have been taken away from you. The Day of Atonement says your sins have been not just forgiven but also removed. Atonement is a complete package that forgives sin and removes sin from the people.
Atonement in the New Testament
Atonement in the Old Testament is what we call a type or a shadow of things to come. So whatever is happening with the dead goat and the scapegoat happened in the New Testament but in another form. In the New Testament Jesus is the lamb, he represents both of the goats.
John 1:35-36 (NKJV) – Again, the next day, John stood with two of His disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament as the lamb of God. In the New Testament atonement is not about goats, it is about Christ who offered himself once and for all. In the New Testament atonement is fulfilled in Christ. I want to walk us through a few things that Christ did through His atonement.
- Jesus cleansed our sins with His blood just as it was done with the goat. (Hebrews 9:11-12) In the New Testament Jesus is the High Priest he enters into the Holy of Holies not with something else’s blood but with His own blood. Church Gist. When he took His blood to the Holy of Holies, he did for us what the goat, couldn’t do because what the goat did only lasted for one year. But Jesus by His blood purchased for us eternal redemption. His blood which is superior to the blood of goats and cows has forgiven us once and for all.
- Jesus also carried our sins just like the scapegoat (1 Peter 2: 24).
- Jesus took our sins away (John 1:29)
- Jesus mended our relationship with God (Colossians 1:19-20)
The Bible says “God has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” because He has removed our sins and the scapegoat which is Christ has taken it away. God also says “I will not remember your sins anymore”.
You will always remember your sin, so you can’t forgive yourself. If you could forgive yourself, there would have been no need for a Saviour. Church Gist. The human being is not capable of forgiving Himself because we have a memory. That is why God doesn’t rely on you for forgiveness, he relies on Jesus for forgiveness. Jesus himself carries your sins and rook it out of the way.
Although you may remember it in your head, in God’s economy he has taken it away. That is why we live by faith in the finished work of the lord Jesus Christ.
Spend some time praying this morning asking the Lord to remind you of what Christ has done for you.
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