The Forever Atonement

“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. Leviticus 16:29-30 (English Standard Version, ESV)

The Hebrew Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, began last night at sundown. According to the Old Testament, annually on this day the high priest had to go through a detailed ritual, including entering the most holy place to apply the blood of animals to cover, or make atonement for, the sins of the nation for a year. It did not totally remove sin, but just covered it for the year to make the people clean before the Lord. The people were cleansed temporarily, but were never truly freed from sin. That is, they were never fully freed from sin until Jesus came and shed His blood.

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus was the turning point. Everything changed. The blood of the sinless man Jesus was sufficient to not simply cleanse people for a year, but to cleanse them for all time. This was demonstrated to us by the fact that during Jesus’ crucifixion the heavy-duty curtain in the temple that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn in two, from the top to the bottom. Man could not do such a thing- the curtain was massive. And it was torn from the top, meaning it was done by God Himself. It revealed that nothing could separate man from God as long as He is under the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the forever atonement sacrifice. All who apply His blood to their lives are cleansed and freed from the slavery of sin- never to be under it’s enslavement again.

The finished work of Jesus Christ is irreversible and irrevocable. It cannot be undone and it is not a partial or temporary work. All who place themselves under the blood of Jesus and choose to remain in Him are forever clean before God. This means we are freed from the grip of sin and the control of the devil. We do not have to sin because we now have a new nature. And if we do mess up, we are still under the blood, but we can remove the access it gives the enemy to our lives by sincerely repenting to the Lord for it. What amazing grace it is that did for us what we could never do for ourselves: provide a forever atonement with eternal freedom and cleansing from sin and all that would hold us back and harm us.