Apostles Church

You might live on one of two ends of a particular spectrum. 1. There is a God and He is Very Angry with me. You feel He is against you and is out to get you; a sense that ‘I will have to pay for this.’ You are anxiously waiting for the foot to drop; pained by a sense of his displeasure and that you have it coming to you. You feel burdened and crushed by a punishing conscience and sense of guilt. “Guilt is the source of sorrow; 'tis the fiend, The avenging fiend, that follows us behind With whips and stings.” – Nicholas Rowe (18^th Century British Poet). “No ear can hear nor tongue can tell the tortures of the inward hell!” —Lord Byron. In JM Coetzee's book Disgrace, the main character has been removed from his professorship for seducing one of his students. He tells her parents, “I am being punished for what happened between myself and your daughter. I am sunk into a state of disgrace from which it will not be easy to lift myself. It is not a punishment I have refused. I do not murmur against it. On the contrary, I am living it out from day to day, trying to accept my disgrace as my state of being. Is it enough to God, do you think, that I live in disgrace without term?” You think God wants you to live in this guilt and will repay you for it. Every challenge, trial, season of suffering is experienced as God’s rage, disappointment, disgust or indifference. The verdict over your life is “I am not acceptable to God.” You can’t love a God like that. You can only fear him. You will be like Martin Luther who found himself hating God because he felt he could never be good enough to have his approval.

The other end of the spectrum is There is a God and He is obligated to me. He is here for me and is obligated to come through for me. It is his job to love me, help me, provide for me, bless me, protect me and when I screw up, it's his job to forgive me. There is a casualness to your approach to God, a flippancy; a vision of him that shrinks him to insignificance. Maybe you’re even critical of God. The verdict over God is "God is not acceptable to me." You expect him to gain your acceptance.

Jesus and His cross destroy both extremes of that spectrum. The Pastor writing the book of Hebrews wants us to see God and ourselves rightly and he does it by detailing the Day of Atonement. We will see that the Sacrificial system, the High Priest and The Day of Atonement give us a long historical context that helps us understand Jesus and his cross and its relevance for us.

Our sources for understanding these things will be the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) and the Mishnah. The Mishnah is a compilation of oral tradition written down in early 200’s AD but dating all the way back to the days of Nehemiah. It is an ancient Jewish document. It describes in detail, according to oral tradition passed down, the events of the day of Atonement. The Talmud is a commentary on the Mishnah, also very ancient. The Day of Atonement is highest day in the Jewish Calendar. It was a day of fasting and seeking God for the forgiveness of sins.  The people would dress in white in anticipation of being cleansed from their sins.

Leviticus 16:6-10 

High Priest would go through an extensive preparation process. On that day, he would bath completely, dress in white linen garments, symbolizing the hope that Israel would be purified and cleansed from sin. He would then make a sacrifice for his sins; Talmud says, “it is right according to the law, for it is better that one guiltless should atone for the sinners than that one not yet purified from sins himself should atone for other sinners.” He would cast lots over two goats; the one that was for Yahweh was sacrificed and blood sprinkled on mercy seat in the HofH to satisfy God’s just anger against the people’s sins. 

Text Leviticus 16:20-22. The High Priest would turn his attention to the second goat – the Azazel. The word Azazel means “banish or remove.” According to Mishnah, a scarlet thread, called a tongue of crimson, was tied to the horns of the goat to symbolize the sins of the people. HP lay hands on head of goat and confess the sins of the people over the goat and make the declaration that on that day, they would “be clean from all their sins before God (Leviticus 16:30).” The worshipers would fall on their faces before God at the mention of his name. After confessing the sins of the people and pronouncing the hope of forgiveness, a person who was appointed for the task, led the goat out of the city and released him in the wilderness. Their sins were taken away, removed from them. Later, the Mishnah tells us they would push it off a cliff.

According to Jewish Tradition there was a second crimson wool piece of material that was tied to the gate of the Temple. According to Rabbi Ishmael as recorded in the Mishnah, there was a sign that the goat had made it to the wilderness and had been pushed off the cliff. “A tongue of crimson wool used to be tied to the gate at the Temple, and as the he-goat had reached the desert, the wool used to become white; as it is said, ‘Though your sins be scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall become like wool. Jesus is tried and sentenced, John 19:14-15. He was led away with a ring of scarlet blood around his head. Heb 9:26b-28. He took away our sins, he bore them. He is the one who makes us white as snow. 

Hebrews 10:1-4. Sacrifices on Day of Atonement were only temporary and provisional – repeated every year. They could never fully and finally deal with sin and the guilt and shame that accompanied it. All of this pointed to a greater reality to come. Jesus fulfills every intent of the Day of Atonement; He is the True and Better Priest. He is the Sinless and Final Priest (Heb 7:23-28; Heb 10:11-14). When the HP finished his work on that day the people rejoiced and then waited for next year to do it all over. Our High Priest has sat down. He is the True and Better Sacrifice. He satisfies God’s just demands. He Removes our Guilt. He cleanses our conscience once and for all (Heb 9:11-14). [New Atheists claim that it’s barbaric to think of God demanding blood to appease his wrath against sinners and asinine to think that the death of one man could actually accomplish it. But is it barbaric and asinine? If a gross offense was committed against you, would you not cry out for justice? So, if we commit a gross offense against an infinitely holy and good God, should we think that that offense is covered by a well-meant apology? Sin against one who is infinitely glorious and great calls for the highest sentence. It is not barbaric to demand death for an offense if the offense is against one who is infinitely glorious and good. And it is not asinine if Christ is infinitely glorious and good, the eternal son of God. The death of the Holy One satisfies the just demands of the Holy One. In fact, it is not barbaric but gracious that the very death God demands, he dies himself.] Jesus removes your guilt. The Anglican minister Charles Simeon tells his story of coming to Jesus. “…in Passion Week I was met with an expression to this effect – ‘That the Jews knew what they did, when they transferred their sin to the head of their offering.’ The thought came into my mind, What, may I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an Offering for me, that I may lay my sins on His head? Then, God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul one moment longer. Accordingly I sought to lay my sins upon the sacred head of Jesus.”

JM Coetzee's character asks, “Is it enough to God, do you think, that I live in disgrace without term?” What is enough for God is Christ. He gives you God’s acceptance; removes your unacceptance. If you are in Jesus, the cross has turned God’s countenance favorably toward you. All God’s wrath has been spent on Jesus; fallen on him. God accepts you, adopts you; He is for you. All that touches you is ultimately for your good. He accepts you with all of your failures, inconsistencies, and contradictions. The reason we still feel guilt and unacceptance is because we look inward for reasons for God to love  and accept us. We must not look inward for those reasons; we must look upward where Christ is seated having accomplished all that is necessary for us to be accepted. When we get this we can be honest about ourselves while not being crushed by our honesty. We do not obey God in hope of earning his acceptance at cost to ourselves; we obey God out of the joy of the gift of his acceptance purchased for us at cost to himself. We don't live dutifully for God out of fear of what he will do for us; we live for God out of delight, grateful for what he has done for us. I don’t have to change so he will accept me; I can chance because he has accepted me and will work in me to make me all he intends me to be.

Other end of spectrum: You need to be forgiven and made acceptable. You’ve been demanding that God earn your acceptance, sitting in judgment over God. You have seen him as small. But you are on trial. God is sitting in judgment over you and he is not small; he is infinite and holy. You must sense the greatness of God and the burden of your guilt like Isaiah did and cry out woe is me. Christ will not be sweet until your sin and guilt are bitter. This is how sinful you are: The Eternal son of God had to die to satisfy God’s wrath against you. This is how much you are loved, He was glad to do it. So, you must trade places. John Stott describes our predicament like this: you put yourself where only God should be. That is sin. To remedy that, God put himself where only you should be. God, clothed in flesh hung on a cross in your place. You must respond by putting Him where only He should be - rightfully exalted as your Savior and your King. Lay your hands on his life and your life into his hands.

The Greater Context of Hebrews: These Christians are beging tempted to go back to Judaism, a safer spirituality without Christ. But, that is like forsaking fresh baked bread to eat flour or walking out of a movie to go watch the trailer. Don't leave Christ. 1. There is no love like this that you can surrender fully to. You can love a God like this and fully entrust yourself to him. 2. There is no salvation anywhere else. He is our only hope.