The yearly Day of Atonement, as recorded in Leviticus 16, was the most important day on Israel’s calendar. It was the one day every year that Aaron, the High Priest, was allowed to go behind the veil and enter the Most Holy Place. This day Aaron went into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled the mercy seat with blood. This ritual covered Israel’s sin for a year. There is not a type of Christ’s atoning work in the Old Testament Scriptures that sets forth the cross work of Christ as clearly as Aaron’s work on the Day of Atonement. On that day Aaron not only performed the two major functions of a priest: (1) to offer a sacrifice and (2) to make intercession, but he performed both of these things behind the veil in the Most Holy Place. Aaron presented the blood from the goat that had been sacrificed, sprinkled it on the mercy seat of the Ark in the Most Holy Place and pleaded for Israel’s forgiveness. Leviticus 16 shows the atonement of Christ in typology. Here is God’s instruction on how the Day of Atonement was to be observed.
The instructions begin with a warning. No one except Aaron is allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and he is to enter only on the Day of Atonement. God reminds Aaron in verse 1 of the death of his two sons, Nadab and Abiuh, (see Lev. 10:1-3) when they “offered unauthorized fire” before the Lord.
The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord (Lev. 16:1).
Aaron is specifically warned that he will die like his two sons if he comes into the Most Holy Place at any time other than the Day of Atonement.
The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover” (Lev.6:2).
Aaron is then instructed exactly how he is to approach God in the Most Holy Place. He first brings a sin offering and a burnt offering. He then fully bathes and puts on plain linen clothing including his underwear. These are special garments that Aaron will only wear on the Day of Atonement. The rest of the year he wears the clothes described in Exodus 28:3-35. His regular clothes were very ornate and colorful. On the Day of Atonement Aaron will lay aside his regular ornate high priestly clothes, bathe himself and put on the special plain linen clothing. He will put the special linen clothes on when he first comes into the Most Holy Place, and he will take them off after the scapegoat is released and will not wear them again for another year.
The laying aside of the royal clothes and putting on the plain clothing reminds us of the fact that our Lord’s atonement was accomplished in his humanity, that is, as “the man Christ Jesus.” It was not the Son of God in the full power of his deity that defeated Satan, but it was Jesus, the son of Mary, our true kinsman, our older brother who fought and conquered Satan as our substitute. In his incarnation our Lord did not cease to be absolute deity, but he did lay aside the exercise of his deity and put on the robe of human flesh with all its limitations—yet without sin. He laid aside the use of the splendor and glory of his deity and robed himself in the plain linen of our humanity in order to become one with us in our humanity and function as our kinsman redeemer.
“This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on” (Lev.16:3-4).
Aaron then takes two goats from the congregation for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. He offers the bullock for himself and his house. Everything that in any way involves either the priest or the people must be the cleanest by sprinkled blood because it has been defiled by contact with sin.
“From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household” (Lev.16:5-6).
The symbolism of the two goats is the heart of the Day of Atonement. Two goats are chosen from among the congregation. The High Priest then cast lots and designate the one goat as “the Lord’s goat.” This goat will be slain and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place. This goat illustrates the truth of the propitiatory work on the cross. The NIV states the essence of its meaning:
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:25-26).
The mercy seat is the place of the propitiation or a sacrifice of atonement. It is the aspect of Christ’s sacrifice that pays for sin and satisfies the holy character of God. There is no word hated as deeply by liberal churchmen as the word propitiation. The idea that a God of love could have a wrath that needed to be satisfied with a sacrifice is a monstrous idea to a liberal. They insist that the suffering caused by sin is not because there is wrath in God but only because the nature of sin carries suffering as a consequence. Wrath is like the heat in a radiator. If you touch a hot radiator you will feel pain, but that is not because there is wrath in the radiator. The liberal’s problem is his misunderstanding of the true nature of God. He begins with love instead of beginning with holiness. The death of the “Lord’s goat” shows the necessity of a death to pay for sin. I used to say, “God owes no man anything,” but I was wrong. God owes every sinner the wages of sin, namely death as the penalty for sin. God is honest and will pay the earned wages.
After sprinkling the mercy seat with blood, Aaron will put both hands on the second goat and confess the sins of Israel. This illustrates the doctrine of imputation. The people’s sins are symbolically imputed, “put on,” the goat and the goat is taken out into the wilderness and forever lost. The work of the second goat illustrates the doctrine of expiation of sin by our Lord. He not only paid for sin, but he literally carried the sin away. He bore the penalty of our sin on the cross and then buried it forever in his tomb. He went into the grave with our sin on him and left the sin behind when he arose from death. The Holy Ghost uses some strong metaphors to illustrate this truth.
One of the metaphors is Micah 7:19: “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” A young Christian was on a cruise ship and started to flip a silver dollar into the air. Each time he flipped it a little higher. When a small crowd gathered, the young man flipped the coin very high, and the wind took it into the ocean. The young man asked the crowd, “How many of you believe we could turn around and find that coin?” Everyone smiled and some said, “No way. It is gone forever.” The young man said, “I think you are right. There is something else that is buried in the depth of the sea and will never be found, and that it is my sin.” He then proceeded with presenting the gospel.
One of my favorite passages that teach this truth is Psalm 103:12: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” I remember using this text in a sermon. I emphasized that east and west never meet. If you took off in an airplane and flew directly west, you would fly forever and never be flying east. You would always be flying west. If you turned around and flew east, you would fly forever without ever flying west. As I said, east and west never meet. The same thing is not true if you fly either north or south. If you fly south, you will start flying north when you cross the South Pole, or if you fly north, you will start flying south when you cross the North Pole. After the service ended an elderly lady smiled and said, “I am sure glad the Holy Ghost knows the difference between east and west and north and south.” From north to south is not very far but from east to west is beyond measuring.
Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat (Lev. 16:7-10).
Sin has now both been paid for, carried away and forgotten forever. Aaron slays the bullock to atone for himself and his house. He takes a censer full of hot coals from the altar and sweet incense and goes behind the veil. He pours the incense over the hot coals, and a sweet aroma fills the Most Holy Place.
“Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die” (Lev.16:11-13).
This is a picture of justification. Aaron stands accepted in the very place that is off-limits upon pain of death for 364 days of the year. He stands in the presence of God as the people’s representative, and the sweet smell of the incense fills the room signifying that God is pleased. This acceptance is because of the blood atonement that was made on the coals of fire Aaron is carrying. The Most Holy Place becomes a place of meeting with God in assurance of forgiveness of sins instead of a place of fear and judgment. The Apostle Paul uses the sweet smelling savor image in Ephesians.
. . . . . and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:2).
The cross provides an acceptable atonement and changes the smell of death into the smell of grace and forgiveness. All of the ugliness and smell of an animal being sacrificed on hot coals is transformed into the God ordained means of satisfying his perfect holiness. When God sees the blood applied, he sees the perfect obedient sacrifice of his son, and he is well pleased. There is surely nothing “sweet smelling” in the agony of the cross from a human point of view, but God saw the cross as the height of our Lord’s obedience. Our Lord was never more pleasing to his father than he was the moment he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” At that moment Jesus was putting himself into the hands of his Father to be crucified knowing that he would be vindicated and raised from the dead. This was the act of perfect obedience and faith. The Father raised him from the dead and gave him all power and authority as a reward for his work. Justification robes us in Christ’s perfect righteousness, and we are a sweet smelling savor unto God.
We are reminded of Jacob and his mother fooling Isaac and stealing the first-born blessing. Isaac was getting old and blind. He asked Jacob to go hunting, kill a deer and roast it the way he liked it. Rebekah dressed Jacob in Esau’s clothes so he would smell like the fields. She put hair on the back of Jacob’s hands and the smooth part of his neck. She prepared two goats and made them taste like venison (that was quite a trick!). Isaac was skeptical at first and wanted to feel his son. The hair Rebekah put on Jacob’s hands and neck fooled Isaac. Isaac then told Jacob to come near and kiss him. When Isaac kissed Jacob he said, “You smell like Esau,” and Isaac blessed Jacob. The whole story is found in Genesis 27.
What a glorious picture of our drawing near to God “in the name of Jesus” and receiving a blessing we did not earn or in any way deserve; however, we did not fool or deceive God. He is fully aware we are trading on the merits of his Son. We come into his presence in the name of Christ because the Father has told us to come trusting in the merits of Christ. When we are washed in the blood of Christ and robed in his righteousness, we “smell like Jesus” and God blesses us “for Jesus sake.” He draws us to himself and gives us the kiss of reconciliation.
Leviticus states a truth that needs a constant repetition:
No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, …(Lev. 16:17).
Our Lord performed the work of atonement all by himself. There is no “his part” combined with “our part” in the scheme of grace. When I hear so-called evangelists say, “God has done his part, now you must do your part,” I want to shout, “My part was to run as fast as I could to get away from God, and his part was to run faster and overcome all my resistance.” I love the way the writer of Hebrews repeats this same truth:
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (Heb. 1:3).
There were no chairs in the tabernacle because the priest’s work was never finished. When our Lord, all by himself with no help from us, had “purged our sins,” he sat down because his work of atonement was finished. However, he did not sit down on a chair; he sat down on a throne in heaven beside his father. There will never be another Day of Atonement.
There is a lot of confusion concerning the status of an old covenant believer. A lot of the confusion is created by theologians totally misunderstanding the radical difference between the old and new covenants. old covenant believers had a hope in a coming Messiah and were just as “saved by grace” as we are today. They were just as eternally secure in their faith as a believer is today; however, they had no way of knowing they were secure. An old covenant believer would have assurance running out his ears on the Day of Atonement when he saw Aaron coming out of the Most Holy Place. He would know he was safe and secure for a whole year. He would not have known what it was to be united to Christ in his death, burial, resurrection and ascension and be eternally secure in Christ.
There was no sacrifice, including the goat on the Day of Atonement, which would allow an Old Testament believer into the presence of God behind the veil. He could not have had an awareness of eternal security but only an awareness of one year’s atonement. He was secure but had no way of knowing it. An old covenant believer, including David, believed his salvation was up for grabs on the Day of Atonement. Some theologians give the impression that old covenant believers chewed gum in disinterest when Aaron went into the Most Holy Place. Such is not the case. The individual believer would have felt his hope of acceptance with God was tied with Aaron’s offering being accepted. He did not say or think that the ritual on the Day of Atonement had nothing to do with him because he could somehow look forward to the completed revelation of God in Christ and grasp that he was eternally secure.
A new covenant believer knows he is eternally secure in Christ because many new covenant texts teach that truth. He does not feel he must get converted again every time he sins. He can use the new covenant promises like John 5:24 and Romans 8:1 to maintain assurance in spite of sin. An old covenant believer did not have those promises. The extent of his experience was based on the knowledge he could get from the old covenant, and that knowledge did not include being “seated together with Christ in heaven.” He had eternal life but believed he only had a one-year atonement, and he believed he could lose that one year’s salvation for willful covenant breaking.
We must not read the New Testament experience as being identical to the experience of an old Covenant believer despite the fact an old Covenant believer had many of the same blessings we enjoy today. Abraham is the prototype for justification for all believers in every dispensation, but that does not mean that Abraham understood and believed Romans 5:1-5. Experience cannot exceed revelation. An old covenant believer did not have the Book of Ephesians and the Book of Romans. He could not see himself “seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” since Christ had not yet even died. David was just as eternally secure, despite his sin, as a believer is today, but he believed he could lose his salvation. Psalm 51 is not merely pleading to not lose the assurance of salvation, but it is pleading to not lose salvation. I repeat, David was just as secure as you and me, but he had no revelation upon which to garner assurance of that security. The old covenant believer “hoped” for many things that had to await the coming of the Messiah to fulfill the new covenant. Blessings rooted in the new covenant cannot be experienced until the new covenant is in force. Remember the old covenant believer did not live under the covenant that Christ established; he lived under the law covenant that God established through Moses at Sinai. The new covenant believer is “under grace” in a way an old covenant believer never could be, and the old covenant believer was under law in a way a new covenant believer must never be.
Hebrews 9 gives a review of the Tabernacle ministry on the Day of Atonement. Verse 15 reveals that the New Testament, or covenant, had to be in place before believers could receive the “promise of an eternal inheritance.” The one year “covering” of sin on the Day of Atonement was not a real atonement because it was only a temporary promise of a coming atonement. The Day of Atonement was like an “I owe you” that guaranteed a future true atonement. There was no real atonement that could cleanse the conscience until Christ died on the cross. The entire Levitical system was only a type, a foreshadowing. All of the animal sacrifices put together could not actually forgive one sin.
In the next chapter we will look at the theology behind “the testimony” in the ark. A failure to see that the Ten Commandments, or “Tables of the Covenant,” is a covenant document and not the so-called “moral law” obscures the biblical meaning of the Day of Atonement.