September 14.2013
THE ATONEMENT AND THE SIN OFFERING
The Atonement and the Sin Offering
When Christ died he shed his blood for the entire world. His blood brought grace to all who lived. Grace brought mercy and forgiveness to all people. It gave all people a chance to repent. It gave all men time an opportunity to come to God. Grace took away from us the punishment of the sin of Adam that would have caused death for all mankind. Man does indeed die but the death that we suffer is a form of sleep. Grace allowed all men to rise up again in the resurrection. Grace did not give the atonement to all men, but to only those found worthy. During the time of the Levitical priest hood the priests offered burnt offerings always to the Lord. On every New Moon and on every feast day they would offer a sin offering as well for the sin of all the people. In addition, when a
person
had
sinned
they had to bring a sin or trespass offering. A trespass offering was given when a person
knew
that
they were sinning and did it anyway. A sin offering was given when someone had sinned in some way but did not know they were sinning at the time. When they were aware of their sin they had to give an offering. More was required of a trespass offering than a sin offering. For this class we will simply call all sin, known or unknown as requiring a sin offering. It is clear that a sin is a sin whether we understand that we are sinning or not, and that God weighs each sin individually. Once every year, the priest would enter into the Holiest of Holies with blood to make atonement for all of the people. This signifies that the atonement is a onetime thing, but what about the sin offerings that they always made?
When Christ died his blood hit the ground and brought grace to all people. And grace gave mercy, forgiveness, time and opportunity to repent. It allows a person to die as a sleep and to be awakened in the first resurrection. If the grace of God was not given, whenever a person sinned they would be punished immediately and severely. God forgives people all of the time. He forgave the Ninevites in the time of Jonah and did not destroy the city at that time. He has shown patience and mercy to all of the wicked people not destroying them in a flood the way he did during the days of Noah. Without Grace he would not forgive the sins of his children, and since all of us had sinned we would have no hope. But what many people do not understand is that the grace giving time and opportunity to all men does not at the same time remove the sin from our records. It is only the blood that he will shed at the time of the atonement that removes sin. The blood that fell to the ground, which remains in the ground of this earth, causes punishment to be deferred. You can compare it to a suspended sentence. To suspend a
sentence means to hold it in an undetermined state until further information. We are often pardoned or not punished for our sins over and over again. God is so good and so merciful to all of us. But just because a sentence is suspended or we are not punished does not mean that the sin is removed from our records. It remains there. We can compare our lives to a class. We have quizzes and tests throughout the class. We may fail some of them. But we do not fail the class until the end. God does punish us for our sins but not to the degree that it deserves. He does not punish us for all of our sins and he always punishes his children with mercy. Like a loving father he does not allow us to get away with everything. Discipline is a part of learning. It helps to change us and brings us into righteousness. He also punishes the earth in measure. He punishes the wicked but he also shows mercy to them. He does not destroy all of the wicked and he often gives them chance after chance to repent. Sometimes they seem to literally get away with murder. But they do not
truly get away with anything. We must all come before the judgment seat of God. In the end there is only one judgment. It is either life or death! In order for us to live we must have the blood of Jesus. We must be part of him and he must be a part of us. We must eat his body and drink his blood. We are part of him when we obey him and keep his commandments. Then Christ and the Father will make their abode with us. At the time of the atonement Christ will enter into the Holy place in heaven and will take his blood and wash our records clean. Only then will we be free from sin.
Please read: 65 verses Hebrew 9:1-28, Hebrew 10:1-31, I John 2:1-6