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As its Eastertide, I've been strongly encouraged to do a little something around the subject of Easter.

So, I've delayed publishing my intended Blog Post ''Awash with Good People'', which is to be the next step on our journey; a journey which by its end, will put us in a position to confidently answer our five questions:

• What is the Holy Spirit?
• Why is the Holy Spirit so important?
• What does the Holy Spirit do you for and for me?
• How do I become filled with the Holy Spirit?
• What tangible, indisputable evidence does God provide me that assures me that I am filled with the Holy Spirit?

In this Blog Post and the next I've looked at what Jesus achieved at Easter, through his sacrifice on the cross and his victory over death, in the context of the Old Testament rituals of the Day of Atonement and the Feast of the Passover.

The modern meaning of the word 'atonement' derives from Anglo-Saxon and points to a process of bringing those who are estranged into a unity - literally, 'a making at one'

In the Hebrew and Greek of The Bible the translation of the words better render the idea of a 'reconciliation'.

For us, on this Eastertide, both these ideas above highlight the crucial 'atoning' work of Jesus in dealing with the problem posed by the sin of man, and in bringing sinners into the right relationship with God.

The need for atonement is brought about by three things;

• firstly, the universality of sin (1 Kings 8:46b  ''...for there is no man that sinneth not...'')
• second, the seriousness of sin - sin separates man from God (Isaiah 59:2  ''But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.''); and
• third, man's complete inability to deal with sin, he in not able to keep his sin hidden and cannot cleanse himself of it (Proverbs 20:9  ''Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?'')

For God and man, then, it would appear are hopelessly estranged by man's sin, and there is no way back from man's side. 

But God provides a way back.

In the Old Testament, atonement is usually said to be obtained by sacrifices.  The atonement, reconciliation - call it what you will - was secured not by any value inherent in the sacrificial victim, but because sacrifice was the divinely appointed way of securing atonement. 

God required that the victim must always be unblemished, which indicates the necessity for perfection.

The most important day in the Hebrew calender was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which was on the 10th day of the 7 month, Tishri (around September/October).  This annual holy day celebrated the covering of the national sins by the offering of two goats, one killed and the other (scape goat) driven into the wilderness.

The Day of Atonement served as a reminder that the daily, weekly, and monthly sacrifices made at the alter of burnt offering were not sufficient to atone for sin.  Even at the altar of burnt offering the worshipper stood 'afar off', unable to approach the holy Presence of God, who was manifest between the cherubim in the holy of holies (also know as the 'Most Holy Place'). 

But on this one day in the year, atoning blood was brought into the holy of holies, the divine throne-room, by the high priest as the representative of God's people.  Atonement was first made for the priests because the mediator between God and His people had to be ceremonially clean.  The sanctuary was also cleansed, for it too was ceremonially defiled by the presence and ministration of sinful men.

To prepare for the sacrifices of the day, the high priest put aside his official robes and dressed in a simple white garment.  He then offered a bullock as a sin-offering for himself and the priesthood.  After filling his censer with live coals from the altar the high priest then entered the holy of holies, where he placed incense over the coals.

The incense sent forth a cloud of smoke over the mercy seat, which served as a covering for the ark of the covenant.  The high priest took some of the bullock's blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat and on the ground in front of the ark.  In this way atonement was made for the priesthood.

Next the high priest sacrificed a he-goat as sin offering for the people. Some of the blood was taken into the holy of holies, and it was sprinkled in a manner in which the sin offering for the priests had been sprinkled.

After purifying the Holy Place and the alter of burnt offering with the mingled blood of the bullock and the goat the high priest took a second goat, laid his hands of its head and confessed over it the sins of Israel.  This goat, commonly called the scape goat, was driven into the desert, where it symbolically carried away the sins of the people.

The carcasses of the two burnt offerings (bullock and he-goat) were taken outside the city and burnt; the day concluded with additional sacrifices.

Leviticus chapter 16 describes the rituals associated with the Day of Atonement in greater detail than my summary above.  But in this chapter God spelt out to Moses and Aaron that they, and all generations hence, must ensure the day was observed each and every year:

Leviticus 16: 29, 30 & 31;  ''And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict [humble] your souls, and do not work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:  For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.  It shall be a sabbath [Sabbath of solemn] rest unto you , and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statue for ever.''

This annual repetition of the sacrifices served as a reminder that perfect atonement had not yet been provided.

The Epistle to the Hebrews interprets the ritual of the Day of Atonement prototype of the atoning work of Jesus. 

Hebrews chapters 9 & 10 emphasise the perfection of Jesus's sacrifice with the inadequacy of the Old Testament rituals.  Jesus himself is termed  'our great high priest', and his blood shed at Calvary, is the sense of his atoning work, mirrors the blood of bulls and goats.  However, unlike the the Old Testament priesthood , the sinless Jesus did not have to make a sacrifice for any sins of his own.

However, through his own blood Jesus effected eternal redemption for his people:

Hebrews 9: 11 &12;  ''But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building [creation];  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood entered in once into the holy place [Most Holy Place], having obtained eternal redemption for us.''

These two verses present the essentials in operating the New Covenant: a superior sanctuary and an infinitely superior sacrifice.  Jesus has opened the inner sanctuary (Most Holy Place) of the heavenly tabernacle -what a contrast to the closed sanctuary of the earthly version.  As the earthly high priest used the blood of bulls and goats to cleanse the holy of holies, Jesus the eternal high priest, entered heaven to purify it by ''his own blood''.

Hebrews points out that levitical offerings could only effect the purification of the flesh.  They ceremonially cleansed the sinner, but could not bring about the inward cleansing, the prerequisite for fellowship with God.  The offerings served as a prototype and a prophecy of Jesus, who, through a better sacrifice cleanses the conscience from dead works:

Hebrews 9: 13 & 14;  ''For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth [sets apart] to the purifying of the flesh:  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot [blemish] to God, purge [cleanse] your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?''

In the time of the Old Testament the tabernacle was designed, in part, to teach Israel that sin hindered access to the presence of God.  Only the high priest, and he only once a year, could enter the holy of holies:

Hebrews 9:7;  ''But into the second [Most Holy Place] went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people''.

Hebrews 9: 24;  ''For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures [copies] of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.''

Jesus however has entered heaven itself, the true holy of holies - the Most Holy Place - where he lives to make intercession for his people. The believer need not stand afar off, as did the Israelite of old, but now, through Jesus, may approach the very throne of grace.

In Hebrews we are reminded that the flesh of the sin offering of the Day of Atonement was burnt outside the camp of Israel:

Hebrews 13: 11 & 12;  ''For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.  Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify [set apart] the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.''

Jesus, also, suffered outside (without) the city walls of Jerusalem so that he might redeem his people from sin.

Next time  - 'Happy to be passed over'; until then a very, very Happy Easter.