On this day atonement will be made for you. (Leviticus 16:30)Chapter sixteen is where we find instructions for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). This was the one day of the year when the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place (the Holy of holies), to make atonement for the nation's sins. Yom Kippur, the most important day of the Jewish calendar, is the tenth and final day of ten days of repentance beginning with Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah falls in September on the western calendar.
The writer of Hebrews refers to the Day of Atonement and its trappings as copies of the heavenly things (Hebrews 9:23). In other words, the Old Testament sacrificial system was as close as they could come to Christ's saving work on the cross for a people living in pre-Incarnation times. God's heart for reconciliation didn't just begin with the coming of Christ. He has always been working to reconcile humanity to himself.
We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus once for all (Hebrews 10:10). Unlike the offerings brought by the Old Testament priests, there was no need for Christ to sacrifice himself year after year. The cross, while absolutely necessary, was also completely sufficient to bring reconciliation between God and mankind.
What difference does it make to you that Christ's offering of himself was a once and for all sacrifice?
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