Freedom to Fly!

Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is today on the Jewish calendar.  This is the day that the High Priest under the old covenant would go into the holy of holies with blood and make atonement for himself and for the children of Israel. You can read about this in Leviticus 16.

In Hebrews 9 there is an explanation of the fulfillment of this feast. 

11But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come,[NU which have come] with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

The day of atonement is a day of confession, fasting, and prayer.  A day of remembrance and of reconciliation between God and man.  Christ removed the need for a yearly atonement to be made and became our sacrificial lamb once for all to "cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God".  In the atoning sacrifice of His life we are free, redeemed, able to enter into our eternal inheritance.

23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

Why did Jesus Christ not enter into the temple at Jerusalem and offer the once for all sacrifice in the manner of the old covenant High Priest?  Plain and simply God was done with types and shadows because the fulfillment and the reality of the new stood in the midst of the people in the man Jesus Christ.  Everything that pointed to Him prior to His coming now found expression and fulfillment in Him!  All these things still serve that one purpose, to point us to Christ, but in themselves have no meaning apart from Him.

"Now once at the end of the age"...this is a mysterious verse unless understood for what it says. Christ appeared at the end of the age...some older versions translate it, "end of the world". The period of time in which Jesus appeared upon the earth in the form of a man, was in the "last days" or the end of that age.  Today we are in a new age, an age in which sin has been done away with for He came to "put away sin".   And as it was appointed for men to die once..."so" or more accurately, "in this way", in other words, as it was appointed for men to die once, "Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many" in their place.  And the last line of this verse is the most interesting of all and the only place in the New Testament were there is a reference to a "second" appearing.  "To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."  This is not referring to an appearing for all to see...this is about a personal appearing to those who eagerly wait for Him. 

2 Peter 3 contains a verse with a similar emphasis: "11 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God".  This left me mystified for years as I pondered how we personally might hasten the coming of the day of God.  Peter asks the question... "what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God"?  This ties our personal godliness and holy conduct with His coming and the implication is that this is not a coming for "every eye to see" all at one time.  Although even the fact that every eye shall see him, and every knee shall (voluntarily) bow, and every tongue confess is a glorious reminder that He will come not only to some but to all. 

Judas, not Iscariot, asked Jesus as recorded in John 14:22, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

Christ's atonement at the cross made it possible for man to enter into a union with God that is mystical, personal, and invisible.  It is out of this union in which the Father and the Son have manifest themselves to us in the Spirit, that we will manifest to the world the glory of the Most High God in the fullness of time, even as He has promised.  Creation is groaning for the manifestation of the Sons of God.  The heart cry of Christ to His Father for His disciples was, "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us." 

John 17

6“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 
9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world,I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

This has been the plan of the ages and continues to be the plan of this age....that all men may be one, even as the Father and Son are One....that God may be all in all!!

The Day of Atonement, which is now our reality in Christ everyday through faith, is about acknowledging our freedom from sin and death and our hope of glory which is Christ in us.  This is the last feast before the Feast of Tabernacles on the Jewish calendar.  The feast of Tabernacles, is the coming together of heaven and earth, when God and man will once again reunite as they did in the firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, but this time heaven and earth will united in a corporate appearing of the Sons of God.

Hebrews 2

 10For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.

Hallelujah!  What a Saviour! 

The feast of trumpets precedes the Day of Atonement by 8 days.  Trumpets are used in various places in Scripture.  The Israelites blew trumpets as they marched around the city of Jericho.  The Roman army blew trumpets as they surrounded the city of Jerusalem in AD 70.  Trumpets were blown to gather the people together for an assembly or a feast.  The disciples are said to have "sounded forth" the word of God, the angels announced the birth of Christ with trumpets.   

The battle cry has gone out and Christ has won the victory.  He has made atonement for the people.  The feast of Tabernacles is the only feast that yet remains unfulfilled.  It is referred to as the feast of ingathering, the feast of joy, the feast of unity, the feast of rest, the feast of restoration, the feast of glory, and the feast of His appearing.  For when Christ who is our life appears, then we will appear united together with Him in glory!! (Col 3)