"The shed blood on the Day of Atonement witnessed that a death had taken place.
The person for whom the blood was shed could not approach or stand for a moment in the presence of the infinitely holy God. When the high priest came in before Jehovah on the Great Day of atonement, carrying the basin containing the poured out life blood of the slain goat, he swung the censer, and the cloud of incense filled the holy of holies, covering from all human sight or approach, the mercy-seat where dwelt, upon the cherubim, the Shekinah Presence of God. He approaches and sprinkles the blood upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat seven times, and retires.
Now, what does this witness? Not an angry, vengeful God, but infinitely the opposite—One who would send the Son of His bosom as the spotless Lamb to pour out His blood for us sinners, and then ascend to His God and Father,—and, unspeakable grace, now our God and Father also!
But, this laid-down-life witnesses that all approach to God on our personal part is impossible forever! To be made nigh unto God in the blood of Christ means that we come as those whose Substitute has been smitten unto death,—and that under forsaking and wrath by God Himself. There is peace through this blood, but a peace that leaves for us in our own right, no place whatever. Herein is the “offense” of the cross. Shall Christ be smitten for my sin? Then I deserve such smiting. Shall Christ be forsaken? Then I should have been forsaken. Shall Christ give up the ghost? Then all my hopes in myself have perished forever; for He who stood in my place has been smitten, forsaken; has died.
All this men hate and will not hear.
The essence of the truth concerning what men call “atonement,” is that God’s wrath fell upon Christ bearing our sins. Man’s unbelief has sought in every way to avoid or mitigate this awful truth. But if Divine wrath fell not upon Christ, it must fall upon us; for God can not let sin pass. The preacher must study the Scriptures until he sees for himself from God’s Word this most solemn of all Divine revelations: in the coats of skins—obtained by death as a covering for Adam and Eve in God’s presence; in Abel’s accepted sacrifice; in all the offerings of the patriarchs; and afterwards in those prescribed to Israel in Leviticus,—where neither remission of the penalty of sin to the offender nor the bringing of man into God’s presence was possible except through blood-shedding; and alike strikingly in the Psalms of Christ’s sufferings,—as 16, 22, 40, 69, 88, 102, 109; and in the prophets:
“The chastisement of our peace was upon Him”;“Awake, O sword against My Shepherd, against the Man Who is My Fellow, saith Jehovah of Hosts”
; and in the gospels—
“The cup [of what but wrath?] that my father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?”“My God, My God Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Throughout the New Testament, as in the Old, this is taught, that God’s wrath for sin fell upon Christ upon the cross.
It has ever been the first step to heresy—the denial that Divine wrath for sin fell on Christ. It was, indeed, certainly not anger at Christ’s Person—He was obediently drinking a cup His Father had given Him. Nor was it anger at the sinner: “God so loved that He gave.” But it was wrath against sin,—the going forth of the infinitely holy nature of God against sin. Alas, how little we feel its awfulness! How poor our knowledge of it; how weak our hatred of it! But wrath against it fell full on Christ. We beseech you, hold this fast.
God is holy in His being: He is righteous in His character. Righteousness appears in His dealings with others. The term righteousness is a relative one; it assumes the existence of others. It is a word of relationship: whether in attitude or in government, God will ever be righteous. But holiness is not a word of relationship, but of nature, of being. God is holy: if there were no creatures He would yet be holy, the Holy One,
“Whose Name is Holy.”
It is in this holiness of God that we must look for the necessity of propitiation. That there must be propitiation does not indicate, primarily, that God is offended and must be appeased; but that God is holy and cannot by sinful creatures be approached. Only holy beings (like the seraphim, the cherubim of glory, and the elect angels) can possibly abide in His presence. Sin cannot come nigh Him. It is not that He hates sinners (He gave His Son to ransom them!) but it is that He is holy and cannot look upon sin. And if there be sin, there must ‘be wrath against it: not merely the vindication of God’s offended government, but the infinite abhorrence of His holy nature! He “dwelleth in light unapproachable.” It is death to draw nigh: not because God is vindictive,—He is love: but because He is holy, and we are sinful, unclean, unholy.
True, we are also guilty: the penalty of sin is upon us. And that means judgment, and the infliction of wrath. But behind this, and deeper than even our guilt, is the abhorrence of a holy God of our sin itself. It is the abominable thing His holy being hates. We must be banished under wrath from His sight! Let all those who think to stand in the day of judgment before God think on this. The atonement arises out of a necessity in the nature of God Himself.
Now in the type of the great Day of Atonement of Leviticus 16, we have the two goats setting forth two great facts, which we must not confuse: First (and most important) the blood of the slain goat brought into God’s presence in the holy of holies: the sprinkled blood being the witness that there has been death, a life laid down: and no effort to come otherwise into God’s presence,—no Cain-way, which does not recognize sin, or that holiness of God which was wrath and death toward sin. The blood of the goat sprinkled on the mercy-seat was the witness that all the claims of God, His holiness, His truth, His righteousness, and the majesty of His throne, had been admitted and met by a substitute which had laid its life down.
Then, second, there was the transferring in type of the actual sins,—all of them, to the head of the scape-goat (the “goat of dismissal”), which was then led to the wilderness, never to be found again: thus setting forth the result of the death of the first goat,—for the two are really one, in that the two set forth the effect of Christ’s death: (1) toward God; and (2) toward sinners.
It is this latter phase of Christ’s work,—His taking away our sins forever, that we so constantly find in our hymns (and rightly). But it is the first phase that the Word of God calls “the lot for Jehovah” (Lev. 16:8, 9, 15). It is of first importance that God should be glorified where sin had so dishonored Him! Sin outraged His holiness, insulted His Majesty, defied His righteous government. And the cross made good all this, and publicly, before the universe. This was first. And second, God could now let ‘sinners, in all their guilt, turn to Him! And we should learn to look at the cross as first of all glorifying God; and not solely from the viewpoint of the blessed and eternal benefits accruing to us thereby!
It is the character of God and the character of sin that are before us in Leviticus 16, in the Great Day of Atonement. “That I die not” (verse 13) was upon the mind of the high priest as he swung the censer when entering the presence of Jehovah, the Holy One, to sprinkle the blood, “to make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins.” Note here that it is “uncleannesses” that are mentioned, even before “transgressions” or “sins”! Read carefully Leviticus 16,—especially verses 15 and 16.
Taking the blood in before God, in the holy of holies, was not a gift to God! Nor was it that God “delighted in bloodshed”—the monstrous claim of God’s enemies. Christ’s blood witnesses that a life has been laid down (though that of a Substitute, a Lamb, God Himself in love has provided). So that a sinner, unable to be in God’s presence at all, and guilty, might, in the Name and Person of that Substitute, be in God’s presence, pardoned and justified. So that the blood witnesses at once the infinite holiness and righteousness of God, and also His fathomless love! The words “made nigh in Christ’s blood” should be in the constant consciousness of every Christian!"
William R. Newell
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