The Day of Atonement
Mark Lauterbach at the Gospeldrivenlife posted this morning on the fear that comes from being in God’s presence. He reflects on Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement, and the precious nature of Christ’s sacrifice. I have posted an excerpt below (read the entire post here).
…Imagine being in your cubicle at work, watching a U-Tube video during a slow afternoon. You see a shadow cross your desk and look behind you to find the boss watching you waste company time. Later you tell your friends, “I could not believe it. I turned around and there he was. I could have died on the spot.” The old word for this was, “I was mortified.” That means, in short, “I died.”
Why do we say that? because we have been found out. In the presence of another, who has authority to evaluate and bring consequences in our lives, we have been seen for what we are. A secret sin was revealed. Our reputation was shot. Our hypocrisy exposed. How much more so is this true when the One who sees us is the God of glory.
When sinners enter the presence of God, he is a threat to us. He reveals our sin, unmasks the deceits of our hearts, brings his eye to bear upon the motives of our actions, and we are undone. With God it is not “I could have died” — it is “I died.”
…The focus on Leviticus 16 is on how we can come to God without dying. And the key word for that is propitiation. Propitiation means the God of glory has made a way for sinners to come to him without fear and in peace. The words related to propitiation are all over Leviticus 16 when it was translated into Greek.
God made a way for man to come without God’s holy wrath breaking out against us in our sin. God made a way for finite and created man to come to him without his uncreated majesty consuming us.
But in Leviticus it was limited — one man, once a year, with sacrifices for his son and the sins of the people. Until Christ came . . .