*Editor’s note: This is part 5 in Dr. Brandon Rhea’s blog series on “The Day of Atonement.”
Read part 1 here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-day-of-atonement-foreshadowing-jesus-our-high-priest-brandon-rhea/
Read Part 3 here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-day-of-atonement-foreshadowing-jesus-particular-atonement-brandon-rhea/
Read Part 4 here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-day-of-atonement-foreshadowing-believers-baptism-brandon-rhea/
The Day of Atonement: Foreshadowing Repentance and Faith
Leviticus 16:29-34
Brandon Rhea
Intro
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Charles Spurgeon pastored, the elders would write down the testimonies of the people they interviewed for church membership. I now want to share with you the conversion of a sixteen-year-old boy named Henry Oxford. Desiring to show off his new suit, Henry went to his friend’s house, but his friend had other ideas. Instead, this friend wanted to show off Charles Spurgeon, so he took Henry to the Tabernacle to hear Spurgeon preach. God quickened him during that sermon, but Henry did not come to faith in Christ until two weeks later at another church. Henry called out like the Philippian Jailer, “What must I do to be saved?” The elders recorded Henry’s response: “This did not last long, for in the beginning of May the truth dawned upon his soul gradually that faith in the work of Christ was the great, the only thing needful; that simply to believe and to trust in what Christ had done was salvation.”[1] Through the Holy Spirit’s work, Henry had new desires and habits. He quit skipping church to play games. Now he loved to read God’s Word, to pray, and to be with God’s people. Henry bore the fruits of faith and repentance.
Are you like Henry? Are you bearing the fruits of faith and repentance, or do you still love sin? Are you claiming to be a Christian, but you act like a heathen? Are you trusting in Christ alone to save you, or are you trusting in your good works plus faith to go to heaven?
We now will finish our five-part series on Leviticus 16. In this last installment, we will answer this question: How does the Day of Atonement foreshadow Jesus’ atonement? How does the yearly sacrifice portend Christ’s redemption?
Point 1
Our first of two points today is this: The Day of Atonement foreshadows Jesus’ atonement because to be cleansed one must repent of his sins. The yearly sacrifice portends Christ’s redemption because to be forgiven one must be sorrowful for his sins.
For the last four blog posts, we have examined the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. Even though the once-a-year sacrifice could not take away anyone’s sins, it foreshadowed the one who could—Jesus Christ. He is the perfect lamb who was slain. Through His death on the cross, He satisfied God’s wrath for His people and took away the guilt like the scapegoat. In the High Priest’s washings, we see a shadow of Christian baptism which symbolized the work of regeneration in a believer. Now we turn to the last section of Leviticus 16.
In verses 29, 31, and 34, God commands for the Day of Atonement to last forever. The Israelites must perform it every year in September or October. If the text says, “forever,” then why do we not offer a sacrifice today? If God has inspired this text, then why do we not obey it? First, the word, “forever” can be translated as “long time” or “duration.” It does not have to mean perpetually without end. Second, Christ fulfilled the stipulations of the Old Covenant and put in its place the New Covenant. The ceremonial aspects including the Day of Atonement are tied to the Old Covenant which has passed away. God made the Old Covenant as a shadow to point to the reality of Christ. It also taught the Israelites about their sin and need for salvation. Moreover, it served as a school master to keep the line of Christ until He came. Thus, Christians look to Christ the reality and His crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection. If we perform the Day of Atonement, then we deny this reality and remain in the shadows without hope.
On the Day of Atonement, God gave the Israelites two commands. First, they were to “afflict yourselves.” Afflict means to “humble” or “deny” oneself. The Bible connects this idea with fasting from food, grieving, and sorrow. This posture communicates repentance. As the High Priest atoned for their sins, the whole congregation should be sorrowful for their sins. Through this fasting and grieving, they acknowledge their guilt and need for atonement.
What is repentance? It is simply “changing one’s mind.” James Ussher, however, gives a more developed definition: It is “an inward and true sorrow for sin, especially that we have offended so gracious a God, and so loving a Father; together with a settled purpose of heart, and a careful endeavor to leave all our sins, and to live a Christian life, according to all God’s commandments.”[2]
Thus, repentance is not going through the motions. It flows from a repentant heart which God has changed. A person cannot go outwardly perform the ceremonies while inwardly untransformed and be repentant. God required the Israelites to observe the Day of Atonement with a repentant heart and not as a holiday with outward rituals.
To help us understand repentance, let us look to Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley’s definition.[3] Repentance has four aspects. First, it means an intellectual change. A sinner changes his mind about sin. Isaiah 5:20-21, for example, says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” God pronounces “Woes!” on unrepentant Israel. What do they do? They do not have the same definition of good and evil as the Lord. A change of heart, therefore, will line up his definition of good and evil with God’s.
Second, repentance necessitates an emotional change. A person turns his affections from evil to good. Thomas Watson said, “Heaven is never longed for till sin be loathed.” Instead of loving a sin, a person must learn to hate it. Without this change, he cannot love God and holiness. Hence, Jesus taught in Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The blessed man sees sin as God sees it. Then he responds with mourning. God promises to comfort this repentant man with salvation and cleansing.
Third, a repentant man will have a change of will. He will choose to turn from sin to obey God. He will not do it at the end of a gun barrel, but the choice will come from inside. Isaiah 56:4 says, “who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant.” Rather than choosing to obey Satan and do the things that please him, the repentant man renounces Satan and his evil deeds. He makes a conscious choice to follow the Lord.
Fourth, repentance means a behavioral change. The repentant man must continually turn in his conduct from disobedience to obedience. John the Baptist, for instance, preached this message. Matthew 3:7-8 says, “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” John warned them to bear fruit of repentance. They cannot claim to know God and follow Him if they are not turning in their behavior. To live an unrepentant life means a person does not know God.
To prove the point, imagine this scenario. While cooking supper, you hear commotion in the living room. Your two children are fighting. Your daughter is crying, but your son is fuming with rage. While interviewing your daughter, you learn that her brother hit her. After disciplining him, you tell him to apologize. He says, “I am sorry. I will never do it again.” You then go back to the kitchen to finish the meal. Two minutes later, you experience déjà vu. You son has hit his sister again. You discipline him and make him apologize. He says to his sister, “I will never hit you again.” Three minutes later, you have déjà vu a third time. He has repeated the same offense. Is your son repentant for his sin? Absolutely not! He keeps repeating it over and over in the span of ten minutes. Even though he expresses sorrow to his sister, your son’s heart remains hardened.
Why does this matter? To be saved, a person must repent and continue to repent. Without repentance, a person cannot be saved. Matthew 4:17 says, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” If a person wants to be a part of Jesus’ kingdom, he must repent. Luke 13:3-5 gives the consequences for failing to do so. Jesus said, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Jesus gives these words in the context of the tower of Siloam falling. If a person does not repent, he will die in his sins like the people at the tower. Without repentance, no one will be saved.
At the same time, repentance comes from God. It is a fruit of being regenerated in the New Covenant. Ezekiel 36:26-27 teaches, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” God gives the Spirit who causes a person to turn from their sins and to walk in obedience to God. A sinner cannot muster up the strength to repent. God gives this gracious action to every one of His people.
As I alluded to earlier, some people profess a false repentance. They have grief and sorrow for their actions, but it is a façade. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” These people are sorry for getting caught and are upset that the world thinks less of them. Yet, if they could sin again without anyone knowing, they would. They do not grieve over their rebellion against God. They still love their sin while hating the consequences of being exposed. Let us look to Judas. He sold Jesus to the Pharisees for 30 pieces of silver. Then a few hours later, Judas felt guilty. He took the money back and compounded his sin by killing himself. He felt guilt and shame, but he did not repent. He felt hopeless and lost. He did not look to Jesus.
King Ahab also professed a false repentance. After having Naboth be falsely accused so that he could kill him and steal his vineyard, God sent a prophet to condemn him. Naboth repented in response. 1 Kings 21:27 says, “And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.” He, however, did not submit to God in the next chapter. He and King Jehoshaphat sought counsel from the prophet Micaiah, but the prophet gave a bad report. He said that King Ahab would die in the battle if they pursued it. A repentant Ahab would have submitted to the Word of the Lord. Unfortunately, King Ahab was not repentant. He cursed the prophet and went to war. In the battle, he died as the prophet prophesied.
Just like this king, most Israelites had false repentance. They went through the motions without a change of heart. God said in Deuteronomy 30:6, “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” To be saved and to be repentant, God had to give them new hearts. Without this change, they would not produce the fruits of salvation. God again promises to give these new hearts to his people in Jeremiah 32:40. “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.” God chose not to put the fear of Him in the hearts of every physical Israelite. Instead, He places the fear of Him in the hearts of all of His elect. They, therefore, respond with true repentance, because they have new hearts.
King Manasseh illustrates true repentance. After becoming King, he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He rejected his father Hezekiah’s reforms by bringing back the high places, setting up idols in the temple, and by having mediums and necromancers. To punish Manasseh, God had him captured and taken to Babylon. Under these circumstances, Manasseh repented. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13 says, “And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.” After God had him released, King Manasseh went home and made significant changes. He had the idols removed from the temple along with the mediums and necromancers. He had the people worship only God while rejecting the false gods. Even though he had been set free, King Manasseh did not return to his idolatrous ways. He showed a repentant heart.
Friends, have you repented of your sins? Are you still repenting? Have you had a change of mind in your relationship with sin? Have you had a change of desires? Do you love what God loves and hate what God hates? Have you had a change of will? Are you choosing to renounce your sins and to pursue holiness? Have you had a change in your life? Are you bearing the fruit of obedience? When you sin, do you confess your sins to God and to those you sinned against? Or do you have worldly sorrow instead of godly repentance? Are you like Judas who felt guilty, but he compounded his guilt through suicide? Are you like Ahab who knew the condemnation of the Lord, but he did not submit to the word of the Lord? Are you trying to love and serve your sin while loving and serving God? If you have no fear of the Lord, then you will not bear the fruits of conversion. You may talk a good game, but your words bear a false witness if you continue in your sins.
Friends, God always produces repentance in every single person who is saved. If you are His, you will continue to repent throughout your life. Why? The grace of repentance does not come from you but from God. If you are unrepentant and claim to be a Christian, you are calling God a liar. You are saying that He does not keep His word. Rather than calling God a liar, I must call you a liar. True repentance bears fruit. Without it, the tree is dead and needs to be brought to life.
Point 2
Our second of two points is this: The Day of Atonement foreshadows Jesus’ atonement because to be cleansed one must have faith in Jesus. The yearly sacrifice portends Christ’s redemption because to be forgiven one must rest in Christ’s perfect work.
In addition to afflicting themselves on the Day of Atonement, God commanded the congregation to rest. He made it a Sabbath. To avoid confusion, God commanded several Sabbaths. It referred to more than the weekly Sabbath. He also made festivals which He called Sabbaths too. On the Day of Atonement Sabbath, no one would work. This provision included strangers in the land. The people had to fast and do nothing for the whole day.
Why did God give this command? It symbolized that salvation is wholly from the Lord. The congregation could do nothing to atone for their sins. They had to trust in the High Priest to perform the sacrificial ceremony on their behalf. They also could not see the High Priest nor examine the Holy of Holies afterwards. God forced the people to trust the word of the leaders that the Day of Atonement went according to God’s Word. Thus, the people simply waited and trusted in the word which came from the tabernacle.
God displays this same point in other places. God brought victory to Israel over Egypt unilaterally. How? God enacted ten plagues on Pharoah and the nation. Then God changed Pharoah’s heart before allowing him to become hardened again. To show His power, God parted the Red Sea to deliver the Israelites before judging the Egyptian army when the waters came down. In another instance, God brought victory to Israel over Jericho. The people walked around the walls for seven days. On the last day, they walked around it seven times, blew the horn, and shouted. God brought the walls down. Finally, God brought the exiled people back from Babylon. Ezra 1:1 says, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:” Through turning Cyrus’ heart, God set the Israelites free to go home. What did Israel do? They saw God’s salvation. God did it all to bring the victory.
In the same way, God brings victory to the sinner. He produces repentance and faith in him. Mark 1:14-15 says, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” In Jesus’ first teaching in Mark, the Lord calls sinners to repent and believe. Without genuine faith, a person cannot have genuine repentance. The two go together.
Tragically, many sinners try to turn from their sins to faith plus works. The apostle Paul had to confront the circumcision party in the Galatian churches. To be saved, they taught faith in Jesus plus circumcision. Without it, a person would trust in Jesus and be damned. Yet, Paul wrote in Galatians 2:15-16, “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” A sinner can do nothing to add to or justify salvation. God does it all. Hence, a sinner must look to Jesus Christ alone and rest in His perfect redemption.
We are like the Israelites who had to take the High Priest at his word. We trust that the Great High Priest Jesus Christ is without sin. We trust that He died on the cross, was buried, and was raised. We trust that He satisfied God’s wrath. We also believe that “all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” We do nothing but look to Christ and His complete work on our behalf. Salvation is wholly of the Lord and not His work plus ours.
Let’s give two examples. First, imagine a blueberry farmer promises to give you blueberries. He picks the blueberries for you, bags them, and delivers them. Then he gives them to you as a gift. What if you responded by going out to the blueberry farm to pick your own blueberries and try to pay for what you picked? You would not believe that those blueberries are for you and are free. In the same way, imagine if a window cleaner came to your house and cleaned your windows while you were gone. You come back and see him before he leaves. He has finished the job and tells you that it is a gift. Even though you did not see him clean the windows, will you trust him? Or will you start cleaning them, because you do not think he did it or you think they are not completely clean? If you did, it would be a lack of faith. You would not rest knowing that the man has cleansed your windows.
Similarly, all false religions mix faith with works. Roman Catholicism teaches the sacramental road. A person must do penance after confessing his sins to satisfy the temporal punishment. Even though he believes in Jesus, it is not enough. He must add good works to remove sin. The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach people a works-based salvation. A person must know God, obey the law, be a part of the Watchtower society, and be loyal to God by evangelizing. Without these steps, a person cannot have salvation. Furthermore, the book of Mormon teaches in 2 Nephi 25:23, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” The Mormons change the meaning of God’s grace to favor that is merited by your actions. The Bible teaches the opposite. Grace is God’s unmerited favor. For Mormons, salvation comes through your works not through the finished work of Christ. The Muslims also teach salvation by your hands. To go to heaven, a Muslim must perform the five Pillars which include confessing Allah and Muhmmad as his prophet, praying five times a day, fasting during Ramadan, giving to the poor, and pilgrimage to Mecca if a person can. If a person does these things, he will perform enough good works to outweigh his sin, according to Islam’s false teaching.
Friends, if you feel sorrow for your sins, are you looking to Jesus Christ? Are you trusting in Him alone? Have you put your trust in Christ to save your soul? Do you admit that you can do nothing to earn heaven? Do you renounce any “good” deeds? Do you see that you have a life of disobedience? Do you compare yourself to God’s righteousness and not to other men? Are you like a Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, or Muslim who feels guilt, but you do not look to Jesus Christ? Are you trusting in you to save you? Do you put confidence in your obedience? If you do, you are under God’s wrath and not grace.
For the lost, the Good News is bad news. How? You can do nothing to save yourself. It strikes at the sinner’s pride. You and I are so bad that we can take no steps to save ourselves. Yet, the Good News is that God has done it all. Look to Jesus Christ alone and be saved. Stop striving to climb the rungs on the ladder of works to heaven. Rather, rest upon Christ’s perfect atonement to be forgiven of your sins and to have peace with God. Humble yourselves by admitting your inability, and then the Gospel turns from being bad news to being the good news that saves your soul.
[1] Hannah Wyncoll, ed., Wonders of Grace: Original Testimonies of Converts During Spurgeon’s Early Years (London: Wakeman Trust, 2016), 113-114.
[2] Quoted by Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 3: Spirit and Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 452.
[3] Ibid., 454-456.
Brandon Rhea (Ph.D. Historical Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a pastor and an ACBC certified Biblical counselor. He met his wife, Karise, while doing pulpit supply in 2013-14. In April 2016, he accepted the call to pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Kirksville, Missouri. He loves history and has a heart for street preaching and evangelism. He is the author of “Spurgeon’s Forgotten Sabbatarianism” and teaches “Spurgeon on the Law & Sabbath” for Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
