The Day of Atonement
As a kid, asking for forgiveness was never easy. (It’s a good thing I don’t have that problem anymore – ha) Coming to my parents and admitting that I was wrong and that I wanted to make the relationship right was almost painful at times. Do we all have memories of this? Some more recent than others? It honestly hasn’t gotten a lot easier, but I find that the older I get the more often it takes place for me.
As my kids approach me to ask forgiveness or admit their wrong attitude, I could just send them away saying, “You are forgiven.” But that doesn’t feel right does it. Forgiveness is not words coming out of our mouth. Forgiveness is a change of the heart. An embrace. It is almost as if something physical is required in order to touch something spiritual like forgiveness.
This is the essence of the celebration of the Day of Atonement. A physical ritual takes place to illustrate and make tangible something that is happening on a spiritual level. Read Leviticus 16:1-34 and get the full picture of what took place on Yom Kippur (as it is known today). I’m sure that it seems very foreign to most of us, but each and every action has very meaningful symbolism behind it.
Thoughts to ponder:
Why is forgiveness such a difficult thing for us to seek when it feels so good when we recieve it?
How much of that lies in our fear of unforgiveness that most of us have experienced as well?
When approaching a parent, a hug communicates more than words. When approaching God how can I feel forgiven when no embrace is felt?
I’ll look forward to journeying into this further together on the blog.
November 30th, 2006 at 12:22 am
Greetings and blessings to all in the Pathways Community Church, may all have a blessed holiday in celebration of our Savior’s birth. Once a year we have this public opportunity to celebrate it, may we never forget the rest of the year, as a life lived in celebrating His death and resurrection. It was the price paid for our debt (sin), paid in full, once and for all. Now that is atonement, given in grace and applied by one’s faith in Christ Jesus.
• Why is forgiveness such a difficult thing for us to seek when it feels so good when we receive it?
In the asking of forgiveness an awareness of fault must first take place. In the Garden of Eden, God, who knows all, asked the residence of and first sinners in the garden, to reveal what they had done. Bringing recognition of their transgression(s), in the asking of forgiveness and a coming to repentance.
It is difficult to ‘own-up’ to one’s shortcomings, as first seen by Adam in his pointing to Eve and she to the snake which God had put in the garden. Also, some may feel unworthy in being forgiven by others, if they do not forgive themselves. Even guilt in the knowing that a stainless Christ died in place of the sinner may play a part of unforgivness to self.
• How much of that lies in our fear of unforgiveness that most of us have experienced as well?
No one really wants to be wrong. And as a believer, a knowing of God’s Word, is very powerful, both, in a releasing, or a holding back of what is right. Jesus was asked how to pray, and He recited, what is known to believers, as the Lord’s pray, the Our Father. In it’s verses there is an asking of forgiveness as the asker forgives those who have trespassed against them. Some may not wish to forgive, making it a difficult task in the asking or acceptance of forgiveness for themselves.
One must have an understanding of the price paid for sin. No one escapes the sin nature of humanity and has an opportunity to accept or deny it by realizing their part in it through their faith. That is, Christ Jesus died for each person as an individual. As an individual, one must come to the recognition of this, and understand their importance to God. His will, “That NONE shall perish, but ALL come to eternal life!” Jesus paid the ultimate price for all, on a one-to-one basis. All, by their genuine belief of this (faith), can count themselves worthy through the righteousness of Jesus to be forgiven (Romans) and in their forgiving of others.
• When approaching a parent, a hug communicates more than words. When approaching God how can I feel forgiven when no embrace is felt?
Forgiveness is a state of being, and to understand this, knowledge of God’s Word is very important. By His Word one can see the true embrace to a created being, designed in the image of the Creator. As told by scripture, in the most recited verse of the Bible, John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal (ever lasting) life (NIV).
What better way to describe the embrace of God when recognizing this gift was given to yet the sinner? Jesus’ arms, on the cross, are outreached as to embrace the entirety of humanity made applicable by faith in His death and resurrection.
I find that from the study of God’s Word, adhering it to self, by a life-lived for His Kingdom to come, makes for the embrace of His love to me. It is not a feeling however, but an assurance He Himself exampled by His life, death and the obedience given to His Father on the sinner’s behalf, you and me!
The embrace of God is many faceted; it comes in the form of life, nature, and fellowship one to another and from a fellowship to God through His son, Jesus Christ! As a believer one realizes if God died for me (yet a sinner), I am a viable being in His plan and this is better than any hug a parent can give.
May His embrace never leave you, and may His peace and joy upon you be the witness to it. And your embrace back to Him, may it come in the form of a genuine faith in which others see a reflection of Jesus in you for this season and into eternity!
God Bless all!
December 1st, 2006 at 4:19 pm
does atonement as compensation or even appeasement seem troublesome to anybody else?…this just isn’t sitting real good with me…I’m struggling with sin/debt theology…I think we may be holding on to some dark ages assumptions here…I could be wrong…but then again maybe I’m not…maybe and yes it’s a big maybe, sin isn’t that big a deal…maybe Rosh Hoshanna and Yom Kippur aren’t about sin, but about grace…it might be important to realize that festivals and holidays aren’t for God they’re for us…also they are reminders of a more wholistic (yes I know it’s spelled wrong, but it makes more sense this way) reality…verbal vomit, I know but I can’t get past the vocabulary we use…graceandpeace…805OUT!!!