Day of Atonement
The plan of salvation encompassed much more than gifting repentant sinners with eternal life. It was to salvage the human race: to restore into the human soul the very nature and character of the Creator Himself. In order to do this, more needed to be done than just forgiving past sins. The very mind and soul of the individual needed to be cleansed and re-created into the image of the divine mind. This is the work that is done in the human heart on Day of Atonement.
The purpose of the atonement is at-one-ment. The fallen human nature, bearing the image of Satan, is to be brought back to being at-one with the Father. This plan was of such importance that it is the last prayer given by the Saviour recorded in scripture before He entered the Garden of Gethsemane where He was betrayed. Yahushua knew the time for His death had come. He wanted His disciples to know of the high destiny awaiting all who will surrender to this act of re-creation.
- Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, . . . I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me . . . I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 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. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 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. (John 17:1, 6, 20-23, NKJV)
One-ness with the Father and the Son! This is the high calling of everyone who will accept the invitation to come and be forgiven, cleansed and restored. On the Day of Atonement, the sins that have been transferred to the heavenly sanctuary by the blood of Yahushua shed in our place, are removed. The sinner may stand before Yahuwah Elohim as though he had never sinned.
Moreover, the damage that sin has done to the brain, is healed. Complete recovery from sin is the plan for Day of Atonement. The importance of the heart-work done in the days leading up to Day of Atonement is understood here. Only sins that have been confessed and forsaken will be blotted out on Day of Atonement. No cherished sin, clung to because it feels good and no one will ever know anyway, will be blotted out.
The blotting out of sins is a most precious gift. It recreates the neural pathways of the brain to what they were before the individual became addicted to that beloved pet sin. The person may be tempted again, because grace must always be tested. But in the mind that has been cleansed and restored, there is no driving emotional need to engage in the old habits and behaviors. The power of sin has been broken in the life and the person is restored to where he or she would have been had the sin never been indulged in the first place.
Romans explains this process. Sinners, enslaved to Satan, are freed from the chains of inherited and cultivated sin through faith in the Son of Yah. The love of the Almighty for sinners is seen on the Day of Atonement as He, against whom all have sinned, embraces, forgives, cleanses and restores His repentant child.
- What then shall we say to these things? If Elohim is for us, who can be against us? . . . Who shall separate us from the love of Yahushua? . . . For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of Yahuwah which is in Yahushua HaMashiach our Master. (Romans 8:31, 35, 38-39, NKJV)
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