Atonement, Day of

The most holy day of Israel's year (the tenth day of the seventh month) on which the high priest entered the Most Holy Place to offer sacrifices for the sins of the nation. Hebrews sees this day as symbolic of the achievements of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The priestly rituals on the Day of Atonement

The priest's own preparations

Features unique to the Day of Atonement

The priest entered the Most Holy Place

Hebrews 9:7 See also Leviticus 16:2

But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

Sacrifice was made for all the sins of all the people

Leviticus 16:30 See also Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 16:16–17, Leviticus 16:21–22, Leviticus 16:34

because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

It was a festival requiring humility and fasting

Numbers 29:7 This provides a contrast to all other religious festivals which were times of joyous celebration and feasting. “deny yourselves” includes the idea of fasting. See also Leviticus 16:29, Leviticus 16:31, Leviticus 23:27–32; Acts 27:9

On the tenth day of this seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly, and you shall humble yourselves; you must not do any work.

The Day of Atonement is paralleled and contrasted with the achievements of Jesus Christ in his death

Jesus Christ entered the Most Holy Place

Hebrews 9:24 See also Hebrews 6:19–20, Hebrews 9:11–12

For Christ did not enter a man-made copy of the true sanctuary, but He entered heaven itself, now to appear on our behalf in the presence of God.

Jesus Christ's blood was offered in sacrifice

Hebrews 9:12 See also Romans 3:25

He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.

Jesus Christ's sacrifice was outside the city gates

Hebrews 13:11–12

Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood.

Jesus Christ's sacrifice was once for all

Hebrews 9:25–26 See also Hebrews 10:12

Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Jesus Christ's sacrifice gives inner rather than ritual cleansing

Hebrews 9:13–14 See also Hebrews 9:9–10

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!

Jesus Christ's sacrifice gives access to God

Hebrews 10:19–20 On the Day of Atonement no-one else was allowed to be in the Tent of Meeting, let alone in the Most Holy Place. Access into the intimate presence of God is now the right of all believers. See also Leviticus 16:17; Matthew 27:51; Ephesians 2:18, Ephesians 3:12

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body,