Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur, the second of three Biblical fall feasts, is a grim holiday. Jews believe God reviews the books of judgment on Rosh Hashanah and administers judgment on Yom Kippur. Yeshua (Jesus) will fulfill Yom Kippur prophetically when He returns to earth to judge the nations. Doom and gloom is the forecast. But John Parsons at Hebrew for Christians argues the Day of Atonement, which begins at sundown Sunday, Sept. 24 and ends at nightfall Monday Sept. 25, also can be received as a blessing:

In light of the full counsel of God given in our Scriptures, it is clear, chaverim, that the idea of atonement (כפרה), though adumbrated in the Torah and Nakh, is perfected, completed, and realized in Yeshua our LORD, who is the Center and Source of all true Torah and the perfect expression of the redemptive love of the Father… If you think you are affecting “a good decree” by your teshuvah and religious rituals, you are in serious error. Rabbinical Judaism is not the way to life, friends. A “good and final sealing” (גְּמַר חַתִימָה טוֹבָה) in God’s Book of Life is found only in Yeshua: ῾Ο ἔχων τὸν υἱὸν ἔχει τὴν ζωήν· ὁ μὴ ἔχων τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ζωὴν οὐκ ἔχει (1 John 5:21).

Therefore give glory to the LORD God of Israel and honor the sacrificial life of his beloved Son (John 5:24). Yom Kippur is a time of great joy for us because of Yeshua’s sacrifice as our great High Priest after the order of Malki-Tzedek, where he presented his own blood “behind the veil,” and therefore secured everlasting atonement on our behalf. Because of our connection with Yeshua, we are forever made a part of God’s glorious “story of redemption.” ἡμεῖς γάρ ἐσμεν ἡ περιτομή, οἱ πνεύματι θεοῦ λατρεύοντες, καὶ καυχώμενοι ἐν χριστῷ ᾽Ιησοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἐν σαρκὶ πεποιθότες· – “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Yeshua the Messiah and put no confidence in the flesh” (Gal. 3:3). Blessed be the Name of Yeshua forever and ever.

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