Christ is our atonement. He took away our sins at the cross. That means we are delivered from the accusations of satan. These accusations are about things that are not us but instead are put on us like filthy garments. By our love and faith, we remove the filthy garments from one another and replace them with the clean robes that God has provided for His priesthood in His Kingdom.
Show Notes:
The Day of Atonement is about God removing our sin. God does this for us through the sacrifice of Christ. Just as the sins of the people were transferred to the Azazel goat and removed from the camp, so Christ took our sins and removed them at the cross. Everything about our salvation and deliverance from sin comes from God alone. It is not something we can do for each other. Yet there is an aspect of atonement that requires our involvement.
Zechariah gives an account of Joshua the high priest standing before the Lord in filthy garments. Meanwhile, satan is right there to accuse him. Then the Lord tells those who are nearby to remove the filthy garments from Joshua. And the Lord says, “I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” Others then clothe Joshua with clean garments. In this amazing picture we see that God takes away our iniquity, but others are involved in removing the filthy garments and putting on clean ones.
We must see ourselves in this picture. In our love and faith and oneness, we play a role in delivering one another from the filthy garments of the flesh. Satan is always trying to corrupt us, taint us, cover us over, and make us look and act like him. But we are not that; we are the pure gold and silver that God created, which He is purifying in the refining fire. In this purifying process that God puts us through, we are actively involved in removing the dross that is covering over the pure gold that is our brother and sister.
Key Verses:
- Leviticus 16:1–28. “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities.”
- Zechariah 3:1–5. “Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. … So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:33. “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’”
- Matthew 13:24–25. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.”
- Malachi 3:1–3. “He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.”
- Matthew 24:3. “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.”
- Daniel 12:10. “Many will be purged, purified and refined.”
Quotes:
- “Visualize a tsunami, seeing the globe of the Earth hanging out in the darkness of the universe and a tsunami of God’s light and love, which is His salvation and atonement, coming and just encompassing the whole globe.”
- “There is a will of God in your life. And He planted you here as His good seed to accomplish His purposes and to spread His Word and to bring forth His Kingdom in the earth.”
- “Revelation talks about us standing with white robes. But we don’t put those white robes on ourselves. It’s our friends standing around who are going to be able to clothe us in those white robes as we move into the days of His Kingdom.”
Takeaways:
- Our salvation, deliverance from sin, and atonement only come from God. But we have a role in removing the filthy garments from one another, as well as clothing one another with clean garments.
- We tend to identify ourselves with the filthy garments. And satan is always accusing us to make us think that we are the sin. But all our sin, impurity, and uncleanness was transferred onto Christ who takes it away.
- Tares planted by the enemy generate corruption. And the filthiness of the flesh is the dross that comes to the surface when gold is smelted. But we are not the corruption of the tares; we are the good seed that God planted. And we are not the dross; we are the pure gold that God created.
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