The annual atonement ritual performed by Aaron’s priesthood had two parts. The first part was the sacrifice for sin. The second was the transfer of the people’s sins onto a scapegoat. The earthly annual atonement ritual was a shadow that pointed to the cross of Christ. It also reminded the people that God would remove their sins permanently at the right time. God did remove the sins of the people through a better sacrifice. The perfect priest is the representative of the new humankind, Jesus Christ. He had a new human life in the body that humans had at the time of incarnation. However, the new spirit was made perfect. Therefore, his body was sanctified. Neither could die. How did God remove the sin of humankind?
On the cross at Golgotha, Jesus Christ separated his perfect human spirit (life) from his sanctified body and laid it aside. Then, God put the sinful human spirit (life) in Jesus Christ on the cross at Golgotha. Therefore, God made Jesus what he was not. “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21, NET. God made Jesus sin, not a sinner. Thus, the representative of the new humankind became Christ, the Savior of sinful humanity. The New High Priest suffered the Cross of Christ on the cross at Golgotha. The Cross of Christ is the separation from the Father. The separation of Jesus’s perfect spirit from his body was the perfect sacrifice for the sin of humankind. The human spirit, whether a sinner or perfect, could not function without the body God made for it at creation. Had either Jesus’s body or his spirit died, humankind would never exist. Only Jesus understood the significance of the great exchange on the cross.
On the cross at Golgotha, Jesus represented the sinful humankind. He did not become a substitute but sinful humankind. Thus, Jesus’s body became the Mercy Seat, through which the sin of humankind would be removed forever. The sin and sinful human life separated Jesus from the Father, the only source of life. By forsaking Jesus on the cross at Golgotha, God destroyed our sin and sinful life forever. The old sinful humankind has died the second death. The life which died in the body of Jesus on Friday afternoon did not rise on Sunday morning. The perfect new human life re-entered Jesus’s body on Sunday morning. Therefore, he shares the new human life with all who die to themselves and have Christ living in them.
Continued in the next blog.
