Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Life today should be solemnly exciting--more than at any time in 6000 years: this is the cosmic, grand "Day of Atonement." It's the antitype of ancient Israel's one Day of days when the nation was in such heart-stopping excitement that they ate nothing all day. They (and God, too!) were on trial in an awe inspiring Day of Judgment. But now the real thing is going on.
In Israel, it was the one Day of the year when everything got straightened out and all questions were answered. At Day's end, the nation was in heart-oneness with God. In miniature, "the great controversy" between Christ and Satan was finished. Sin and sinners were no more. The entire nation was clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beat throughout. Life and light and gladness flowed from the Lord. To Israel, all things in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy declared that God is love--on that one grand day of the year, the Day of Atonement.
Now the message from our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, is this: "be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). "Atonement" is not obscure Latin, Greek, or Hebrew--it's pure simple Anglo-Saxon, "be at-one-with God." It's time for your doubts to be resolved, those deep feelings that He has not been fair with you. It's time to join that distraught father in Mark 9 who cried with tears when everything seemed against him, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). It's time for "Jacob" the Supplanter to wrestle with God and get a new name, "Israel."
But can we shake ourselves by our shoulders and just do it--reconcile ourselves to Him? It means a change of mind, which actually is repentance. But do we have a "self-start button" to press for "repenting ourselves"? Acts 5:31 says it's a "gift" from our "Prince and Savior." A "gift" is not what you work for.
Which reminds us: the Israelites never "cleansed" their own sanctuary: the high priest alone always did it. It wasn't a works-trip for them. Yes, bitter as this pill may be for do-it-yourself legalists: we have to let Him do it for us and in us on this cosmic Day of Atonement. He takes the initiative and we cooperate "through faith." So stop resisting the blessed Holy Spirit. Your High Priest loves you more than you ever dreamed He does. To understand, "behold" and "comprehend" what happened on His cross.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 7, 2003.
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