Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
A terrific battle is being fought behind the scenes for the very soul of Christ's church. What does it mean to be a true Christian today? How can we honor Him in this period of world history? The answer is in the Bible teaching of the cosmic Day of Atonement, the "cleansing of the sanctuary" typified by the ancient Hebrew Yom Kippur. That was the only day in the year when God's people were required to fast. Why? Was God angry with them? No, it was the day for a final reconciliation with Him (the word "atonement" means at-one-with), the day when the last vestige of buried, unrealized alienation from God was to be healed.
That alienation is the result of sin: "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). We don't realize the depth of that "enmity" ("do not know that [we] are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked," Rev. 3:17). The ancient Levitical day of atonement was only a kindergarten lesson: "on that day the [high] priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30).
The real Day of Atonement is now, accomplishing a work of atonement never before fully achieved for the body of God's people. As most of an iceberg is hidden beneath the sea, so most of our sin is hidden from our consciousness, buried, so that we invariably are self-deceived about our real character before God, not ready for the final issues in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan."
Hence God has provided a special opportunity of preparation known as the Day of Atonement, the real thing, not the kindergarten edition of long ago. It's the time Jesus spoke of: "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day [of final judgment] come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, ... [prepare] to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:34-36).
That final atonement, final reconciliation with Christ, is a time for closer sympathy with Him; impossible unless there is also a closer sympathy with humanity that Christ took upon Himself. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ..." (Phil. 2:5).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 16, 2009.
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