Rabbi Schneider - The Mystery of Atonement
We're showing how the Old and New Testaments, how the Torah, the Tanakh, the Old Testament writings, fit together with the New Testament writings, listen church, like a hand in a glove. What we've been focusing on in this season is the plan of salvation. We're looking at how the Israelites were saved, how Abraham came into relationship with God and we're comparing that with how people are saved and brought into a relationship with God in the New Testament. And what we're discovering in this teaching is that the Israelites, beginning with Abraham, the founder of the Jewish people, the founder of the nation of Israel, were brought into a relationship with God first of all because God chose them. God chose Abraham. God chose Israel. And then because He chose them, He instilled faith in them and that faith brought them into relationship with Hashem, with God the Creator.
We found the same is true in the New Testament. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 tells us that by grace, church, we've been saved. By grace, what's grace? God's sovereign election of us, God's sovereign choice of His people. By grace we've been saved. "You do not choose Me," Jesus said, "I chose you". "By grace we've been saved," listen now, "through faith," and through our faith beloved, "we're saved". God chooses His people and then He instills faith within them. This is what He did in the life of Abraham. This is what He did in the lives of Israel. This is what He does today. I'm not gonna go back and repeat all that, because I've covered it all in great detail. I encourage you to go back and get the earlier episodes.
I want to continue now as we're discussing the plan of salvation, beginning with God's grace through His choice, continuing on through faith and we're moving on now beloved, to the next part of the blueprint, which is, listen now, propitiatory, sacrificial atonement; meaning that we are saved when an innocent one dies in the place of the guilty one. And when the innocent one is put to death on behalf of the guilty, the innocent one's blood is shed, showing that the life had been given. And then God then accounts the guilty free, because the innocent one that died in their place has paid the penalty.
One of the most foundational scriptures in the entire Word of God is found in the Torah, chapter number 17 verse 11 of the book of Leviticus. Here's what the scriptures says. "The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement". When we study the Hebrew scriptures, when we study the Torah, we find that Israel was able to stand before Hashem, was able to stand before God, was able to continue in relationship with them, was brought into relationship with them, listen, because listen, of a blood sacrifice. The scripture says, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin".
Let's think about this. Let's consider the Israelites' journey and then we're gonna bring this in to the New Testament. Israel is in Egypt, God loves them, but they were in bondage there. We read for example in the scriptures, "Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves.'" Continuing in the 5th verse, "'Your lamb shall be unblemished'". And then in the 7th verse, "'Moreover they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat in'".
Let's think about this, Israel was birthed as a nation at Passover. They were in Egypt, listen, they didn't know God. Israel had no revelation of God while they were in Egypt. The 10 Commandments had not yet been given, the Torah had not been given, they didn't know God. But God raised up Moses while Moses was in the wilderness, right, at the burning bush. God raised up Moses and used Moses to deliver them out of Egypt. So Israel is supernaturally delivered by Yahweh, by the God of Israel, out of Egypt. He brings them out, parts the Red Sea, delivers them and then He reveals Himself to them. But listen, before He delivered them He gave them some instructions. He told them to do this, He told them, "I want every family within Israel to take a lamb, an unblemished lamb".
The fact that it was unblemished gets back to the principle that I began to relate earlier in the broadcast, beloved one, when I used a technical term called substitutionary sacrificial atonement. What that means once again is, it's an innocent one dying in the place of a guilty one. I might have used the term earlier, propitiatory atonement. Once again, this unblemished lamb, the fact that it had to be unblemished is symbolic of the fact that it was innocent. It didn't have any defect. It had no moral sin within it. Again, it's all symbolism. It's types and shadows. They took the unblemished lamb, remember when Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized, John the Baptist, we call him in Hebrew Yochanan the Immerser, pointed at Jesus and what did John say about Jesus? He said of Jesus, "Behold," listen now, "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world".
Why did John the Baptist call Him a lamb? Some of you may not really have considered this. Some of you probably thought you know, in the back of your mind, that maybe John called Him a lamb, because He was so you know innocent and you know He wouldn't harm anybody, He was soft like a lamb. Beloved, the reason John the Baptist called Him the Lamb of God, is John the Baptist was taking us back to the Passover. He was taking us back to the figure that was used of the Lord to deliver Israel out of Egypt and now this lamb that was used in the Old Testament as a prophetic symbol finds its fulfillment in Jesus who becomes the true, full lamb of God, the only one whose blood can really save people from the ravages of sin and from the powers of darkness. Once again, we're talking about that the pattern of salvation in the Old Testament is repeated in the New Testament and Jesus brings it all to completion. Let me say it another way. The plan of salvation is revealed in the Old Testament in its primitive, symbolic form. It's completed in Christ Jesus, in Yeshua the Messiah, in the New Testament, who fulfills and fills the whole thing up.
So we're talking about the plan of Salvation. We talked about once again, grace, faith and now we're talking about atonement, a blood covering. Israel was delivered from bondage beginning with the lamb being put to death, an innocent lamb and then they took the blood of the lamb and they applied it on the doorpost of their home. And then when God's judgment moved through the land of Egypt, we know every home that was covered by blood, the people that were in that home would be saved from God's judgment. So the point is, is that the plan of salvation that we see revealed in the Tanakh, in the Hebrew Bible, is repeated identically in the New Testament, grace, faith and now a blood covering. Israel's delivered, beloved, from bondage through the blood of the innocent lamb.
Let's continue this theme. After Israel is delivered out of Egypt, they come through the Red Sea, they're in the wilderness, God brings them to Mount Sinai. Moses goes up the mountain. He receives divine revelation. He writes down the 10 Commandments on the tablets of stone. And he receives many other points of revelation that he records for us in the Torah, the written Word of God, the first five books of our Bible, often times referred to as the Pentateuch. Jewish people call it the Torah.
Now, in the Torah we find that God gives Israel certain holidays, holy days, that they're to celebrate every year. The first of these is the Sabbath and then God continues on with the holy days. Jewish people consider the most holy day of all the days that God has given them, other than the Sabbath, which they celebrate every week, the most holy day in the calendar that God gave Israel, listen, is called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It's written about in the book of Numbers chapter 16 and 17, Leviticus 23, as well as other places in scripture. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, Yom meaning day and Kippur meaning covering, the day of covering or atonement. And what was Israel prescribed and commanded to do on the Day of Atonement?
Listen, they were to take the blood of a bull and a goat. They put the bull and the goat to death. They took then the blood of the bull and the goat, they brought it inside to the most sacred room that was first in the tabernacle and then later in the temple. The tabernacle was a temporary structure that was used as Israel as they were traveling through the wilderness, but once they got into the land of Israel they took the tabernacle and turned it into a permanent structure that was called the temple. So the temple was patterned after the tabernacle. In both the tabernacle and the temple there was a back room that was the Holy of Holies. It was the most holy part of the tabernacle and temple. Inside the Holy of Holies, this sacred room, the most sacred spot on the earth, was the Ark of the Covenant. And inside the Ark of the Covenant were the 10 Commandments.
Now on top of the Ark of the Covenant, some of you remember The Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they were searching for the Ark of the Covenant; on top of the Ark of the Covenant, was called in the New Testament, the Mercy Seat. And what the high priest had to do according to the Torah, every year he brought in the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat and he poured it on top of the Ark of the Covenant. The top once again, being called the Mercy Seat. And when the priest poured the blood on top of the Ark of the Covenant on the Mercy Seat, the Lord, listen, overlooked the sin of the people of Israel for the year. That's why He said in Leviticus 17:11, "The life of the flesh is in the blood and I've given it to you on the altar to make," listen now, "atonement for your soul; for it's the blood by reason of its life that makes atonement". The Lord spoke this verse in reference to Yom Kippur. Every year Israel celebrates Yom Kippur, they celebrate their sins have been forgiven. And how have their sins been forgiven? Listen, through the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat.
Now you should know they were forgiven once again, through the blood sacrifice. You should know that when the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, the Jewish people no longer have been able to offer a blood sacrifices, because the only place the blood sacrifices could be offered beloved, once the temple was standing was in the temple. And when the Romans came in and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD and destroyed the temple, everything stopped, cause without a temple sacrifices can't be offered. Again, you can't just offer up a blood sacrifice in your back yard. It had to be the priest doing it for you at the temple. With no temple and no sacrifices the priests had also scattered. So Judaism today without a temple and as a result of having no temple, there's no sacrifices; and without a temple and without sacrifices there's no need for a priesthood, so there's no longer a priesthood.
Jewish people today no longer celebrate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the way the Bible tells them to; they can't, there's no temple sacrifices or priesthood. So what they do instead is they fast and they go through some liturgy and it's good to fast and liturgy can be real helpful. But what the Torah teaches is that the way that the Israelites were forgiven, it wasn't through fasting, it wasn't through liturgy, it wasn't even through prayer. The only way that Israel has ever been forgiven, beloved ones, is through a blood sacrifice, when an innocent one died in their place, its blood was given and when the Lord saw the blood of the innocent one being shed on behalf of the guilty one, Israel, the Lord forgave Israel for that year.
Of course they had to go on and keep offering the blood sacrifice every year. And the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us why this was. The book of Hebrews tells us that the blood of the bulls and the blood of the goats could never really take away the sin, but they were shadows and types until the one true sacrifice came, who is Yeshua Himself. God Himself who came to humanity, clothed Himself in human form and then died on the cross, shedding His blood for mankind to that whoever would come to Him His blood would cover their lives and they'd be forgiven and safe from their sin. And so all those sacrifices that took place each year for Israel on Yom Kippur, those blood sacrifices never really forgave their sin, but God counted it as being powerful to cover them, because they were symbols and types of Yeshua that would come.
It's kind of like a credit card. You know when you go to purchase something at the grocery store, often times you go and you'll give them your credit card to pay for the goods. And the merchant accepts your credit card, listen, cause he knows that real payment is coming. Right? The credit card itself has no value, but the merchant accepts the credit card, because he knows that the credit card symbolizes that real payment is coming, that in a few days money is going to be transferred into his bank account. In the same way the Lord accepted those primitive sacrifices in the Old Testament, the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat, because He knew that they symbolized that real payment was coming and real payment once again, is when God Himself came clothed in humanity, died on the cross for your sin and my sin, shedding His blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood.
So the point is beloved, as we're seeing how Jesus completes Biblical Judaism, you see both here that it was Jesus' blood that completed all the things that the Hebrew Bible shadowed it towards, right? And we could go on about this. There's many other examples of the power of the blood. When Israel for example received the law, they said as the law was read before them, after Moses received it at Mount Sinai, Israel stood before the prophets, before Moses as the law was read and they said, "All that He has said we will do". And then Moses sprinkled them with blood. And so the blood is fundamental to salvation. What's the point of this beloved? I want you to take this away, we are living in a world today where when one confesses boldly to the world that Jesus is the only way to God, that He's the only way that leads to salvation, when we proclaim boldly to the world what Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life and no man cometh to the Father, but through me".
When we proclaim that to the world the world looks at us as being ignorant and narrow minded, even accusing us of being hateful, as being dumb. But I want you to know beloved, that only Jesus shed blood for the forgiveness of sin. The new age religions don't have a blood sacrifice, Mohammad's blood wasn't shed, Confucius' blood wasn't shed. I don't care what other religious figure or movement you talk about, only Jesus fulfills the Torah. It's only in Jesus that a blood sacrifice takes place. It's only in the person of Yeshua Hamashiach that an innocent one dies in the place of the guilty one so atonement can be made.
You see beloved one, whenever I'm challenged about Jesus I never doubt, because I know that Jesus completes the Torah. I know that the Torah teaches that it's only through the shedding of blood, it's only when an innocent one dies in the place of the guilty that man can stand before God holy and blameless despite his sin. Only Jesus solves the problem of sin, no other religion does. That is why I can stand before the world, I can stand before the world that might hate my message, I can stand before the people that don't believe the message, I can stand before the people that accuse me of being narrow minded or bigoted. I can even stand as a Jew within the world of larger Judaism where my message is largely rejected, with total confidence that Jesus is the only way, because I see in the Torah that Israel could only be forgiven on the Day of Atonement through the blood sacrifice. I see that they were delivered through the blood of the lamb. I see that the blood sacrifice was central to Israel's salvation as a nation and I see beloved today, that God's plan of salvation has been fully met in the person of His Son, Yeshua Hamashiach.
I want to ask you today, have you received Jesus fully into your life? He alone can save you. He's not just one road to God. It's not just, well if that's good for you it works. He is the only way and Jesus said, "Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins". I want to encourage you right now if you've never received Him into your life as Lord, if you've never said, "Jesus I believe that You are the one that can save me, I believe You are the only one that can save me, I give my life to You, forgive me for my sin, I want to follow you". If you've never done that before, beloved, I encourage you to get on your knee if you can and do that right now. Just say:
Jesus I get it. Forgive me. Right now I realize that what Rabbi Schneider was speaking is the truth and I repent of my sins. I turn to You. I want to follow You now Jesus. Come into my life. Forgive me and save me by Your blood, death and resurrection. I give You my heart right now God. In Jesus' name thank You Father God for loving me.