The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Christian and the Day of Atonement, #39

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

In concluding our study of the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement we would like add two more concepts.

The first concept is that the reconciling of the believer to God through Christ, which is the meaning of the term make atonement, includes more than casting out the sins of the flesh. In addition to our fleshly sins we have inherited a self-seeking, self-centered, self-willed, rebellious nature.

The lusts of the flesh are alien to us. They are residues of Satan that continue to cling to our flesh because they draw nourishment from us.

However, self-will is not alien to us. It is our own corrupt personality. We are to confess our pride, self-centeredness, and rebellion in the same manner in which we confess the lusts and hatreds of our flesh.

The process of deliverance from the rebellion of our personality includes the sufferings of the cross. Our personal cross is the remedy for our rebellious personality. It is only as we suffer that we are permitted and enabled to reign with Christ, because it is our cross that slays the pride, stubbornness, rebellion, and self-centeredness in us.

God develops and proves our obedience to Himself by requiring us to bear our cross after the Lord Jesus. He who is not willing to obey God in all that God requires of him can never be reconciled completely to God.

The second concept is that of the program of reconciliation. First, the Lord Jesus was made perfect in obedience through the things He suffered.

Next, the members of the holy remnant that God is calling are being reconciled to the Father by deliverance from bodily lusts, and from rebellion of personality.

After the warrior-remnant has been purified, all of the elect, the true Israel, will be reconciled to God.

Finally, every saved member of the nations will be reconciled to God.

The thousand-year Kingdom Age is for the purpose of reconciling all Israel and the saved nations to God. There then will be one last testing and purging. After that, the Father will remove the earth and the heaven that now exist and replace them with a new heaven and a new earth. On the new earth will be placed the Wife of the Lamb and the saved nations. (from The Christian and the Day of Atonement; from The Feasts of the Lord)