There are in fact two viewpoints of the Day of Atonement provided for us in the Scriptures, the first of which is describe in Leviticus Chapter 9 is taken from the standpoint of the flesh, from our viewpoint, while the other as describe in Leviticus Chapter 16 is as these sacrifices are viewed from God’s viewpoint.

In this particular instance however we are more interested in how this arrangement is seen from God’s perspective, God’s viewpoint, therefore we will be following the Sixteenth Chapter of Leviticus account, but not without respects to that which is given us in Leviticus Chapter 9.

“To understand the significance of the Day of Atonement and its work, we must realize that while our Lord Jesus personally is the Chief Priest to the under priesthood, the Church, `his body,’ yet in the more full and complete sense he is the Head and we are the members of the body of the world’s High Priest. Just as Aaron was chief over his under priesthood, while really in its general and proper sense, and representing the under priests, he was also ordained to minister as High Priest `for all the people’ of Israel, the typical representatives of all humanity, desirous of having atonement made for their sins and to return to divine favor and obedience.”

As the consecrating of the antitypical priesthood includes all the members of the Body, and requires all of the Gospel age to complete it, so also with the sin-offering, or the sacrifice of atonement; it commenced with the Head, and we, the members of his Body, fill up the measure of the sufferings of Christ which are behind, and these sufferings require all of the Gospel age to complete them. (1 Pet 4:13; Rom 8:17; 2 Cor 1:7; 4:10; Phil 3:10; Col 1:24; 2 Tim 2:12; 1 Pet 5:1, 10)

“The `Day of Atonement,’ which in the type was but a twenty-four hour day, we see then in antitype to be the entire Gospel age.” (T 49-50)

“The sacrificing feature of the Atonement Day will soon be over we believe when the last member of the elect Body of Christ shall have passed into death; that will be the end of the sacrificing, but it will not be the end of the atonement, because the Day of Atonement not only includes the day of sacrifice, but also the day of using that sacrifice in the work of blessing. In other words, the whole thousand years of Christ’s reign also belongs to this atonement work, because the construction of the word means at-one-ment …So then the Day of Atonement in the proper and fullest sense of the word is more than twenty-eight hundred years long.”

“In the consecration of the typical priests we saw Aaron AND his sons representing our Lord Jesus and his body as `new creatures,’ and a bullock representing their humanity; but in the type now to be considered we find Aaron ALONE representing the entire Anointed One (Head and body), and two different sacrifices, a bullock and a goat, are here used to represent the separateness, yet similarity in the suffering, of the body and its head, as the `sin offering.’ ” (T 51)

“Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place (the courtyard), with the blood (life) of a young bull as a sin-offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. He shall put the holy linen tunic and linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban (a “mitre”) he shall be attired. These are holy garments; therefore he shall wash his body in water [before] putting them on.” (Lev 16:3, 4)

“Aaron was clothed for the service of the “Day of Atonement” not in his usual “Garments of Glory and Beauty”, but in garments of sacrifice, the “linen garments”,emblems of purity; the righteousness of saints.

The robe of linen was an earnest of the glorious robe to follow; the “linen girdle” (or sash) represented him as a servant, though not as powerful as when, at the close of the “Day of Atonement”, he would be girdled with the “curious girdle” of the ephod.

The “mitre of linen” (the head band), being the same as that belonging to the glorious apparel proclaims the perfect righteousness of our head during the sacrifice, as well as after it. So the antitypical high priest, the divine minded, spirit begotten one, though not yet born of the spirit, was ready and able to accomplish the sacrifice of the atonement at the first advent, and proceeded to do it, as typified in Aaron.” (T 55)

“The sin-offerings (the young bull) represented the suffering of Christ and of all who walk in his footsteps as respects their relationship to the Lord, `outside the camp,’ and their course as new creatures inside the holy and ultimately beyond the second vail in the most holy. And it shows the merit of the sacrifice eventually applied on the mercy seat, and for whom applied—the blood of the bullock first, for the church; the blood of the goat afterward, for all the people.

“The burnt-offering (the ram) shows the same sacrifice but from a different standpoint— that of divine acceptance. It shows that the offering was made to God and accepted by God as a whole, even though, as shown in the sin-offering, the sufferings were inflicted by men and the services rendered unto men.”

“The burnt-offering consisted of two rams (Note Verses 3 and 5), one representing the bullock and the other the Lord’s goat. These, being alike, show the harmony and oneness of the sacrifices made by Jesus and his footstep followers— that in God’s sight they are all one sacrifice.

`For both he that sanctifies (Jesus) and they who are sanctified (the little flock) are all one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.’ Heb 2:11

“This is further shown in the treatment of each of these sacrifices. The rams of `burnt-offering’ were cut in pieces and washed and the pieces laid unto the head upon the altar and burned—a burnt-offering of sweet savor unto Jehovah. Since both rams were thus treated, it showed thatin Jehovah’s estimation they were all parts of one sacrifice: the members joined to the Head, acceptable as a whole, as the atonement for the sins of the world—thus satisfying the claims of justice on behalf of the whole world of sinners.” (T 73)

“The head of these burnt-offerings was always laid upon the altar unwashed, whereas, the body, the inwards and the legs, which were subsequently laid upon the altar unto the head, had first to be washed. (See Lev 8:20, 21; 9:13, 14, 16)

The head unwashed well represented the perfect sacrifice of Christ Jesus who was “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.” (Heb 7:26) Naturally, his sacrifice had to precede all others (Col 1:18); but oh the glory of it! The testimony of the types here is that both the “head” which required no washing, and the “members” who do, are parts of one body, one sacrifice. (“Notes on the Tabernacle”, Page 370)

In our next post we will begin with our examination of the “The First Atonement Day Sacrifice, the Bullock” and its significance.