“Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of meeting, shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the [Most] Holy Place, and shall leave them there. And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place (the ‘courtyard’), and put on his [other] garments, come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people.” (Lev 16:23, 24)

It will be remembered that Aaron was during the initial period of his consecration (Lev 8) dressed by Moses in these “glorious” garments; yet after Aaron, on the 10th day of the 7th month (the Day of Atonement) had died (figuratively, in the bullock) for the people, he had won for himself the right to put them on (See Lev 16:23). They were then fully his own. So, too, it is with the earnest of our inheritance: it is an anointing unto a royal priesthood, which priesthood becomes our full possession only after we through faithfulness in sacrifice during the antitypical Atonement Day, have made our “calling and election” sure.

“As the white robes worn throughout the work of sacrifice covered the body and represented the justification of the body, their purity in God’s sight through Christ, so the ‘Garments of Glory and Beauty’, put on subsequently represented the glories of the Church’s position and work in the future, after the new creatures shall have been perfected, after they shall have gone beyond the ‘veil’. The washing with water at this time signifies that though the white garments (imputed righteousness of the ‘body’) are now removed, it does not signify the re-imputation of sin, but the completion of the cleansing, making the ‘body’ perfect in resurrection completeness, the garments of glory and beauty representing the glory, honor and immortality of the First Resurrection to the divine nature. The washing further shows that the sins of the people for which atonement had been made do not attach to or contaminate the purity of the priest thus ended this type of the development of the Priesthood and the satisfaction for the world’s sins.” (T 74)

“When THE Christ is complete, (the blood of the Lord’s goat having been sprinkled upon the mercy seat as was the bullocks) the offering on behalf of the people (which corresponds to the sealing of the New Covenant) will be concluded. Then, and only then, as in the type (Lev 9:23, 24), the great Priest will come out and bless the people.

He “will appear a second time without a sin-offering, to those who are expecting Him (the groaning creation), in order to salvation (to inaugurate the New Covenant and as its Mediator to set up its kingdom for the overthrow of sin and death and the establishment of righteousness and life).” — Heb 9:28, Diaglott (R 4512:4)

The Great Day of Atonement however will not see its conclusion until the end of the millennium when all the willing of mankind have been fully restored to perfection, fitted and prepared to receive the kingdom promised.

Thus ends our presentation of the Great Day of Atonement.