Today’s 333 Devotional: “At One Ment”

Hebrews 2:17 says, “For this reason He (Jesus Christ) had to be made like them (you and me), fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”

I love the way we can take apart this word, atonement, where it says, “at-one-ment.” When broken down like this it brings understanding to what Jesus did there upon the cross.

By His sacrifice, He made us right with God, or through His sacrifice He allowed God and His creation, you and me, to be at one with Him.

This sacrifice goes back, not only to the Passover Lamb, which was a foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus, who took upon Himself our sins, but also Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. This is where the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies, behind the veil and into the presence of God to sprinkle the sacrificial blood upon the Mercy Seat, or atonement cover.

This sacrifice had to be offered every year, like Passover Lamb, because the blood of animals could never atone for sin (Hebrews 10:4). But Jesus’s sacrifice was only necessary once. “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God … For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:12, 14)

Jesus became our atoning sacrifice, making atonement for our souls through His blood, because in God’s Law, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).

“Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.” (Hebrews 10:19, 22a)