Day of Atonement (1) – Sacrificial Blood

Atonement has to do with expiation for sin and reconciliation with a holy God.  In this topic we’ll preview the gospel of salvation through the Old Testament (OT) Day of Atonement and sin offerings.

In ancient Israel, only the weekly 7^th day sabbath and the annual Day of Atonement (approximately Oct 1) were full sabbath days.  The Day of Atonement was the holiest day.  The Septúagint/LXX identifies the Day of Atonement as a double sabbath.  Le.23:26-32 LXX “On the 10^th day of the 7^th month is the day of atonement, holy to you. It is a perpetual precept throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath [Strongs g4521, Greek] of sabbaths [g4521].”  Le.16:29-31 LXX “On this day he [high priest] shall make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and you shall be clean. It is a sabbath [g4521] of sabbaths [g4521] to you; you shall afflict your souls [fast].”

The Lord Christ authorized His OT pilgrim feasts to be kept only in the environs of the tabernacle or temple; ref De.16:5-6, 15-16.  (see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.)  Unlike the temple feasts, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kíppur, in Hebrew) was to be kept in all their dwellings.  Luke wrote in Ac.27:9, “Sailing was now dangerous, since the fast was already past”.  The Day of Atonement was then being observed within the Roman Empire.  Benson Commentary “The fast here spoken of was the day of atonement.”  Cambridge Bible “The fast here meant is that of the great Day of Atonement.”  Ellicott Commentary “The date may have been fixed on St Luke’s memory by St Paul’s observance of the Fast.”  The fact that Luke refers to it indicates the Day was being kept by Jews, and probably by many Christians too, outside the Holy Land.  Adam Becker The Ways That Never Parted, p.268 “Gentile Christians from Syria-Palestine continued to celebrate Yom Kippur together with their Jewish neighbors until at least the 4^th century, as sermons by Origen and Chrýsostom prove.”

Some Christians today still honor the day.  Pastor Don Finto said on Sunday 9/15/2007, “The [upcoming] Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the year”.  Benny Hinn “Join Pastor Benny Hinn in fasting on the Day of Atonement on Monday 9/28/2009.”  Those pastors aren’t Jewish.

The Day of Atonement (h3725 kippur) is also known as Yom Kippur by Jews.  Yom Kippur means ‘day of covering’.  Sins were covered by blood on Yom Kippur.  Let’s look at forgiveness in the OT:

At the annual temple service, Yom Kippur was the national sin offering day for ancient Israel.  Blood was brought into the Most Holy Place by the high priest (Le.16:14-16) only on this holiest day of the year.  The Lord commanded a fast on this day (Le.23:27).  The offerer wasn’t authorized to eat his own sin offering (Le.6:30)!  The slain goat wasn’t eaten (Le.16:27).  It is appropriately a day of fasting.  (This was unlike the Passover animals, which were peace offerings, not sin offerings.  The spring Passover sacrifice from the flock and herd, De.16:2-3, was eaten.  see “Passover and Peace Offerings”.)

The Lord said in Le.17:11, “The life [or soul, h5315 néphesh] of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. The blood by reason of the life makes atonement.”  Blood is the principal carrier of life in the body.  De.12:23 “The blood is the life [soul].”  Ge.9:4 “Its life [soul h5315], that is, the blood.”  The lifeblood.

Sin is so serious…God required the death of His creatures, clean domestic animals, to expiate lesser (menial) human sin.  Sin kills.  Sin offerings were accepted at the tabernacle/temple during the year.

Blood was necessary for forgiveness, to atone.  Le.4:1, 2-35 shows sin offerings for unintentional sins.  Le.4:11-12, He.13:11 the animal was afterwards burned, not eaten.  Le.5:1-19 shows sin/guilt/trespass offerings.  These were for sins of ignorance, omission, and against holy things.  (Le.5:11-13 the poor may offer birds…or grain.  He.9:22 “Almost all things are cleansed by blood.”  But not quite all…God allowed the very poor, who didn’t have an animal/bird or couldn’t pay for one, to offer grain.)

Le.6:1-7, 19:20-22 shows intentional sins (and the guilt/trespass offering).  They’re more serious than unintentional, accidental or inadvertent sins.  But these sins in Le.6 also aren’t capital sins.

Individuals made sin/guilt offerings during the year…but they weren’t made for unknown (secret) sins.

Le.16 reflects the annual Day of Atonement service for the nation of ancient Israel as a whole.  It was a day of national repentance.  Only on this most solemn day was the high priest allowed into the Holiest Place behind the veil.  To atone for Israel’s sins, known and unknown, the Lord required that blood be sprinkled at the mercy seat on the Ark of the testimony.  To avert God’s wrath.  So that Israel could be forgiven, remain the people among whom God dwelt, and not be sent into captivity or cease as a nation.

The Lord instructed Moses/Israel in Ex.30:10, “Aaron shall make atonement…on it [altar of incense in Holy Place] with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”  This was the holiest ceremony of the year.  God is very holy; He won’t dwell with sin!  He.9:7 refers to the Day of Atonement. “Only the high priest enters, once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.”

In the annual service, the high priest first atoned for his own sins with the blood of a bull, Le.16:11-14.  Two goats were involved in the ceremony, for the people.  The high priest offered the blood of one goat (v.15-19).  Then he laid his hands on the head of the second goat and transferred the sins, iniquities and transgressions of the people onto this goat.  The goat, bearing all their wrongs, was released alive into the wilderness (v.20-22).  One goat was slain to atone, the second lived to carry away their sins.  David wrote in Ps.103:12, “As far as east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us”.

But there was no animal blood sacrifice/substitute to expiate major capital sins!  The penalty for capital offenses was death, upon the testimony of two witnesses (De.17:6-7, 2Co.13:1).  From personal, and circumstantial, evidence.  Capital sins are, e.g….murder, adultery, kidnapping, blasphemy, false witness in capital cases.  Also Nu.15:28-31, the person who rebelliously defied God and despised His word was utterly cut off.  No sacrifice for these sins.  The prescribed penalty was death without mercy (He.10:28).  Though usually a commensurate fine was instead paid, except in cases of 1^st degree murder, Nu.35:31.

For capital wrongs, the sinner’s own blood is required by a just God.  Harvard University’s Jacob Neusner Judaism When Christianity Began, p.153, 158 “Offerings then expiate those sins which are not committed as an act of rebellion against God. The ones that embody an attitude of rebellion, by contrast, cannot be expiated through the surrogate, the blood of the beast, but through the sinner, who is put to death by the court or is flogged by the court’s agents or is cut off in the prime of life. So God sees into man’s heart….Above all, death marks the final atonement for sin.”

The end of a person’s biological life, death, is the consequences of sin for everyone (eventually).  De.24:16 “Everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.”  (cf. Ro.6:23 “The wages of sin is death.”)

The Day of Atonement service reflected the highest mediatorial work of the high priest (Encyclopedia of the Bible).  This OT service did remove sins and “sent them away”…but it didn’t remove the sin nature from people’s hearts (He.10:1-4).

Along with animal sacrifices for sins, a sequence of repentance, confession, restitution was required for forgiveness (cf. Le.6:1-7).  This mindset/action was concurrent with the ‘work’ of doing sacrifices.  Philo The Special Laws 1:43:236 “Pardon shall be given to such a man…by works.”

It wasn’t choosing one or the other!  But today there’s no temple at which to expiate (lesser) sins.  Many (non-Christian) Jews have said the non-sacrificial elements alone are sufficient to cover sin.  But that’s not what the word of God reveals and requires!  Without a physical temple, what did the Lord provide as a just blood substitute to expiate sins?  (To pay the penalty for, or to make amends.)

Is.53:1-12 reflected a prophesied future sinless human sacrifice.  v.12 “He poured out His life [soul h5315] unto death…He bore the sins of many.”  This will be Jesus.  Benson Commentary “He willingly laid down His life.”  JFB Commentary “His life, which was considered as residing in the blood.”

Paul wrote in 1Co.15:3-4, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and was raised.”  He.4:14-15 Jesus, our great high priest in the order of Melchisedek, was sinless.  1Pe.1:18-19 Christ’s precious lifeblood redeemed mankind.  He.9:28 “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Jesus bore our sins on the cross.  He died…and yet He lives at Father God’s right hand in heaven (Ac.2:32-33).  The OT type was in the Day of Atonement temple service…the one goat was slain, and the second scapegoat or escape-goat bore Israel’s sins and lived (Le.16:21-22).  They pictured Christ who died, was resurrected, and now lives!

The New Testament writers and early Jewish Christians had faith that Yeshúa’s (Jesus’) sacrifice was sufficient to cover their sins.  We don’t read of them bringing any offerings for sin or guilt to the temple, which existed until 70 AD.  (Nu.6:13-21 the sacrifices for voluntary vows did include a sin offering, cf. Ac.21:23-26.)  Jesus’ sinless Divine life (via the virgin birth) is worth more than the sum of all human lives…and much more than animals’ lives!  His blood is enough.  see “Jesus’ Virgin Birth”.

But “Jesus” isn’t a name magically invoked, and then we merely return to willingly commit more sins or carelessly ignore God’s laws that identify sin…the violation of which animal sacrifice was required by Christ for forgiveness in the OT.  That kind of cheap grace, so-called, is a sham.  We’re to obey the Lord.  God gives the indwelling Holy Spirit, enabling us to overcome the sin nature (Ro.8:4-14).

What about the more serious capital sins for which death was prescribed, upon the testimony of two witnesses?  e.g. 2Sm.12:7-14 no animal blood could atone for David’s adultery, murder and despising of God’s word (Nu.15:30-31)!  Whether or not witnesses came forward…the Lord knew what David had done.  Neither the Day of Atonement sacrifice, nor an individual sin offering, could expiate David’s major sin!  Only David’s own life, or the life of a sinless human victim, could atone/substitute.

2Sm.12:15-18, 24 David’s capital sins were covered by the death of his innocent newborn son.  The baby was sinless, knowing no sin which later would be atoned by his own death.  The Lord chose to take his life in place of David’s life.  This little one was a type of Christ, if you will.  David was forgiven.

2Co.5:19-21 “He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.”  Christ became that which He did not know.  Jesus was completely sinless.  He’d committed no sins for which His own death on the cross must atone.  His life as Creator God (Jn.1:1-3, He.1:2) is worth more than the sum of all our lives…so Jesus’ sacrificial death was sufficient to atone for our sins in the eyes of God.  (Though we all still die physically, we’ll live forever in eternal life!  see “Life After Death – for Saints”.)

Ac.13:38-39 “Through Him [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him all who believe are justified in all things from which you couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses.”  Capital sins couldn’t be justified by the Yom Kippur goats or sin offerings, according to the Law of Moses.

Matthew Poole Commentary Ac.13:39 “There were some sins which by the ceremonial law there was no sacrifice appointed for.”  Major sins/crimes.  Matthew Henry Commentary “By Jesus Christ we obtain a complete justification; for by him a complete atonement was made for sin.”

After our belief, confession of sin, and repentance…through Christ’s sacrifice we stand justified from all kinds/categories of sin.  We’re not condemned by God.  Pulpit Commentary “Upon the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, a free and full forgiveness of sins to all that repent and believe the gospel.”

Reading through the chapters of Hebrews 9–10 will provide a more complete understanding.  They go into more detail about Jesus’ sacrifice as related to the Day of Atonement.

We’ve all sinned.  Christ is our atonement or propitiation through His blood.  Ro.3:23-26 “He [God] passed over our sins previously committed.”  We receive the gift of total expiation for all sins we’d done.  Ro.5:8-9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His [Christ’s] blood, we shall be saved from God’s wrath [condemnation] through Him.”

Human courts may (justly) condemn a criminal to physical death.  But upon repentance and belief in Christ’s sacrifice, the condemned man stands un-condemned by God.  Thank You, Lord!

Lk.23:39-43 shows that a criminal, condemned by the courts, can be forgiven and be with the Lord.  Unrepentant thieves, kidnappers, murderers, adulterers, haters of God, etc. won’t inherit the Kingdom of God, 1Co.6:9-10.  v.11 “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  All the repentant who believe in His sacrifice!

Ro.8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  No eternal condemnation.  Jesus/Yeshua has atoned for all our sins.

Ti.2:11-14 “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.”  Gentiles too can be redeemed from all wrongs and be saved!  People who didn’t know of Yom Kippur.

1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.”  Our confession is still required, including sins and transgressions in the future.

The song title has it…Nothing But The Blood of Jesus.  Christ’s precious blood/life/soul is our atonement…even for capital offenses repented of (such as David’s)!

Jesus fulfills both atonement goats of Yom Kippur.  (For that matter, He fulfills the Passover, the burnt offerings, etc….Christ fulfills all the OT sacrificial types.  also see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.)

Father God saw Christ’s atoning blood poured out.  God’s justice has been upheld.  We stand reconciled to the Father.  The ancient Day of Atonement service and sin offerings foreshadowed the real living gospel…the gospel of eternal salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord!  He is the propitiation, the appeasing, the atonement, for the sins of the whole world (1Jn.2:2).

This topic is continued in “Day of Atonement (2) – in Revelation”.

Life and Death – for Saints

The Christian hope is to live eternally with God!  As our years in the body advance, this hope becomes nearer.  Jesus said in Jn.10:10, “I came that they might have life, and more abundantly”.  Life after death may be better than we thought!  Here we’ll look at scriptures about life and death for the saints.

As we age, most will experience aches & pains in the body.  Yet the future for saved Christians is wonderful!  Ex.23:25-26 the Lord will fulfill the number of one’s days.  We can receive healing in the body until that last illness or the day we take our final breath.  (see the topic “Healing Our Bodies”.)  Pr.9:11 “Years of life will be added to you.”  Ps.48:14 “This is our God forever; He will guide us unto death.”  Is.46:4 “Even to your old age and grey hairs, I will deliver you.”  God sustains us and will give us the abundant life!  Physical death is a time of transition to the afterlife; it isn’t the end of our existence.

Ps.91:16 “With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”  (The Hebrew term for salvation is yeshúah, Strongs h3444.)  God saves His people.  The Lord gets us out of trouble, in general!  He ‘saves’ us from danger, catastrophe, enemies, sickness, etc…and saves us in the spiritual sense.  God saves us from death.  And the Bible indicates there are (at least) two kinds of death.

One kind of death occurs when we take our last breath.  Our physical body is buried; it decomposes or disintegrates.  God formed the first human from the elements of the earth, breathed life into him, and he became a living soul (Ge.2:7).  The Lord told the first man Adam in Ge.3:19, “You return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. You will return to dust.”  Adam died physically at a very advanced age (Ge.5:5).  David said of God in Ps.103:14, “He is mindful that we are but dust”.  And Ec.12:7 (the reverse of Ge.2:7), “The dust returns to the earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it”.  (The term for spirit is Hebrew rúach h7307, Greek Septúagint/LXX & New Testament pneúma g4151.)  We breathe our last, our spirit returns to God, our physical body returns to dust or decomposes…this is physical death.

God has given each of us a human spirit, the “breath of life”.  Jb.32:8 “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.”  The human spirit is a non-physical component which imparts self-awareness & intellect to our brain.  At physical death, our spirit is to return to God.  Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.”  Without our human spirit, our body is just a corpse.  ref Lk.8:53-55 the girl who’d died was a corpse (until Jesus brought back her spirit, which returns to God after death, to her body).  When Adam finally died physically, the human spirit God had initially breathed into him went back to God.  We humans undergo this physical death.  Ps.104:29 “You take away their spirit, they die and return to dust.”  When the Lord takes away our spirit…we expire.  Man’s spirit returns to God for His renascence, re-embodiment, placement or disposition, as He sees fit.

Now let’s look at another kind of death.  When Adam & Eve ate from the wrong tree, they died in another sense.  Mankind is made in the image & likeness of God (Ge.1:26-27).  God said in Ge.2:16-17, “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day you eat from it you shall surely die”.  The serpent deceived Eve (Ge.3:4-7).  When Adam & Eve ate from it and disobeyed God or sinned, they became separated from God spiritually.  That day their spiritual death occurred.  (Their physical death wasn’t until centuries later.)  Ge.3:8 so they hid themselves from God.  Ge.3:24 although they’re made in God’s image…to further separate them from Himself, the Lord banned them from the garden of Eden.  (see the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.)

Death is a form of separation.  Adam & Eve were separated from God’s Presence and the Tree of Life.  Even if they’d previously eaten some from the Tree of Life while obedient (Ge.2:9, 16), outside the garden they couldn’t continue to eat its fruit…and Adam finally expired at age 930 (Ge.5:5).  Gill Exposition Ge.2:9 “Before Adam sinned there was no prohibition of his eating of it.”  (Perhaps the effect of the Tree of Life was passed down through very long-lived descendants for generations?)

At physical death, one’s human spirit is separated from the physical body.  Spiritual death is separation from God, who is eternal Life.  Is.59:2 “Your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you.”  Sin kills us spiritually, in this sense.

Since Adam & Eve, humans are born spiritually ‘dead’.  David referred to his unborn self, Ps.51:5 “I was shaped in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me”.  Natural man from birth is spiritually unaware, our eyes ‘blinded’ to spiritual eternal Life (e.g. 2Co.4:4).  Ro.5:12 “Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all, because all sinned.”  Mankind has a proclivity to sin.  Ja.1:15 “When sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”  Separation from God.  Gill Exposition Ja.1:15 “As the first sin of man brought death into the world, brought a spiritual death.”  Orthodox Bible Ge.2:17 “The words ‘you shall die’ indicate a spiritual death through separation from God.”  Spiritual death happened to Adam at the wrong tree; it becomes the common state of humanity.

We were all dead spiritually.  Paul wrote to the saints in Ep.2:5, “We were dead in our transgressions”.  Of course Paul and those he was writing to weren’t dead physically!  Rather, they’d been spiritually dead earlier, while physically alive!  Continuing in Ep.4:18, “Being alienated from the Life of God”.  As Adam & Eve had become alienated from God; separated from the Lord and His Presence.

Jesus said in Mt.8:21-22, “Let the dead bury their dead”.  Jesus expressed two kinds of death here…in other words, let those who are spiritually dead bury their relatives who had died physically.  And in Jesus’ parable of Lk.15:24, 32, the prodigal son had been spiritually dead, while physically alive.  In 1Ti.5:6, Paul wrote of the profligate widow who “is dead even while she lives”.  Spiritually dead, physically alive.  Paul also wrote in Col.2:13, “You were dead in your transgressions”.  The Colossians were physically alive, yet earlier had been spiritually dead by reason of sin.  But not dead forever!

Continuing in Col.2:13 “…He has made you alive together with Him”.  Those Christians were no longer spiritually dead!  1Co.15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”  Since Adam, humanity was spiritually dead or separated from God, and also died physically.  But through Jesus and the Holy Spirit (HS), we’re made alive spiritually; there’s no separation from God (though we still die physically).

Peter said in Ac.2:38, “Repent and be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.  The HS is Life eternal (He.9:14).  1Co.6:17 “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”  It’s a spiritual union.  We become spiritually alive!  Ga.6:8 “The one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.”  Wikipedia “For Paul (as in Ga.6:8), future eternal life arrives as a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit during the present life.”  The seed of eternal Life is now within us.

The New Testament (NT) doesn’t describe eternal life in detail.  But it does provide assurance that the saints will receive it.  Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible “The nature of eternal life is only sketched in its essential elements in the New Testament.”  The saved Christian becomes spiritually alive, no longer are we spiritually dead!

John wrote in 1Jn.3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life”.  ‘Saved’ Christians are spiritually alive.  1Jn.5:11-12 “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who doesn’t have the Son doesn’t have life.”  The eternal Life made possible by Jesus indwells us.

Jesus said in Jn.8:51, “If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death”.  Jesus was referring to spiritual death, not physical death.  Of course we all die physically.  Jesus also spoke of Himself as the living bread.  Jn.6:50-51 “One may eat of it and not die. I AM the living bread that came down from heaven.”  Not die spiritually, that is; having the kernel of eternal Life.  Jn.11:26 “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”  Shall never die spiritually; won’t be separated from God.

Many believe that even Jesus Himself experienced separation from God for a short time on the cross…for our sake!  Mk.15:33-34 “Darkness fell over the whole Land. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (cf. Ps.22:1)  Jesus knew He’d be resurrected (Mt.20:18-19).  But as Jesus became sin in our stead (2Co.5:21), He was separated from His Father for the only time.  Ga.3:13 “Christ became a curse for us.”  Father God is so holy; He won’t dwell with sin.

God is the Father of spirits (He.12:9).  The Lord gives breath & spirit to His creatures on earth (Is.42:5).  For physical death to occur, man’s spirit departs his body, and returns to God who gave it (Ec.12:7).

Jesus also experienced physical death when He expired on the cross.  At the transfiguration of Lk.9:31, Jesus spoke of His soon departure (g1841) which would take place at Jerusalem.  Later, Jesus said as He died on the cross in Lk.23:46, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit’. He breathed His last.”  Jesus’ spirit departed and returned to Father God.  Jn.19:30 “Jesus yielded up His spirit.”

2Pe.1:13-15 elderly Peter said he would soon die physically.  The time was near for his spirit’s earthly tent (his physical body) to be laid aside.  “After my departure (g1841) you may remember these things.”  Peter’s spirit would soon depart his body.  (Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.”)

In the last chapter of 2Timothy, Paul’s time to die physically was imminent.  2Ti.4:6 “The time of my departure has come.”  Paul’s spirit would soon depart his physical body, when he expired.  As Peter’s.

Ac.7:54-60 righteous Stephen was stoned to death.  As he died physically, Stephen said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (v.59).  Stephen’s spirit departed when his body “fell asleep”, then decomposed.

At their physical death, the spirit of Peter, of Paul, of Stephen…departed their body and returned to God.  They went to be with Jesus.  Their fleshly body became dust after their spirit separated from it.  But those three, as well as the saints Paul wrote to at Ephesus, Colossae, etc., are made alive in spirit!

Paul wrote in Php.1:21-24, “To live is Christ and to die is gain. To depart and be with Christ is far better.”  Paul’s earthly life became dedicated to Christ’s purposes.  Yet Paul believed Life for him would be better after he died physically, when his spirit consciousness went to be with God and Jesus.

Here’s the final verse of the song, God Knew Your Name, by Jim Likens. “As you gracefully grew old, you know you had been told, God knew your name. And one day when you died, your friends and family cried, God knew your name. And My angels carried your soul [or spirit] to Me, And I said, ‘Welcome home’. You were one of Mine, I loved you for all time, I knew your name.”

Our spirit, returned to God who gave it, is at His disposal as He sees fit.  In Jesus’ parable of Lk.16:19-31, the poor man’s spirit…“was transported by angels to Abraham’s bosom [or Paradise]”.  The rich man’s spirit was placed in Hades, the realm of the dead (v.22-23).  Evidently some of what Jesus spoke in this parable was commonly believed by Jews in the Land, so they were able to understand His point.

Before Jesus left His disciples on earth, He said in Jn.14:2-3, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; I go to prepare a place for you”.  Father God’s house is in heaven, not on earth.  After Jesus died and was resurrected, He was received up into heaven, at His Father’s right hand (Mk.16:19).

Stephen asked of Jesus, “Receive my spirit” (Ac.7:59).  Stephen, Peter, Paul and other saints went to the heavenly dwelling places Jesus prepared for them.  Their spirits returned to God, and would never die!

The writer to the Hebrews wrote in He.12:1, “We have a great cloud of witnesses”.  A most unusual way to identify a group of witnesses!  There’s a “cloud” of saints in the heavens who have gone before us.  Untold numbers of saints had been “caught up in the clouds” prior to the departure of Paul’s spirit consciousness to be “together with them” (1Th.4:17).  Continuing with He.12:22-24, “You have come to…the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly and church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus”.  Glory to God!  The spirits of the righteous saints in their heavenly dwelling are an innumerable cloud of witnesses!  (cf. Re.7:9-12)

Paul wrote of our body in 1Co.15:44-49, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. As is the earthy so are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”  All humans have a natural physical body on earth.  The spirits of the righteous, who departed and were received by Jesus, have a spiritual body in the heavens.  The spirits of Stephen, Peter, Paul…are among those witnesses in the “cloud” with spiritual bodies.  (compare the topic, “Rebirth to Physical Life”.)

Paul wrote more of eternal life with God in 2Co.5:1-4. “We know that if our earthly tent is dissolved, we have a house from God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. So that we won’t be naked. While in this tent we groan, not wanting to be unclothed.”  Our earthly body is made by our mother & father, so to speak.  When it dies and dissolves into dust, our spirit returns to God/Jesus.  Our spirit is there “clothed” with our heavenly imperishable spiritual body (1Co.15:42); not mortal physical bodies in heaven.  We don’t live forever as disembodied spirits.  Spiritual bodies are portrayed as being pure and clothed in white (ref Re.3:5, 4:4, 7:9).

Paul continued in 2Co.5:8, “I would rather be absent from the body and be present with the Lord.”  Paul’s preference was to depart his mortal tent here on earth, and go to be at home in his heavenly spiritual body, with the Lord.  (It’s been said that Paul was absent-minded in that regard!)

Greek Bible scholar Spiros Zódiates’ note on 2Co.5:1-10, “Our real self is the spirit within us and not the body. The mortal body is presented as a tent. When death happens we don’t become extinct. We continue to live on. God is building a completely new house for our spirit. It will be identifiable, but not the same. Paul was evidently speaking of his resurrection body.”  It’s a heavenly body for our spirit.

Php.3:20-21 “Our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus Christ will transform our lowly body to conform to the body of His glory.”  We shall be like Jesus (to a lesser degree), in our spiritual bodies.  Cambridge Bible “The saints’ body of glory.”  1Jn.3:2 “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He is.”  Vincent Word Studies “The manifestation of that glorified state, the revealing of what we shall be.”  Now our physical eyes cannot behold Jesus’ glorified brightness or the appearance of our spiritual body.

{Sidelight: Various eschatological views, the timing of resurrections, other spirits, the underworld…are somewhat related to this topic, but aren’t discussed here.  Also, the interchangeable expressions, “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt.19:23-24).  see the topic “Kingdom of God”.}

Cardiologists have revived people who died physically for a brief period of time.  Pronounced dead!  While dead, their spirit left their body, and ‘saw’ the future life.  While dead, they heard conversation of nurses, or viewed streets exterior to the hospital!  As they were revived physically by the cardiologist or medical team, their spirit reentered their body (cf. Lk.8:55).  There are thousands of people who have had near-death experiences (NDE)!  Numerous documented cases are on medical record.

There’s a saying…“A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with just an argument”.

Raymond Edman They Found the Secret, p.33, gives Salvation Army Commissioner Samuel Brengle’s account of his final days at age 76.  Though nearly blind, Brengle ‘saw’ some of the great cloud of witnesses, saints who’d gone on before. “I had sweet fellowship at times in my own room. Saints of all ages congregate there. Moses is present, and gives his testimony, and declares that the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Joshua arises, and declares, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. Samuel and David, my dear friends Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel, Paul and John and James, and deeply humbled and beloved Peter, each testifying to the abounding grace of God. Luther and Wesley and the Founder [General William Booth] and Finney, and Spurgeon and Moody, and unnumbered multitudes all testify…Fanny Crosby cries out, ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine’! So you see, I am not alone. Halleluyah forever, and glory to God!”

The 2000 edition of evangelist F.F. Bosworth’s Christ the Healer, contains a concluding chapter written by his son Bob Bosworth, about his father’s passing in 1958 (p.246-7). “About 3 weeks after he took to his bed, we were around the bed talking, laughing and singing. Suddenly Dad looked up; he never saw us again. He saw what was invisible to us. He began to greet people and to hug people; he was enraptured. Every once in a while he would break off and look around saying, ‘Oh, it is so beautiful’. He did this for several hours. Finally, with a smile on his face, he put his head back and slept. We took turns sitting with him. My wife Stella suddenly realized that he’d stopped breathing. There had been no struggle, no sound. The psalmist had described it correctly; God had simply removed his breath and he was home! ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ [Ho.13:14 LXX, 1Co.15:55]  This is the testimony and ultimate triumph of F.F. Bosworth.”

Death and the grave are defeated!  1Co.15:54 “When this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.” (cf. Is.25:8)  For saints who’ve received and been led by the Holy Spirit, Life with a heavenly body will be abundantly satisfying and pain-free for all eternity!  To God be the glory!

Tree Symbolism in Scripture

This topic is about the spiritual symbolism of trees seen in the Bible.  Special focus is on two trees in the Garden of Eden…the Tree of Life (TL), and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (TKGE).  We’ll reflect on tree significance in Bible history, and also on two ‘Adams’ in two gardens.

The people of ancient Israel were familiar with the crops and vegetation of the Holy Land.  It was an agricultural society.  In scripture, God gave symbolic meaning to various crops, plants and trees indigenous to the Land.  Olives, figs, grapes are some of the produce which grows there (De.8:8).

Having a grape vine and a fig tree was symbolic of peace & safety and plenty in the Land.  1Ki.4:25 “Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig tree, all the days of Solomon.”  The Zec.3:10 prophecy, “In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree’, declares the Lord”.  This was expanded in the prophecy of Mic.4:2, 4. “Many nations will go up to the mountain of the Lord. The law will go out from Zion. Each of them will sit under his vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid.”  Peace and plenty are a result of following God’s principles & ways.

In the 1^st century AD, a large golden vine (paid for from Judah’s tithes) hung over the Temple door in Jerusalem.  This vine was an emblem of Israel.  Ps.80:7-8 “O God, restore us. You did remove a vine from Egypt; You did drive out the nations and did plant it.”  After the exodus from Egypt, God drove out most Canaanítes and settled the Israelites in the Land.  Ho.10:1 “Israel is a luxuriant vine.”  But God later rebuked them in Je.2:21. “I planted you a choice vine; how did you turn against Me into a degenerate foreign vine?”  Israel turned to infidelity and apostasy from their God.

The nation of Israel was also portrayed as a fig tree.  Ho.9:10 the Lord said, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree”.  Is.5:7 “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and Judah is His delightful plant [fig].”  The Lord said of the locust devastation in Joel.1:7, “It has made My vine a waste and My fig tree a stump”.  Je.8:12-13 was a prophecy upon ancient Judah. “They shall be brought down. There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree.”  No peace and plenty then. (cf. Mt.21:19 the fig tree Jesus cursed withered.)

But long before there was the nation(s) of ancient Israel, from the beginning God’s word gave symbolic meaning through trees.  Ge.2:8-9 “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden; and there He put the human. And the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing and good for food; the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil [Bad].”  These were the two most significant trees in that first Garden.  God commanded the first human/(adám) in Ge.2:16-17, “Of every tree you may freely eat; but from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat it you will surely die”.

Adam was free to eat from all trees, including the cosmic TL.  This TL symbolized God’s provision of immortality.  That would be the result of continued obedience to God.  By partaking of the TL, Adam & Eve would be following the lead of God’s voice/Word and the Holy Spirit (HS) of Wisdom.  Pr.3:18 “Wisdom is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.”  Adam & Eve could have submitted to the Spirit of eternal life in God’s presence continually.

But one tree was not permitted them, the TKGE.  The consequence of disobedience to God, eating from that tree, is death.  That tree represented disregarding God’s voice/Word and the HS.  That tree wasn’t called just the Tree of the Knowledge of Evil.  It’s a mixture of Good and Evil.  Yet it’s not obedience to God.  The serpent tempted Eve in Ge.3:5. “In the day you eat from it [TKGE] your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  God is just, truly knowing what’s good and what’s evil/bad.  The TKGE would enable mankind to assume moral self-determination, to set their own standards of right and wrong, good and evil…as if they were God.  In a word…humanism.

Ge.3:6 “She [Eve] took from its fruit and ate, and gave to her husband, and he ate.”  It looked good!  They ate from the forbidden tree, in disobedience to God.  Sin!  And humanity has done so ever since.

We think we know good and evil, and by such knowledge have devised our own humanistic laws and justice/injustice systems.  Over the centuries, man has made some laws which in principle are based on God’s revealed laws from His HS & word.  But man has also enacted laws and sought religions apart from or contrary to God’s written laws/HS.  A mixture of good and evil.  Human misery has resulted.

{Sidelight: A government or ruler is ‘good’ to the extent their laws are based in principle upon God’s moral laws/standards.  e.g. the USA Constitution to an extent in past decades of its history.  Christians have been free in this nation.  But living as a Christian can be very difficult in dictatorships and underdeveloped nations where man’s laws are based on whatever keeps the present regime in power!}

Continuing with the first Adam & Eve in Ge.3:7, “Then their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings”.  Nakedness can be both physical and spiritual, being unclothed or symbolic of sin & shame.  Re.16:15 “Blessed is the one who keeps his garments, lest he be naked and they see his shame.”  But prior to their sin…Ge.2:25 the two humans “were both naked and were not ashamed”.  Sin brought guilt and shame to their psyche.  (Note: This doesn’t mean that human bodyparts and normal sexual relations between husband & wife is sin.)

Adam & Eve themselves tried to cover their physical nakedness & sin with fig leaves…maybe from the same tree they’d eaten?!  Sewn fig leaves, or human devices, are inadequate to cover sin.  Ge.3:21 so “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”  God Himself covered them with animal skins, perhaps leather garments of calfskin or kidskin.  In so doing, God showed that to cover the nakedness symbolic of sin, man must be ‘clothed’ by means of the death of another!  Those first skins from an animal sacrifice foreshadowed the temporary sacrificial system and ultimately Jesus the Lamb of God’s perfect final sacrifice to cover humanity’s sins!

Ge.3:22-23 “The Lord said, ‘The human has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he eat also from the Tree of Life and live forever’ – therefore the Lord drove him from the garden.”  Man was now in a fallen state of disobedience, having chosen to decide for himself what constitutes right and wrong, in rebellion against God.  For that time, God mercifully separated man from becoming immortal and living forever as humans in the misery of self-rule with a disobedient sinful heart & mind.

Moving far ahead in history to the nation of Judah in the 580s BC…in Je.24 the Jews were portrayed as good and evil figs.  v.1-3 “Two baskets of figs set before the Temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, the other basket had very evil [bad] figs.”  The people then were a type of the TKGE (eaten by those disobedient).  v.4-10 the Jews taken captive to Babylon in 597 BC were now characterized by good figs; those Jews remaining in the Land were as bad rotten figs.  A mixture of good and evil.

Separated from the TL & water of Life, most people in disobedient Israel and Judah hadn’t been given the HS.  Only a small minority (prophets, some priests and kings) had the HS.  Israel and Judah had instead the Mosaic sacrificial rituals.  But rituals (without the HS) proved inadequate for eternal salvation, not changing the heart or removing the sin nature.

When Christ came into the holy land in the 1^st century AD, He told the parable of the fig tree.  Lk.13:6-9 “For three years I have looked for fruit on this fig tree, without finding any. Cut it down. But let it alone for this year and I’ll fertilize it, and if it bears fruit, fine! But if not, cut it down.”  Jesus’ ministry in the Land was 3–4 years.  By His Person, He nourished, so to speak, the people/fig tree of the Land.

But by Mt.21:43-46, Jesus declared, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruit of it. The chief priests and Pharisees understood He was speaking about them.”  Accordingly, the kingdom was taken from the physical nation of Judah in 70 AD; and given to a spiritual “nation” bearing fruit.  1Ch.28:5 the old Kingdom.  Ro.10:19 & 1Pe.2:9-10 the new “nation”.

Jesus said in Jn.15:1, 5, “I Am the true vine. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit.”  Unlike Israel, Jesus the true vine remained obedient.  By virtue of the sinless Jesus’ sacrifice, believers may now receive the HS.  The HS produces fruit that we in the “holy nation” are to bear (1Pe.2:9-10).

Mt.21:1 “Jesus approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphagé at the Mount of Olives.”  Bethphage meant ‘house of unripe figs’.  v.19-20 “Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He found nothing on it but leaves only. He said to it, ‘There shall be no fruit on you again.’ The fig tree withered.”  This fig tree, a type of the TKGE, was cursed four days before the cross.  The fig tree was an emblem of Judah.

Most of Judah rejected Jesus.  They set Him up to be crucified.  Jerusalem, the Temple, and Judea were destroyed in 70 AD. (see the topic “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”.)  Their sacrificial rituals and oral traditions were insufficient.  Denying Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice, those Jews couldn’t completely cover their sins to receive eternal Life.  He.10:4 animal sacrifices cannot forever take away sins or the sin nature.  (That doesn’t mean the Jewish people won’t have salvation, e.g. Ro.11:23-26.)

God had placed the first created human/adam in a garden.  Immediately prior to Jesus’ crucifixion, the greatest drama in history, concerning God’s only begotten Son, began in a later garden!  Jn.18:1 “Jesus went to a garden, He and His disciples.”  Mk.14:32-33 “They came to Gethsemané. He became deeply distressed and troubled.”  The garden was at the foot of the Mt. of Olives.  Gethsemane meant ‘oil or wine press’.  That night Jesus prayed fervently.  In Luke’s account, Lk.22:44 “His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground”.  (Hematidrósis is rare.)  Jesus even sweated blood in mental agony from the pressure He felt…at the place of the wine press.  Blood resembles red wine in color.

After day came, Christ was crucified, shedding His blood.  Peter later said to the high priest in Ac.5:30, “Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a tree”.  Jesus’ cross is symbolic of the Tree of Life.  Jesus hung on a type of the TL, near the Mt. of Olives…perhaps even within distant view of the fig tree He’d cursed, symbolizing the TKGE which represented disobedient Judah!

Christ had instructed Moses (in the Law).  De.21:22-23 “If a man is put to death and you hang him on a tree, he who is hanged is accursed by God.”  The Jewish apostle Paul wrote in Ga.3:13-14, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”.  (The curses for disobedience declared in Christ’s law were in De.27:15-26, De.28:15-ff, Le.26:14-ff, e.g.)  As the ultimate sacrifice for sin, Christ Himself became the curse for all humanity!  1Pe.2:24 “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, for by His wounds you were healed.”

Christ’s life was a living sacrifice according to His Father’s will, thereby enabling believers to receive the HS.  Our human nature & self-will has descended from the disobedient first human Adam, who ate from the TKGE.  Paul wrote in 1Co.15:45, “The first human, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam [Jesus, symbolically] became a life-giving spirit.”  Paul refers to the obedient Jesus as the “last Adam”, through whom we inherit the spiritual nature and a future spiritual body in eternal life.  Ro.5:19 “Through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, through the obedience of One many are made righteous.”  (see “Life and Death – for Saints” and “Universal Salvation in the Bible”.)

The dramas of two ‘Adams’ and two gardens play out unto eternal life for mankind!  Our salvation comes only by Jesus’ final sacrifice.  He.10:10 “By the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Israel has twice received grace.  Jn.1:15-17 “For in His fullness we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ.”  Christ was the Rock, the God of ancient Israel, according to Paul and John (ref De.32:3-4, 18, 1Co.10:4, 9, Is.6:1, 5, Jn.12:41-44).  The pre-existent Christ as the primordial Word of God had given His righteous Law to Moses & Israel.  No other ancient nation received such unmerited favor/grace as did Israel (e.g. De.4:8)!  (Moses’ face shined, Ex.34:30 & 2Co.3:7.)  Jesus is Lord!  Zec.4:6-7 LXX “By My Spirit’, saith the Lord Almighty. ‘I will bring out the Stone of the inheritance, its grace equaling My grace.”  By double grace – Christ’s law/Tabernacle/Temple, and Christ the CornerStone with HS amplitude become available to all.

In addition to the vine and the fig tree…there’s another very significant tree.  Continuing in Zec.4:11-14 LXX, “What are the two olive trees on the right and left side of the lampstand? These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”  Unlike the fig tree, the olive tree symbolizes real Life; and is an emblem of peace.  Olive oil is a type of the HS, and was used in God’s ancient Tabernacle, foreshadowing the availability of the ‘oil’ of the HS for all humanity.  Theologian A.B. Simpson wrote of the olive tree. “The tree itself seems almost indestructible. It is usually crooked, gnarled, twisted, and almost torn to pieces. Some of the olive trees of Gethsemane must be at least 1,000 years old; indeed the olive seems as if it could scarcely die.”  Gethsemane, the second garden.

Perhaps the Tree of Life in the first garden was a type of olive tree?!  A 1,000-year-old olive tree will still produce fruit!  It’s an evergreen, continually renewing its leaves.  In the metaphorical Jdg. 9:8-13, “The trees went forth once to anoint a king over them. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.”  The olive tree was the first choice as king of the trees.  (Second choice was the fig tree, third was the vine.)

Paul said, Ro.11:16-25 “If the root be holy, the branches are holy. You [gentiles] become partaker with them [Israel] of the rich root of the olive tree.”  The HS is the holy root of the (olive) tree of Life.  The church branches, with Jews re-grafted in, become holy via the indwelling HS, symbolized by oil from the olive.  (Christ is the root of Jesse, Is.11:10, the root and offspring of David, Re.22:16.)

Ep.2:7-9 “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not the result of works, that no man should boast.”  It’s by God’s grace…not sewing fig leaves or our own humanistic works based upon the tree of man’s (supposed) knowledge of good & evil.  Instead….

He.8:10 “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel’, saith the Lord: ‘I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people.”  In the New Covenant, the HS puts God’s laws into our minds & hearts.  (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.)  Gentiles are grafted-in, Ro.11:17.  Again, Mic.4:2 “The law will go out from Zion.”  Societal justice will be determined and governed by God’s completely just morality & principles…not man’s contrary laws based on human values from the TKGE.

Ps.1:1-3 “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season.”  Man is figuratively a tree bearing fruit from the living water of the HS; it won’t wither. (see “Living Water Produces Spiritual Fruit”.)  Concluding….

Re.22:1-3 “He showed me a river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. On each side of the river was the Tree of Life; the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” (cf. Ezk.47)  In Paradise restored there’s no humanistic tree of the knowledge of good and evil by the river!  We’re obedient to God’s (better) ways.  Re.14:12 “Here is the steadfastness of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”  Re.2:7 Jesus says, “To him who overcomes I will give the right to eat of the TL which is in the Paradise of God”.  The Tree of Eternal Life…Halleluyah!