BENEFITS NOW FROM CHRIST’S SACRIFICE

5. (a) Who were first to benefit from Christ’s sacrifice? (b) What other group has benefited, and particularly since when?

⁵ Benefits began to affect human lives immediately after Jesus Christ (in the role of God’s great High Priest) presented the value of his sacrifice before God in heaven. First, starting at Pentecost of 33 C.E., these benefits began to be experienced by those who, called to be heirs with Christ, would serve as kings and priests with him in heaven. (Acts 2:32, 33; Colossians 1:13, 14) Then, outstandingly in 1935, persons who embraced the hope of eternal life on earth began to manifest themselves. Their hope, too, was made possible by Christ’s sacrifice. (1 John 2:1, 2) This progressive application of the value of that sacrifice was indicated by events that took place on ancient Israel’s Atonement Day.

6. Briefly outline what took place on Atonement Day.

⁶ Officiating at Israel’s sacred tabernacle, and later at the temple, was a high priest who was a member of the Levite house of Aaron. Other males of Aaron’s house were underpriests, and the rest of the males of the tribe of Levi served as assistants. To provide a covering for sins, the high priest sacrificed two animals, the blood of each of which was presented separately in the Most Holy, as prescribed by Jehovah. First was a young bull offered up by the Aaronic high priest for “himself and his house,” which included the entire tribe of Levi. (Leviticus 16:11, 14) Next was the goat that was presented as a sin offering “for the people,” the other twelve tribes. (Leviticus 16:15)

7. (a) What one sacrifice was there foreshadowed? (b) Why was more than one sacrificial animal used?

⁷ The apostle Paul explains that its fulfillment centers on the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ. “Christ entered, not into a holy place made with hands, which is a copy of the reality, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us . . . to put sin away through the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:24-26) Then why was the blood of more than one animal taken into the Most Holy on Israel’s Atonement Day? This was to draw attention to different aspects of what Jesus’ perfect human sacrifice accomplishes.

8. (a) How did Atonement Day procedures indicate who would benefit first from Christ’s sacrifice? (b) What application of Jesus’ sacrifice was indicated by the sin offering “for the people”? (c) What further fact was illustrated by the leading away of a goat into the wilderness?

⁸ Even as blood from the bull offered for the house of Aaron was taken first into the Most Holy, so the benefits of Jesus’ sacrifice were applied first on behalf of those who would be associated with Christ in the heavenly priesthood. This was done from 33 C.E. onward. Jesus Christ had no sins for which atonement must be made, as did Aaron, but those who would be underpriests with Christ did. These were pictured by the tribe of Levi. (1 Peter 2:4, 5) Presentation of blood from a second sacrifice, the goat of the sin offering “for the people,” indicated that others of mankind would benefit from Jesus’ sacrifice after the heavenly class. These would be persons who would gain life in the restored Paradise on earth. They were pictured by “the twelve [nonpriestly] tribes of Israel” on Atonement Day. (Matthew 19:28; Psalm 37:29)