Parshat Tetzaveh, 7th Portion, Exodus 30:1-10, February 20, 2016

“But Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year; with the blood of the sin offering of the atonements, once a year he shall effect atonement upon it for your generations; it is a holy of holies to the Lord.” (Exodus 30:10)

When I hear “sin” I think of Christ dying for our sins. I wonder what that means. Does it mean that we’ll all go to Heaven now?

Here are two different translations of Romans 4:25:

New International Version
“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” 

New Living Translation
“He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.”

Did Aaron make atonement once a year for our sins as Jesus did? Was this done to make us right with God, or was it done so we could start off on a new foot?

I have a feeling that Christ died for our eternal life, while Aaron’s atonement (now Yom Kippur) was about this life. Students get to start off on a new foot each semester. People divorce and remarry to start off on a new foot. People move and change jobs to start off on a new foot. Early on, I taught at three different colleges in five years, each time starting off on a new foot. I blamed the schools for stuff I should have blamed myself. In any case, in time I realized that 1) all places are essentially the same, and 2) wherever you are, you need to take yourself with you.

Aaron didn’t just do the offering for those who had sinned, but “effect atonement upon it for your generations.” In other words, one could make the argument that he ended sin for the Israelites. “Swept it up,” so to speak.