Reader, pause here, and say, do you know that _all_your sins are forgiven, according to the perfection of Christ's sacrifice? If you simply _believe_ on His name, they are so,--they are all gone, and gone forever. Say not, as so many anxious souls do, "I fear I do not _realize_." There is no such word as "realize" in the entire gospel. We are not saved by realization, but by Christ; and the way to get Christ in all His fullness and preciousness is to believe--"_only believe!_" And what will be the result? "The worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sins." Observe this,--"No more conscience of sins." This must be the result, inasmuch as Christ's sacrifice is perfect--so perfect, that God is glorified therein. Now, it must be obvious to you that Christ's work does not need your realization to be added to it to make it perfect. This could not be. We might as well say that the work of creation was not complete until Adam realized it in the garden of Eden. True, he did realize; but what did he realize? A perfect work. Thus let it be with your precious soul this moment, if it has never been so before. May you now and evermore repose, in artless simplicity, upon the One who has, by one offering, perfected forever them that are sanctified. And how are they sanctified? Is it by realization? By no means. How then? By the perfect work of Christ.
Having sought (alas! most feebly) to unfold the doctrine of this marvelous chapter, so far as God has given me light upon it, there is just one point further to which I shall merely call my reader's attention ere I close this section. It is contained in the following quotation: "And this shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country or a stranger that sojourneth among you. For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from _all_ your sins _before the Lord_. It shall be _a Sabbath of rest_, and ye shall _afflict your souls_, by a statute forever." (Ver. 29-31.)
This shall have its full accomplishment in the saved remnant of Israel by and by, as foretold by the prophet Zechariah,--"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. _In that day_ shall there be _a great mourning_ in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.... _In that day_ there shall be a _fountain opened_ to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.... And it shall come to pass _in that day_ that the light shall not be clear [in one place] and dark [in another]; but it shall be one day, [the true and long-expected Sabbath,] which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be _in that day_ that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And THE LORD SHALL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH: _in that day_ shall there be one Lord, and His name one.... _In that day_ shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.... And _in that day_ there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." (Zech. xii.-xiv.)
What a day that will be! No marvel that it should be so frequently and so emphatically introduced in the above glowing passage. It will be a bright and blessed "Sabbath of rest" when the mourning remnant shall gather, in the spirit of true penitence, around the open fountain, and enter into the full and final results of the great day of atonement. They shall "afflict their souls," no doubt; for how could they do otherwise, while fixing their repentant gaze "upon Him whom they have pierced"? But, oh, what a Sabbath they will have! Jerusalem will have a brimming cup of salvation, after her long and dreary night of sorrow. Her former desolations shall be forgotten, and her children, restored to their long-lost dwellings, shall take down their harps from the willows, and sing once more the sweet songs of Zion, beneath the peaceful shade of the vine and fig-tree.