Despite the layers of wiping, covering, and ransoming during the Day of Recoverings, true unity still has not been achieved. Divorce is still possible; God still might leave his people. Thus the Day of Recoverings must be repeated every year. The perpetual expression of unity between God and man in the burnt sacrifice is always there, but looming in the background is the covered up, unapproachable Holy Place, slowly gathering uncleanness, iniquity, sin, and transgressions.

Part of the difficulty is that the Day of Recoverings does not provide true unity precisely because while, on the one hand, the priest uncovers the veil and enters into the Holy Place, he must at the same time cover the mercy seat with blood. Although the veil is ripped open, suddenly another veil falls in its place. Another way of expressing the problem is that to be close to God, man must be covered (otherwise he will die), but to really be close to God, man must be uncovered (but, in this case, he will die).

This problem is fundamental to the world: How can heaven and earth be joined together when they are so separated, especially if some kind of intermediary covering is required? The New Testament presents a solution to this problem. Here, all the layers of separation are collapsed into one layer, one covering, one ransom, one atonement: Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself is the fulfilment of all the recoverings: Jesus begins his ministry by being washed in the water of baptism (Mark 1:9-10), and is himself our living water (John 4:7). Jesus puts on the linen garments of the high priest (Revelation 1:16), and is himself the clothing of his people (Galatians 3:27). Jesus is the high priest offering a sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11), and he himself is the perfect sacrificial animal (Hebrews 9:14, 1 Peter 1:19). Jesus opens up the veil covering the Holy Place (Matthew 27:51), and his flesh itself is the veil (Hebrews 10:20). Jesus enters into the Holy Place, the dwelling of God (Hebrews 9:12) and he himself is the fullness where God dwells (Colossians 1:11). Jesus offers the incense of our prayers to God (Revelation 8:3), and is himself a fragrant offering to God (Ephesians 5:2). Jesus places his own blood on the mercy seat (Hebrews 9:14), and is himself the mercy seat (Romans 3:25). Jesus, like the scapegoat, bears our iniquities (1 Peter 2:24), and himself becomes our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus ransoms us from the curse of death (1 Corinthians 6:20), and he himself has become our curse (Galatians 3:13). Jesus has entered into the wilderness of death (Hebrews 13:12, Matthew 27:60), and so ascends to God in the cloud (Acts 1:9), perpetually making intercession for his people (Hebrew 7:25).

But this still leaves one final question, now that all the layers are removed, what about the final layer of Jesus himself? How can heaven and earth be one with the firmament still between them? Only if the firmament, the covering itself, is heaven.[i] How can God and man be one with Jesus still between them? Only if Jesus himself is God (or perhaps, only if Jesus himself is man) – only if God himself becomes the covering. This is the great mystery of the eschatological vision of the cosmos. And Paul explores this in some detail in Ephesians 5 in his discussion of the duties of husbands and wives.[ii]

For Paul, the relationship of Christ and the church is a great mystery (Ephesians 5:32). Christ loves the church and dies for her to make her holy, glorious and without spot (5:27), assuming that, at one time, she was unholy, inglorious, and covered with sin. He cleans her up in order to present her to Himself. In other words he “washes” and “covers” her, and thereby is joined to her – “we are members of His body” (5:30). He then brings us back to the original eschatological vision for the cosmos: “Two shall become one flesh.” Therefore, the veil has been lifted, the cover has been removed, we have full communion with God because we are now one with Jesus. Jesus is our covering, and because we are part of Jesus, we ourselves are uncovered before God.

This unity of God with his people erupts into recreation. Just as the original union of man and woman was supposed to cause the garden to spread over the earth, so now this union in fact creates a new kind of humanity (2 Corinthians 5:17) – a kind that mirrors the work of Christ. The church is baptized with water (1 Peter 3:20-21) and now rivers of water flow out of her (Revelation 22:1). The church puts on linen garments (Revelation 7:9), and clothes the naked (Matthew 25:38). The church is kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6) and offers spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5). The church enters into the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) and is itself the dwelling place of God (1 Corinthians 6:9).

Thus, the eschatological vision of the cosmos is fulfilled in the atonement of Jesus, with whom the church has become one flesh. Now the firmament is being removed, and heaven and earth are joining together (Revelation 21:11). However, as Paul notes, we still see through a mirror dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12). The firmament has not been fully and finally removed. We still need to be covered with water. We still need to be covered with baptism. But this is a very thin screen that stands between us and God – practically see through. This is perhaps in partial fulfillment of Ezekiel 36:25, here it only takes water to purify from uncleanness, and with this cleansing, Israel will even be brought into the land, for which even the Day of Atonement did not make atonement. But, because we are one with Christ, we have even pushed past the firmament and we dwell in the heavenly places with him (Ephesians 2:6). Heaven and earth have begun to reach their fulfillment. The Spirit now hovers directly over the earth.

So, finally, I want to explore how this enters into the Christian life of forgiveness, based on 1 John 1:6-2:2. Our sins creates a chasm and separation between us and God. God is light and so he cannot dwell with darkness (1:5). Thus if we claim to have fellowship with him, but we still sin, then we are liars and we are actually living in darkness and separation from God (1:6).

The problem is that we do actually have sin. If we say we do not have sin, that we do not have darkness, we are also liars (1 John 1:8). We, like Adam, like to hide our sin and cover it up. If my two year old son hits his friend, and I ask him, “Did you hit her?” His immediate response is, after a moment of hesitation, “No.” We want to cover our sin, and it does need to be covered, but as we have seen with the Day of Atonement, simply covering sin does not solve the problem.

First, John says, we must confess our sins (1 John 1:9). Thus, we must uncover our sin. If we want to have communion with God, then we must stand before him uncovered. If the priests wants to come back into the presence of God, the veil must be lifted. But that seems to bring us back to the original problem, the veil is lifted and our uncleanness is exposed, darkness has entered light, and the darkness cannot live in the light.

However, God is faithful, and will forgive, he will wipe away our sins (1:9). But this is only possible because Jesus has become our “propitiation” (2:2), that is, he has become our covering, and he is righteous (2:1), so we are no longer covered in sin, but now covered in righteousness.

This means that Christians can expose their own darkness and sin to God, to each other, and to the world. They can uncover their broken and messed up lives. They can reveal who they are underneath any sham of goodness. Many churches, every Sunday, have Christians confess their sins on their knees – week after week they announce that they are sinful through the liturgy of confession of sin. Yet, they can do this, without shame, without self-pity or condemnation. They can uncover their sins because they are covered with Jesus

Sin. Death. Iniquity. Wickedness. Uncleanness. Linen. Veil. Water. Bulls. Goats. Blood. Smoke. Sacrifice. The unassailable walls between heaven and earth have been leveled. Now, only Jesus Christ stands between heaven and earth, between God and man. The eschatological vision of heaven and earth has been realized: a man, Jesus Christ, has left his Father, and joined himself to a woman, the church, becoming one flesh with her. Jesus has wiped away the sins of his bride by his blood, he has ransomed her life with his death, and he has covered her with his life. God has reconciled himself to man, because God himself has recovered his people.

Ryan Handermann is the pastoral intern at Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, Idaho.

[i] As typified by the fact that it is named “heaven,” but this still is only named heaven, it is not heaven itself.

[ii] Incidentally, the macro-cosmological and typological perspective is inherently related to a practical day to day living. This should be obvious since that is what Mary Douglas is claiming, but modern evangelicals often bifurcate those who study theology and those who have practical know-how. Properly speaking, these are intimately connected. On a personal note, as I have been periodically leading a Bible study in our local jail, I have found the Old Testament images of garden, tabernacle, glory cloud, etc, particularly helpful and inspiring to the inmates. This should only make sense. Revelation, the archtype (or ectype?) of all typological and symbolical cosmological theology is presented to someone who is exiled, about to die, on a forsaken island.