Leviticus 4:5-12, 16-21. 3.Christ was the appointed High Priest to make the atonement, and He certainly could not have acted in that capacity till after His resurrection, and we have no record of His doing any thing on earth after His resurrection, which could be called the atonement. 4.The atonement was made in the Sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a place. 5.He could not, according to Hebrews 8:4, make the atonement while on earth. "If He were on earth, He should not be a Priest." The Levitical was the earthly priesthood, the Divine, the heavenly. 6.Therefore, He did not begin the work of making the atonement, whatever the nature of that work may be, till after His ascension, when by His own blood He entered His heavenly Sanctuary for us. Let us now examine a few texts that appear to speak of the atonement as passed. Romans 5:11; "By whom we have now received the atonement," (margin, reconciliation).
This passage clearly shows a present possession of the atonement at that time the apostle wrote; but it by no means proves that the entire atonement was then in the past. When the Savior was about to be taken up from His apostles, He "commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father," which came on the day of Pentecost when they were all "baptized with the Holy Ghost." Christ had entered His Father's house, the Sanctuary, as High Priest, and began His intercession for His people by "praying the Father" for "another Comforter", John 14:15, "and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," Acts 2:33, He shed it down upon His waiting apostles. Then, in compliance with their commission, Peter, at the third hour of the day began to preach, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins," Acts 2:38.
This word remission, signifies forgiveness, pardon or more literally sending away of sins. Now put by the side of this text another on this point from his discourse at the ninth hour of the same day, Acts 3:19, "Repent ye therefore; and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Here he exhorts to repentance and conversion (turning away from sins); for what purpose? " That your sins may be (future) blotted out." Every one can see that the blotting out of sins does not take place at repentance and conversion; but follows, and must of necessity be preceded by them. Repentance, conversion, and baptism had then become imperative duties in the present tense; and when performed, those doing them "washed away" (Acts 22:16) remitted or sent away from them their sins. (Acts 2:28); and of course are forgiven and have "received the atonement"; but they had not received it entire at that time, because their sins were not yet blotted out.
How far then had they advanced in the reconciling process?