Imagine this.
It’s the Day of Atonement—Yom Kippur.
You’re standing in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.
The air is still. The nation is waiting.
The High Priest disappears behind the veil…
carrying blood into the very presence of God.
Everything depends on that moment.
Because everyone knows this truth:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood… for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.”
—Leviticus 17:11
Now imagine this:
The Temple is gone.
The altar is gone.
The sacrifices have stopped.
And they have never returned.
So here’s the question:
How are the sins of Jewish people atoned for today?
Why This Matters for Christians
If you have Jewish friends, neighbors, or coworkers, this isn’t theoretical.
Many are deeply sincere, morally serious, and committed to honoring God.
But they are also living within a system that developed after the sacrificial system ended.
To love them well, we need to understand two things:
What they believe about atonement today
What Scripture actually teaches about atonement
Only then can we clearly—and graciously—point them to the Messiah.
What Changed After 70 A.D.?
In 70 A.D., the Romans destroyed the Second Temple.
That wasn’t just a political event—it created a theological crisis.
Under the Law of Moses, sacrifices could only be offered at the Temple:
“Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, but in the place which the LORD chooses…”
—Deuteronomy 12:13–14
No Temple meant no altar.
No altar meant no sacrifices.
So the question became unavoidable:
How can sin be atoned for without the system God Himself established?
How Atonement Is Understood in Judaism Today
In response, rabbinic Judaism developed alternative ways to seek forgiveness.
Today, most Jewish people emphasize:
Repentance (teshuvah)
Prayer (tefillah)
Good deeds (mitzvot)
Charity (tzedakah)
Fasting, especially on Yom Kippur
These are sincere and meaningful practices.
Scripture certainly affirms the importance of repentance:
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
—Psalm 51:17
But the key question remains:
Is repentance alone sufficient for atonement?
What the Bible Actually Teaches
The Bible gives a consistent and unchanging principle:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood… it is the blood that makes atonement.”
—Leviticus 17:11
And again:
“Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
—Hebrews 9:22
From the earliest pages of Scripture, the pattern is clear:
A substitute is provided
Sin is transferred to that substitute
The substitute dies
The sinner is spared
Even in the beginning, after sin entered the world:
“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”
—Genesis 3:21
A life was given to cover sin.
The Meaning of Yom Kippur
The Day of Atonement makes this unmistakable.
On that day:
Blood was brought into the Holy of Holies
A sacrifice was made for sin
A scapegoat carried sin away
“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering… and bring its blood inside the veil… and sprinkle it on the mercy seat.”
—Leviticus 16:15“He shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat… and send it away into the wilderness… and the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities.”
—Leviticus 16:21–22
The message is unmistakable:
Sin requires death—but God provides a substitute.
The Tension That Remains
Here is the difficulty:
God required blood for atonement
The Temple is gone
No sacrifices have been offered for nearly 2,000 years
So we must ask:
Did God change His requirement?
Or did He provide something greater?
The Prophets Point Forward
The Hebrew Scriptures anticipated a solution.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote:
“I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
—Jeremiah 31:34
The prophet Daniel declared:
“To finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity…”
—Daniel 9:24
And Isaiah gives the clearest picture:
“He was pierced through for our transgressions…
the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
—Isaiah 53:5–6
This is substitution.
This is atonement.
This is sacrifice.
The Fulfillment: Jesus the Messiah
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he declared:
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
—John 1:29
Jesus Christ did not abolish the sacrificial system.
He fulfilled it.
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
—Matthew 5:17
He became the final sacrifice:
“Not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
—Hebrews 9:12“But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.”
—Hebrews 10:12“For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
—Hebrews 10:14
The Moment Everything Changed
At His death:
“And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
—Matthew 27:51
Access to God was opened.
Not through repeated sacrifices—
but through one perfect atonement.
Why This Matters for Your Jewish Friends
Many Jewish people are sincerely seeking forgiveness.
They pray.
They repent.
They pursue righteousness.
But Scripture makes this clear:
Atonement is not complete without a sacrifice.
This is not about winning arguments.
It’s about helping them see God’s provision.
How Christians Should Respond
With humility.
With compassion.
With truth.
The apostle Paul, himself a Jewish man, wrote this about Jewish people:
“For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.”
—Romans 10:2 (NASB 1995)
Our role is not to condemn—but to point.
The Gospel, Clearly Stated
Sin requires atonement
Atonement requires a sacrifice
God has provided that sacrifice. His name is Jesus.
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
—Ephesians 1:7
A Final Encouragement
If you know someone Jewish, please pray for them.
Ask God for wisdom, love, and opportunity.
Because the story of Scripture leads here:
The Lamb has been provided.
“He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
—1 John 2:2
Blessings to you,
—Stuart
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Awesome post, as usual.
The problem is that I don't think we are capable of putting ourselves in the place of the AD 70 Jews. Whatever dreadful images we might attempt to conjure are bound to fall short of the reality for them.
The really sad part is that it was basically a repetition of 586 BC, which itself was a form of the same type of failure that resulted in the capture of the Ark by the Philistines. Jeremiah Chapter 7 is one of the most profound chapters in the entire Bible. To paraphrase: "Speaking fraudulent words, 'Temple of the LORD, Temple of the LORD, Temple of the LORD. You think chanting those hollow words mean something? Remember Shiloh, where I made My name to dwell at first. Your fathers thought they carried Me around in a box, pulling Me out when needed. See what I did to them, and now because you have done the same as your fathers, I will do the same to you."
Then the True dwelling of God among men came, and was torn down by those who again thought they had God in a box. Then in AD 70 the box they thought they had God in was thrown down, stone from stone. Being Jewish, you might have some concept of the depth of despair, but I suspect that it escapes me.
As a former Catholic, the curtain being torn by the hands of God from top to bottom is so significant. You don’t have to go to a man to confess.