When I first became a Christian I was taught that Jesus' death achieved different things. One of those was atonement.
The holiest day in the Jewish calendar was and still is the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest went into the holiest part of the temple and offered the blood of the sacrifice for the sins of the nation. It was on this day that the whole nation would find out whether their offering was accepted.
As so many of the Old Testament sacrifices find their fulfilment in Jesus' death, it is only natural to assume the Day of Atonement does as well.
However, there are a couple of things to consider here. Firstly, nowhere in the Bible does it say Jesus' death was an Atonement sacrifice. Some modern translations have the word 'atonement' for Jesus' death in them, but this is a mistranslation of other words, usually propitiation. Secondly, and more importantly, atonement means to cover while we are told that Jesus' death removed our sins.
If there was an unsightly mess that you asked someone to remove and they simply covered it over with something, you would not feel that they had done what you asked. Covering something and removing it are two completely different things.
The blood of animals covered the people's sins under the old covenant. That is all they could do. Hebrews 10:4 tells us that it is impossible for animal blood to remove human sin.
"For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." Heb 10:4
'As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us.' Psalm 103:12
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'The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”' John 1:29
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'For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear before God on our behalf. And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.' Heb 9:24-26
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'For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.' Heb 10:4
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'Every (Old Testament) priest indeed stood day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices (in the temple) which can never take away sins,' Heb 10:11
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'You know that Jesus was revealed to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin.' 1 John 3:5
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