Why can believers be happy even when they are poor and do not have much of the world's goods?

Les teaches that believers can be happy in poverty as well as in wealth because joy is a spiritual thing, whereas happiness is only material. He explains that believers also enjoy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom they have now received the atonement. Les stresses that terms like justification, eternal life, and atonement are doctrinally heavy. He points out that Old Testament atonement was a misnomer: even when the high priest did everything exactly right and offered blood in the Holy of Holies on the mercy seat, it never took away a single sin. It was a stopgap waiting for the coming of Christ, more like a covering or sweeping sins under the rug. God swept the sins of the Old Testament believer under the rug until the true atonement was finalized when the blood of Christ was shed. Then those sins were atoned for, taken away, and forgiven.