Christ in all the scriptures The scapegoat

 Christ in all the scriptures

The scapegoat   Leviticus 16

We have established that the meaning of atonement is to cover sin from the sight of the Lord, in prospect of the sacrifice of Christ that would remove it altogether.  We, now, see the extent of this from the ritual of the special day in the worship calendar of Israel.  Aaron, the high priest, and his house, had to be covered (16v6); the tabernacle in which approach to God is made had to be covered (16v16); the entire congregation of Israel had to be covered (16v16-17); the altar of sacrifice had to be covered (16v18-19); the anointed priests, who will function in the sacred precincts had to be covered (16v33).  Following the affliction of their souls (which involved heart searching, confession, and cleansing) this comprehensive ritual had to be repeated once every year (16v34).  This was because of everyone's sins and transgressions, which not only defiled themselves but contaminated the very places in which they served-refer 16v16, 16v19, 16v21, 16v22, 16v30, 16v34.  Thus approach to God is reverential, respectful, and humble.  Living, as we do, in times when God has removed all need for ritual, because of the superior work of our great high priest in heaven, nevertheless we must understand the need for reverential approach, and the need for cleansing, and the need for humility in His presence.  The removal of ritual ceremony , does not, and should not, mean the absence of humble reverence before a Holy God.  As the Apostle Peter said, "Be ye holy, for I am holy"-1st Peter 1v16, a quotation from Leviticus 11v44, v45; 19v2; 20v7, 20v26; 21v8.  This is a principle pervading the whole of revealed scripture.  This approach demands decorum from us, including obedience to His commands, attention to how we dress in His presence, attitude of heart-sorrowing for sin and failure, confessing and forsaking sin, rejoicing in His forgiveness, maintaining a sense of awe toward One who deigns to draw us to Himself.   This is the message of the day of Atonement.  We revel in His once for all cleansing of our souls by the water of the spoken word (Ephesians 5v26-27), but we retain that reality of sin and failure that marks us, that would blight our communion with Him.  Cleansing from daily sin is a proper response to the God who has cleansed us in Christ.  How many of us are practising this each time we draw nigh to Him?  The God who has saved us is pure light in whom is no darkness at all.  Our union with Christ cannot be broken, and will remain forever; however our communion with Him can be broken, which is why John wrote, "These things I write unto you that ye sin not..."; in the event that we do sin provision has been made, for God and sin will never dwell together.

We now come to the sacrifice that has made communion with God possible.  Without this, no approach to God could be made.  Aaron was to bring two goats, one for sacrifice, and the other for a scapegoat Leviticus 16v7-11.  This brings to our minds one of the most fascinating and delightful features of the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf.  Throughout the chapter there are so many facets that point to Christ.  He is our great high priest in heaven, as Aaron was the high priest on earth.  The difference is that Christ can appear at any time, while Aaron was restricted to once per year and other times only by invitation.  Also Aaron must discard his garments of glory and beauty for the humble garb of linen clothing.  Christ appears in the presence of God in the full orbed glory of His awesome beauty-refer Revelation 1v14-17.  Aaron had to bring a bull for the sin offering, and a ram for the burnt offering, Christ, Himself, is both the sin offering and the burnt offering.  Aaron had to present the incense cloud above the mercy seat; Christ, Himself, is the cloud of incense, perpetually before the Lord.  This brings us to this unique picture of the scapegoat, a concept that resonates in our present world.  Aaron had to bring two goats for the sins of the people, one which would die for the sins and transgressions and uncleanness of the people; the other, the scapegoat, which would carry their sins away into a wilderness place, beyond the camp altogether.   Christ is both the goat of sacrifice, and the scapegoat for the sins of the people.  Today we all understand this concept-it is an innocent person taking the blame for other people's faults or failings, whether willingly or by coercion.  We can make ourselves scapegoats, or others can do it to us to escape blame themselves.  The first goat was killed and its blood applied to the entire congregation; the second was identified with all the individual and corporate sins of the people for the past year, and sent away, never to return.  The cameo is awesome, Christ in His death has taken all our sins upon Him in death, and removed our sins entirely!  We sing it, we preach it, we talk about it, but we can never exhaust it, or fathom it, or explain it.  What we have to do is believe it, and rejoice in it, and live in the good of it, and share it, always praising God for His goodness to the sons of men.

In the understanding that God can only have communion with man when sin in all its forms is removed, and that He has fully, and finally, dealt with the sin question in Christ, we are humbled at the extent to which He was prepared to go to reconcile us to Himself.  Any though of pride or self-achievement is gone and worship flows from cleansed hearts to the God of infinite mercy and compassion.  Let us remind ourselves of the glorious facts of His salvation, and the meaning of Christ as our SCAPEGOAT!  First, why He died:

"Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures..." 1st Cor. 15v3

"Jesus our Lord...who was delivered for our offences..."  Romans 4v24-25 

"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many..."  Hebrews 9v28

"...while we were yet sinners Christ died for us".  Romans 5v8

"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree..."  1st Peter 2v24

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed".  Isaiah 53v5

The live scapegoat took the sins of all the people on its head and removed them from the congregation: "And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness"-Leviticus 16v20-22.  The amazing concept of the SCAPEGOAT in relation to Christ is repeated over and over in holy scripture, so we are in no doubt as to the meaning for all today.

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all"-Isaiah 53v6

"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him"-2nd Corinthians 5v21

"For Christ also hath suffered for us, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God..."-1st Peter 3v18

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us..."- Galatians 3v13

"And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world"-1st John 2v2

Just as Jesus took the rap for the criminal Barabbas, so He has taken the blame for all our sins.  God punished Christ instead of us.  We can try to understand it like this: God treated Christ, who was sinless, as though He had personally committed every sin of every human being for all of time.  He unleashed His eternal fury upon Him, in our stead; He compressed eternal punishment upon Him during three hours of darkness upon the cross!  Just as the scapegoat was taken to an empty place, Jesus bore the wrath of God due to us, in a lonely place where no one but He could go.  What did it mean when the unbridled wrath of a holy God  against sin descended like an avalanche  upon Him? No human eye was permitted to view this scene, as the intense darkness hid it from view.  No human mind can comprehend what suffering this must have been.  That holy soul, who knew no sin, to whom sin was repulsive; from which He recoiled (being Himself God), became sin, and received the condemnation of God upon it.  When no minds can comprehend, only hearts can worship, as we do before that awesome scene, humbled by the compelling grace of God in Christ.  as the hymn writer has penned it:

"Oh wondrous hour, when Jesus thou, Co-equal with the eternal God: Beneath our sins did deign to bow: and in our stead didst bear the rod!"

He was innocent yet He took the blame; He was sinless yet He became sin for us.  Again from the hymn "All our sins were laid upon Him, Jesus bore them to the tree.  God who knew them, laid them on Him, and believing we are free".

Alone in His agony, in an empty place, our Saviour bore our sins in His body on the tree.  Such humility, such mercy, such grace, such love, such compelling excellence as can never be matched in all the universe.  May it be so that the realisation of this will inspire us to greater devotion than ever before. 

This is God's covenant to every believer

"I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more"  Hebrews 8v12.