This series is from the booklet 'Forgiven, Forgotten and Gone Forever' written by Pastor Carl H. Stevens, Jr - the Founder of Greater Grace World Outreach.
PS - If you would like to enjoy a thought provoking spirituality quiz, then jump to our fun quiz page. You may also watch our YouTube videos. What about learning about life after death?
Chapter Three
THE SCAPEGOAT
"And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord, and died; And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. "Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. "And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for his house. "And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. "And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. "Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness. And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel .... "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 upon 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 16:1-22).The Bullock for Personal Sins
Leviticus 16 speaks of the Day of Atonement. On the tenth day of the seventh month, atonement was made for all the sins of the entire congregation of Israel (verses 16, 21, 30, 33), as well as for the sanctuary (verses 16, 33). Aaron, the high priest representing all the people, first had to make an offering for himself and his own house (verses 6, 11, 17). He was to kill a bullock, then bring some of its blood inside the holy of holies and sprinkle it seven times upon the mercy seat and seven times before the mercy seat. This has a beautiful application for Christians today. In the morning we pray "Lord Jesus, fill me with your Spirit. Give me wisdom, recall, and power. Help me to be sensitive to others. Put someone in my pathway today who needs your love revealed to them through me." According to the Greek word homologeo (confess) in 1 John 1:9, if there is any sin in our life, we are to confess it precisely and immediately. This is possible because the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins, even from the sins of ignorance (1 John 1:9b and Leviticus 4).The Linen of Righteousness
"Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place...He shall put on the holy linen coat. ..linen breeches... linen girdle ...linen mitre... " (Leviticus 16:3a, 4). "And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place ... " (Leviticus 16:23). The linen Aaron wore in the holy of holies represents the imputed righteousness of the believer (Isaiah 61:10; Revelation 19:8). Aaron had to take off his linen garments when he went back into the tabernacle of the congregation, because God wanted him to reveal another kind of righteousness: imparted righteousness that comes through receiving the Word and the Spirit. When we go out to minister to the world, we must reveal a righteousness that comes by the multiplication of grace and peace through experiential knowledge (see 2 Peter 1:2-10).The Two Goats: An Application
"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). In application, the two goats in Leviticus 16 represent two aspects of Christ's Finished Work. The first goat represents justice; the second goat represents mercy. Jesus Christ's death on the cross satisfied the Father's justice (Isaiah 53:10-11). That is expiation. But Christ's resurrection and ascension into heaven, where He put His own blood on the Mercy Seat, provided a way for us to enter directly into the Father's presence without condemnation. That is propitiation. (In 1 John 4:10, the Greek word for "propitiation" is hilasmos which means "mercy seat.") As the first goat, Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world in the unlimited atonement (1 John 2:2; 2 Corinthians 5:19). As the second goat, He is alive from the dead. Just as the high priest had to lay his hands on the living goat, we need to touch a living Saviour, not a dead one.The Fit Man
In Leviticus 16:21-22, the scapegoat had to be sent away into the wilderness by the hand of a "fit man." The fit man may be a picture of the believer who is "fit" because of the cleansing of the blood of the first goat (Leviticus 16:15). We are not fit because we are perfect -we shall have an old sin nature. But we are fit because we have believed in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have accepted total forgiveness. The fit man sent the scapegoat into an inaccessible place in the wilderness, "a land not inhabited." He could not go where the goat was going, but he led the live goat to the edge of the wilderness and then sent him away. That goat was to go down into a vast lowland, surrounded by steep cliffs. It was so steep and treacherous that no man could go there or even see into it. This is a picture of Jesus Christ going into hell for us. When Jesus died on the cross, His human spirit went to the Father (Luke 23:46), His body went into the grave (Luke 23:53), and His soul went into hell (Psalm 16:10b). 1 Peter 3:19 says that Jesus "preached unto the spirits in prison." What did He preach? That the work of paying for sins was finished! (See John 19:30.) Where are our sins now? They are in an inaccessible place-inaccessible to us and inaccessible to God. When the scapegoat went into the wilderness, He took our sin (who we were), our sins (what we did), and our guilt (the consequences of sin) with Him. We can never bring these things back, let alone find them, because they are in an inaccessible place! Experientially, we still have an old sin nature, but positionally, it can't be found because God buried it. Where is our guilt? It's gone. So it only follows that, if our sin has been crucified and our sins are buried, we will not have any guilt. When we sin, the Holy Spirit will bring conviction, not condemnation. Conviction leads to conversion because the sin was already paid for. In Leviticus 16:26, after the scapegoat was sent away, the fit man had to bathe himself in water. Why? It isn't enough that we died with Christ. It isn't enough that we were buried and raised with Him. We must apply what He did by experientially bathing ourselves through the washing of water by the Word (Ephesians 5:26; Psalm 119:9). Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:3, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."The Benefits of the Finished Work
"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits" (Psalm 103:1-2). Because we are joint-heirs with Christ through our cocrucifixion, coburial, coresurrection, and coascension with Him, we have a rich eternal heritage at God's right hand to enjoy. Psalm 103 speaks of some of these eternal "benefits." Psalm 68:19 says, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation." God loads us with benefits daily. He gives us a right to know we are saved, an absolute provision for total forgiveness, an understanding of our potential in Jesus Christ, a glimpse of our future perfection, and a vision and purpose for today as we grow together in grace. The first benefit Psalm 103 speaks about is forgiveness: "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases" (verse 3). God forgives and forgets all our iniquities because they were paid for by Jesus Christ and taken away by the scapegoat into an inaccessible place. He heals all our diseases, which means that positionally, we have already been healed, and ultimately, in God's sovereignty, we will all experience perfect healing-spirit, soul, and body (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 8:23). "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction" (Psalm 103:4a). This means that God buys us back from failure. "Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies" (verse 4b). Every born-again, Spirit-filled believer has a crown on his head. Is it any wonder that Proverbs 10:6 says that "Blessings are upon the head of the just"? We have a crown of lovingkindness and tender mercies. No wonder Revelation 1:6 calls us kings. Our crown is an invisible crown. Lovingkindness and tender mercies are part of God's name, which reveals His nature. We have been crowned with God's nature. In Exodus 34:6-7a, the Lord proclaimed His name to Moses: "The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Psalm 103:5). The eagle flies higher than any other bird. In fact, it is the only bird that can look directly into the sun. Like the eagle, we can soar in our heavenly position with wings of resurrection life. Our strength comes from looking directly into the eyes of the Son of God: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2a). Therefore, we "endure, as seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27). In Psalm 103:6 the Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. The word used for "oppressed" refers to supernatural vibrations imparted toward people by Satan, the prince of the power of the air. The Lord's justice for those affected by the power of oppression is recorded in Acts 10:38, where we see that Jesus of Nazareth "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." "He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel" (Psalm 103:7). The Lord showed His ways to Moses, but only His acts to Israel. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, in John 14:6. Yet, though many Christians know the truth, they do not go God's way, and they do not have God's life. What does it mean to know God's ways? It means to know His longsuffering, His goodness, His mercy, and His grace.Get to Know God's Ways
The children of Israel knew God's acts. They knew His miracles a t the Red Sea. They knew His miracle at the bitter waters of Mara, where Moses cast in the tree and the waters became sweet (Exodus 15:25). They knew the miracle of the manna in Exodus 16. They knew the miracle of water corning out of the rock in Exodus 17, and again, thirty-eight years later, in Numbers 20. They knew His acts. They knew that the cloud would lead them by day and the pillar of fire by night as they journeyed through the wilderness. The people saw God's acts, but they never knew His ways: the way of love, mercy, and forgiveness; the way of restoration, reconciliation, and edification; the way of conviction and conversion; even the way of chastisement, which is meant to bless us by bringing us back into fellowship with God. Psalm 103:8-10 beautifully reveals God's ways: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. I am overwhelmed whenever I think of this passage. God has never once dealt with us according to our sins and iniquities! At times, you may think He does and condemn yourself. But He will not condemn you. The issue with God has never been sin. It IS a heart Issue, a Son issue (1 John 5:12). God cannot deal with us according to our sins because they have already been paid for-once for all. And according to the law of double jeopardy, they cannot be paid for twice. . . We need to believe this truth and experience it. Because of passivity and apathy, many do not draw near to this amazing Christ who will not deal with us according to our sins, nor reward us according to our iniquities. This is the absolute revelation and illumination of God's lovingkindness and tender mercies God's nature revealed by His name (Psalm 103:1-4). "For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust" (Psalm 103:11-14). This Psalm, especially verses 12 and 13, reveals how tenderly the Lord Jesus Christ comes to minister to us right where we are. He knows we are but dust, and He knows what we can handle. That is why 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." It would take volumes upon volumes to list all the benefits of the Finished Work. Truly, we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). As new creatures in Christ, these benefits are our eternal heritage. May we treasure them and utilize them more than any of the riches in this world, which will pass away. This series is from the booklet 'Forgiven, Forgotten and Gone Forever' written by Pastor Carl H. Stevens, Jr - the Founder of Greater Grace World Outreach. PS - If you would like to enjoy a thought provoking spirituality quiz, then jump to our fun quiz page. You may also watch our YouTube videos. What about learning about life after death?