The Two Goats Of Leviticus 16

Leviticus 16:7 mentions two goats: the first goat Aaron “shall kill” (verse 15) “for a sin offering” (verse 9); the second is called the “live goat” (verse 20) or the “scapegoat” (verse 10).

According to many passages like John 1:29 (which calls Jesus “the Lamb of God”), the sacrificed lamb in Leviticus 16 is a type of (represents) Christ, so we might expect the scapegoat to also be a type of (represent) Christ. We are not left to wonder …

Isaiah 53 quotes Leviticus 16 three times to show Jesus is analogous to the scapegoat. Lev 16:21 says “the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat.” The exact same thing is said about Jesus in Isa 53:6c – “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And Lev 16:22 says about the scapegoat – “the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities.” The exact same thing is said about Jesus in Isa 53:11 – “he shall bear their iniquities” and 12 – “he bare the sin of many.”

Now let’s think about what those parallels imply. When we are talking about the sacrificed goat the type/antitype analogy means the sacrificed goat took away (paid for) the Israelite’s sins – but not literally, only in type (“it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” Heb 10:4), while Jesus takes away (pays for) our sins in reality/actuality. In the very same way, since the scapegoat is also a type of Christ, that would mean the Israelite’s sins were laid on the scapegoat – but not literally, only in type, while our sins are laid on Jesus in reality/actuality. That’s the way type/antitypes work.

So then Isa 53:6c teaches our sins are laid upon Jesus in reality/actuality. But what does that mean? It does not mean the guilt of our sins were transferred to Jesus. It is impossible to transfer the guilt of sin. It would be a lie for God to say Jesus was guilty of (committed) a sin I committed, and Heb 6:18 says it is “impossible for God to lie.” But it is possible to transfer the penalty for sin, and that is exactly what Isa 53:5 (“the punishment that brought us peace was upon him” – NIV) shows verse 6c is saying. Jesus took the penalty for our sins so we wouldn’t have to.

for my full set of articles on the Substitutionary Death Of Christ, click here – https://www.bibledebates.info/Articles/SubstitutionaryDeathMOTT/indexArticlesMOTT.htm

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