Untitled Sermon (3)

God’s Living Oracles Chapter VIII: The Bible and Forecasts of Atonement

These twin ceremonies therefore set forth this double conception: That the guilt of sin is expiated in the blood of the slain Lamb but, as the dead victim cannot at the same time represent a living presence and a living power, sins are also borne away representatively by the goat, Azazel. We have thus the dying Christ and the living Christ both typified. He Who bore our sins up to the cross to atone for their guilt, also bore them out of sight, to sink them into the depths of the sea of oblivion, so that even the remembrance of them is no more before God. He therefore says: “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

Leviticus 16:6–10 NKJV

“Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.

Since the animal sacrifices are all types of the Christ who was to come into the world, the above comment by A.T. Pierson, Spurgeon’s successor, makes perfect sense.