MYSTERIES OF GOD'S KINGDOM. Kenneth B. Alexander
were two goats and a bull involved. The bull was slain as Atonement for Aaron the high priest so he would be ritually pure to carry out the rest of the atonement for the people. After that the first goat was sacrificed for the defilement of the temple by Israel. This represents the first part of Christ’s sacrifice for us. The first goat was slain and sacrificed as forgiveness for the sins of Israel. Forgiveness is only the beginning of what Christ did for us. It is the first step.
The second goat remained alive. It was brought before the Lord where Aaron the priest became the vehicle of God to transfer all of the sin of Israel for the previous year to that goat. This was an actual occurrence. The actual sin of the people was taken by Aaron and transferred to this second goat. The goat was then led outside the camp and disposed of in some way. This is a type and shadow of what Christ did on the cross. While on the cross God (the Father) transferred all of the sins of mankind onto Christ. By the actual sin being transferred onto Christ it was in reality removed from mankind, once and for all.
Thus Christ did not die only for forgiveness of sin. He died to remove sin completely. Many Christians live like the Old Testament Israelites lived. They keep coming to the High Priest or Christ continually to have their sins forgiven again. We, even as saved Christians, still have sin in our lives and we feel the need to continually seek forgiveness each time we think we have sinned. We don’t realize that Christ has already removed all of the sin from our lives and those of humanity in general.
Paul the Apostle realized this principle at work in his life. He laments in Romans 7: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me” (Romans 7:14-20.
To break down what Paul is saying is that in his own fleshy nature he is unable to do the Law (the commandments of God) or to please God. He knows the law is spiritual since Christ said He did not come to abrogate the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17-18). So Paul finds this duality in himself in that he desires to be righteous but still finds himself constantly warring within himself between the two natures. However he finally realizes that the sin that he struggles with on a daily basis is not his own sin he but comes from an exterior source, the sin dwelling within him, separate from his own being.
What Paul realizes is that Christ, on the cross, removed sin from the earth. With the sin removed, then the evil that seems to be within him does not belong to him. So if he does something, or lives a certain way, he realizes that it is the sin who is doing the acts, not him.
You may correctly ask that if Christ removed sin from the world entirely why does it still seem to be present in our lives? To understand this we must examine closely what Christ did on the cross.
The answer has to do with the ruler of this world called Satan. Satan is also aware of the principle of transference God used to transfer mankind’s sin to Christ. When the sin of the world was removed, Satan was not removed. He was condemned. Although he was defeated on the cross he remained on the earth and retained all the evil and sin which had been transferred away from humanity to Christ. Knowing that the time for his inevitable destruction was near, he set about to delay this from occurring. He did this by trying to transfer his own sin, condemnation and evil back to man and try to convince man he was still sinful. This is perhaps his most successful scheme in delaying the manifestation of the Kingdom of God. If man, although already made sinless by Christ, accepts Satan’s evil as his own he is identifying and bonding with the devil and is at risk of experiencing Satan’s own eternal condemnation. Therefore mankind must realize that they have been made totally clean and sinless by Christ and realize that the lie that we are still sinful beings or have sin, is a lie of the enemy accomplished by the transference principle. The sin we think we still have is not actually us but is a lie of the enemy (Romans 8:1).
Paul goes on to say: “I find then the principle [law] that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:21-25). Paul ultimately sees that the sin with which he struggles is not his own sin but sin which has been transferred to him from the outside, from the accuser, and does not belong to him at all. This may seem a technical point but upon this realization rests our heritage in Christ to live in His kingdom without any sin at all.
The Book of Hebrews more fully describes this experience. Hebrews introduces the New Covenant of Christ where righteousness is written on our hearts so that we receive a nature incapable of sin, as Christ’s was. Under the Old Covenant of the Old Testament, deliverance from sin was only temporary and had to be done over and over again. There was never a change of nature that made sin impossible. A better, more permanent, sacrifice was needed. So by Christ’s once and for all sacrifice on the cross he made available a provision whereby man could appropriate a nature like unto His, which would be forever incapable of sin.
This New permanent Covenant is stated in Hebrews and reproduced here: “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them [the Old Covenant], He says,
“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,
When I will effect a new covenant
With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers
On the day when I took them by the hand
To lead them out of the land of Egypt;
For they did not continue in My covenant,
And I did not care for them, says the Lord.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people. “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear” (Hebrews 8:7-13; Jeremiah 31:33 et. sq.).
Under the New Covenant the laws of God are written on our hearts rendering sin impossible. What we could not do in ourselves, as evidenced by our failures under the Old Covenant (applicable to the ancient nation of Israel) Christ did with one perfect sacrifice acceptable to God. It will further no longer be necessary for us to teach one another to know the Lord for we will all know Him. Having this sinless nature we will thus be like Him in every respect. This is salvation to the “uttermost”. He has saved us and He has delivered us by one sacrifice.
Through the true salvation experience we will come to “know the Lord”. In God’s mind, He is looking for a marriage relationship with us, just as we come to “know our wife/husband” in the natural realm. God says: “And I will make them lie down in safety.
“I