Scapegoat

Traditionally, we associate the word "scapegoat" with blaming somebody for something, regardless as to whether it was their fault. In Leviticus 16 of the Bible God points out his instructions as to how the Israelites were going to have their sins forgiven by God. The priest was to take two goats, one that would be killed and presented to the Lord as a sin offering, the other, the "scapegoat" was to be presented alive and sent out into the wilderness. Traditionally this is understood as the sins being "put on" to this animal and carried away never to be remembered by God again.

Fast forward.

In any school of Christian thought, one would understand the deity of Christ to be and not limited to anything less than God himself. In the understanding of the incarnation and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we can assume that Christ's sacrifice fulfilled all the requirements of the Law in the area of atonement.

This being said...

The last couple days for me have been very reflective in the area of Christ on the cross because I've been reading alot for my Theo 2 paper that's due this week. God actually put on flesh and died to once and for all atone his people. He took our sin and bore it on his shoulders, and when I think about that sacrifice, God saw the fact that we screwed up, and He stepped out and did something about it. He took on both the roles of the sacrificed goat and the scapegoat, and as God poured out his wrath on himself (which is profound in it's own context) one could assume that he was actually blaming himself in his righteous judgment. Now before we pull out the stones and cry "heresy", let me explain that I don't for one second believe it to be God's fault for our sin, but if we can correctly assume this, it would mean that God loved us enough; wanted a relationship with us enough that he'd be willing to step in and take that role in order to meet us right where we are. He shifted the blame from the creation to the creator (Himself) and punished sin on his own shoulders. To me that is profound...and I'm not going to write anymore tonight, but I do ask that, if you are reading this, take 5 minutes and reflect on how much God did for you.


...His love endures forever...