M.S. Letter Ritchie Way June 2009

THE SCAPEGOAT
Hi Ritchie
We want to know what your understanding of the Scapegoat is? Does it represent Satan or Jesus? What is the significance of the sins being laid on it and it being led out to the wilderness? I would appreciate it if you can lead us to some articles etc. so we can understand this. A friend of ours says it represents Jesus, another says it represents Satan.
Thanks for your help, love to Rosemary
M. S.

Hi M
The question: Is the scapegoat Jesus or Satan? could be given the same answer that Jesus gave to the Jews who wanted to know whether tribute should be paid to God or Caesar: ‘It’s not a case of either one or the other; it’s both’ (Matt. 22:15-22).
Between the First and Second Advents, Jesus is the Scapegoat for all the sins that God’s people lay on him. As the Lord’s goat, Jesus died to atone for these sins and as Azazel, (the Scapegoat) he was separated from God and his people and was sent into oblivion, to show that all sin was to be removed from the presence of God and his people. When Jesus hung on the cross he died as the atoning sacrifice for our sin, and as our Azazel—cut off from God and his people—he was swallowed up by oblivion. After the Second Advent, Satan and his minions will be the scapegoat for all the sins that were not laid on Jesus. The wages of sin is death and either Jesus dies that death for us, or we do.
Azazel teaches us that the punishment which Jesus accepted on our behalf, was not merely the termination of life, for Azazel was not killed on the Day of Atonement. Instead, he was led away from the presence of God and his people to a fate worse than death by a sacrificial knife. The agonising separation from God and God’s people that Jesus endured on the cross, will be experienced by all who elect not to lay their sins on the Saviour. Azazel represents the second death, the removal of sin from the universe.
The death that Jesus died as the Lord’s goat is absolutely unique. It cannot, and need not be repeated, because the atonement that Jesus made is infinite in nature (1 John 2:1-2). On the other hand, Christ’s death as Azazel is not unique. It not only can be repeated, it needs to be repeated. All sin is to be annihilated, either in the person of Christ or in the persons of those who reject him as their substitute. That is why Azazel has two applications—one with the first advent and another with the second.
Ritchie.