Notice (1) the vivid consciousness of sin which marked Judaism.
Was it exaggerated or right?
The same consciousness is part of all of us, but how overlaid! how
stifled!
That consciousness once awakened has in it these elements--a bitter
sense of sin as mine, involving guilt; despair as to whether I can ever
overcome it; and fearful thoughts of my relation to God which
conscience itself brings.
(2) The futility of all attempts to remove these fears.
False religions have next to nothing to say about forgiveness.
Sacrifices and lustrations they have, but no assurance of absolution.
Systems of philosophy and morals have nothing to say but that the
universe goes crashing on, and if you have broken its laws you must
suffer. That is all, or only the poor cheer of 'Well! you have fallen,
get up and go on again!' So men often drug themselves into
forgetfulness. They turn away from the unwelcome subject, and forget it
at the price of all moral earnestness and often of all happiness; a
lethargic sleep or a gaiety, as little real as that of the Girondins
singing in their prison the night before being led out to the
guillotine.
It is only God's authoritative revelation that can ensure the cure,
only He can assure us of pardon, and of the removal of all barriers
between ourselves and His love. Only His word can ensure, and His power
can effect, the removal of the consequences of our sins. Only His word
can ensure, and His power effect, the removal of the power of evil on
our characters.
(3) Still the question, Can guilt ever be cancelled? often assumes a
fearful significance. Doubtless much seems to say that it cannot be.
_(a)_ The irrevocableness of the past.
_(b)_ The rigid law of consequences in this world.
_(c)_ The indissoluble unity of an individual life and moral nature,
confirmed by the experience of failure in all attempts at reformation
of self.
_(d)_ The consciousness of disturbed relations with God, and the
prophecy of judgment. All this that ancient symbol suggested. The
picture of the goat going away, and away, and away, a lessening speck
on the horizon, and never heard of more is the divine symbol of the
great fact that there is full, free, everlasting forgiveness, and on
God's part, utter forgetfulness. 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be white as snow.' 'I will remember them no more at all for ever.'
II. The bearing away of sin is indissolubly connected with sacrifice.
Two goats were provided, of which one was offered for a sin offering,
indicating that sacrifice came first; then the removal of sin was
symbolised by the sending away of the second goat. There is an evident
reference to this sequence in the words 'without shedding of blood
there is no remission.' The two goats represent Christ's work; the one
in its essence, the other in its effect.
The one teaches that sacrifice is a necessary condition of pardon.
Forgiveness was not given because the offerer confessed his guilt or
because 'God was merciful,' but because the goat had been slain as a
sin offering. There is deep spiritual truth for us in this symbolism.
We do not need to enter on the philosophy of atonement, but simply to
rest on the fact--that the only authority on which we can be sure of
forgiveness at all indissolubly associates the two things, sacrifice
and pardon. We have no reason to believe in forgiveness except from the
Bible record and assurance.
Was the Mosaic ritual a divinely appointed thing? If so, its testimony
is conclusive. But even if it were only the embodiment of human
aspirations and wants, it would be a strong evidence of the necessity
of some such thing as forgiveness.
The shallow dream that God's forgiveness can be extended without a
sacrifice having been offered does not exalt but detracts from the
divine character. It invariably leads to an emasculated abhorrence of
evil, and detracts from the holiness of God, as well as introduces low
thoughts of the greatness of forgiveness and of the infinite love of
God.
III. The bearing away of sin is associated with man's laying of his
sins on the sacrifice appointed by God.
We have seen that the two goats must be regarded as together making one
whole. The one which was slain made 'atonement ... because of the
uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their
transgressions, even all their sins,' but that expiation was not
actually effective till Aaron had 'laid his hands on the head of the
live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of
Israel, ... and put them on the head of the live goat, and sent him
away into the wilderness.' The sacrifice of the slain goat did not
accomplish the pardon or removal of the people's sins, but made it
possible that their sins should be pardoned and removed.
Then the method by which that possibility is realised is the laying
hands on the scapegoat and confessing the sins upon it. The sins which
are actually forgiven, by virtue of the atonement made for all sins,
are those which it bears away to the wilderness.
This answers, point for point, to repentance and faith. By these the
possibility is turned into an actuality for as many as believe on
Christ.
Christ has died for sin. Christ has made atonement by which all sin may
be forgiven; whether any shall actually be forgiven depends on
something else. It is conceivable that though Christ died, no sin might
be pardoned, if no man believed. His blood would not, even then, have
been shed in vain, for the purpose of it would have been fully effected
in providing a way by which any and all sin could be forgiven. So that
the whole question whether any man's sin is pardoned turns on this, Has
he laid his hand on Christ? Faith is only a condition of forgiveness,
not a cause, or in itself a power. There was no healing in the mere
laying of the hand on the head of the goat.
It was not faith which was the reason for forgiveness, but God's love
which had provided the sacrifice.
God's will is not a bare will to pardon, nor a bare will to pardon for
Christ's sake, but for Christ's sake to pardon them who believe.
'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.' 'Dost
thou believe on the Son of God?' 'Through this Man is preached the
remission of sins.'