| Author | Message | ||
| Heretic Registered user Username: Heretic Post Number: 318 Registered: 2-2005 |
As described in another post, there have been a few discussion of the identity of the scapegoat lately and it's gotten me thinking and wondering about something today. If God really did need to come as a man to redeem mankind from sin as the 2nd Adam while bearing it in the flesh in order to be our Substitute, is it even possible for Satan (NOT a man, nor of flesh) to bear the sins of man? I'm still thinking this through but I'd be interested in some of your thoughts. | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 2818 Registered: 7-2007 |
I'm thinking of Leviticus 16:21 which says: "Aaron shall lay both his hands on the had of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man." In this little Bible I have, there's a little letter "b" next to the word putting. It directs me to the center column where it references me to Isaiah 53:6 which says - "and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." There were three symbols acting in "cleansing the people of sin" on the Day of Atonement. The high priest, the sacrifice goat and the scape goat. I believe all three are pictures of what Jesus was coming to do for mankind. | ||
| Heretic Registered user Username: Heretic Post Number: 319 Registered: 2-2005 |
Asurprise, I believe the same. What I'm wondering is if it's even possible for the sins of man, commited in the flesh, to be placed on a spiritual being (Satan) rather than a fleshly one. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14010 Registered: 12-2003  |
Heretic, you are right. Hebrews 2:10-18 says,
This passage makes several declarations: 1. The One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all come from the same Father. This family relationship refers to the spiritual reality that the new birth gives believers the same Father that Jesus has: God the Father. We are born of the Spirit, and we are thus both born and adopted into God's family (see also Rom. 8:1-17). 2. Because we have the same Father, Jesus calls us "brothers". This title refers only to those who "are sanctified"...those who share the spiritual life of God with Him. At the same time, the title "brothers" is a physical title. Angels are never called "brothers". This identification Jesus makes with those who are sanctified is thus both spiritual and physical. Jesus has taken our flesh, and as a man, He is our human brother as well as our spiritual brother. 3. Verse 13 also confirms the physical connection of believers to God: we are the children God has given Jesus...we are the spiritual children of the Trinity, but we are nonetheless physically related to Jesus as well. 4. Verse 14 declares that because "the children" (we who believe) are physical beings with flesh and blood, Jesus the Sanctifier also had to share our flesh. Because He took our human flesh, He was able to die a human death that paid for all human sin, and in dying for our sin and also rising from death, He, the Perfect Man, thus defeated Satan. Notice that verses 14-15 say that because He took flesh, He was able to "render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Thus, in no conceivable way was Satan able at any point to bear the sins of humanity—nor the guilt of human sin. Satan is a fallen spiritual being; he is utterly unable to bear any portion or guilt of human sin. Not only that, but Jesus' physical death as the Perfect Sacrifice totally disarmed Satan (see also Col 2:14-15). The Adventist teaching of Satan as the scapegoat is deeply heretical. It denies the complete sufficiency of Jesus' death. It denies the importance of His coming as a human, and it further denies His spiritual life and power in that it gives a fallen spirit-being the role of carrying away human sin. This teaching undermines the significance of Jesus being our brother, or His being the sinless One who had spiritual Life from conception, and it introduces the enemy, a spiritual being who is spiritually dead, into the equation for human salvation. It is not possible, as you said, Heretic, for Satan to be the scapegoat. Colleen |
