While being on this World Race, one of my prayers has been that God would reveal to me once again the significance of the Cross and what Jesus did. Having this month here in Swaziland with much free time, God revealed to me a new meaning of what Jesus did on the Cross. This is how it went:
On the Hebrew Day of Atonement in the Old Testament there were two goats as stated in Leviticus 16:5. One goat was to be a sacrifice to the Lord for a sin offering, while the other goat was to presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat (Leviticus 16:9-10). With the second goat, Aaron the priest was “to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert” (Leviticus 16:20-22).
So many times we only focus on Christ as the first goat, or the sacrifice to cover our sin. We forget that Christ also took on the role of the second goat. Although the first goat brought forgiveness of sins and paid the debt of the sins, that wasn’t enough. A second goat was needed to take away the shame of the past sins. Not only did Christ die on the cross to pay the debt of our sin (fulfilling the role of the first goat), but he also died on the cross to take away the shame of our sin (fulfilling the role of the second goat).
Alan Wright puts it this way in his book Shame Off You like this, “If our sins are paid for by the first goat’s blood, but our shame is unhealed, we will always be looking for another goat. That’s why wounded people wound people. That’s why ashamed people shame people. That’s why we need Jesus not only to save us, but also to heal us. Isaiah foretold it. Because we needed a savior, it “was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. . . ” and to make “his life a guilt offering” (Isaiah 53:10). Because we needed someone to bear our shame, ‘he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows’ (v.4).”
On top of that, God also revealed to me what He as the Father did toward Jesus in His love for us. “First, the Father turned His face away from His Son, as one does when disgusted . . . as if to say, “I’m so ashamed of him.” Second, while Jesus was on the cross, the Father lifted the cover off His only Son. He didn’t even allow Jesus the clothes He had given Adam and Eve. Father God allowed Jesus Christ to hang exposed and vulnerable, not only before the watching world but also before the whole invisible realm of spiritual powers. I believe that the mocking taunts of the Roman guards or passersby held no comparison to the taunts of the invisible demons who were granted an unthinkable open season to shame the son of God” (Alan Wright, Shame Off You pg. 73-74).
I knew that Christ took away my sins on the cross and paid for them, but I still felt shame for things in my past. After God revealed to me that He also died for my shame, I realized how much deeper His love for me is. My Father not only took away my sin, but also my shame.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” –Galatians 5:1
