There is a line in Hebrews that Christians quote often, but I am not sure we have always stopped long enough to ask what it actually means.
Hebrews says that Jesus became flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the devil.
Hebrews 2:14-15
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
That passage raises several questions.
What is “the power of death”?
In what sense did Satan have it?
How did Jesus’ death destroy the one who had that power?
And why would Satan participate in the crucifixion if the crucifixion was the very event that would undo him?
That last question is especially important. The New Testament gives us reason to believe that the crucifixion was, in some sense, a mystery hidden from the rulers of this age.
1 Corinthians 2:8
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
That verse may refer to earthly rulers, spiritual rulers, or both. Either way, the logic is striking. Had they understood what was happening, they would not have crucified Jesus.
So what did they misunderstand?
More specifically, what did Satan misunderstand?
My proposal is that the answer has been hiding in the Day of Atonement ritual, especially in the part of that ritual Christians often neglect: the scapegoat.
The Day of Atonement did not involve only one goat. It involved two. One goat was “for the LORD,” slain, and its blood was brought into the holy place. The other goat was sent away alive, bearing the sins of the people into the wilderness, to Azazel.
If Christ fulfills the Day of Atonement, then we should expect Him to fulfill both goats, not merely one. The first goat helps explain Christ’s blood, priesthood, resurrection, and heavenly offering. The second goat, I believe, helps explain His descent into Hades and the defeat of Satan.
The scapegoat is the Satan-defeating part of the Day of Atonement.
That is the thesis.
Blood, Life, and the Logic of Atonement
Before we can talk about the scapegoat, we need to begin with the first goat and the broader logic of atonement.
Jacob Milgrom, the great Leviticus scholar, argued that blood functions in the sacrificial system as a kind of ritual detergent. That may sound strange at first, but the logic is biblical. Blood cleanses because blood contains life.
Leviticus gives us one of the clearest explanations in Scripture for why blood makes atonement.
Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
The blood is effectual because of the life that is in it.
This matters because sin pollutes sacred space. Israel’s sins defile the camp, the tabernacle, and the place where God dwells among His people. If sin leads to death, then it makes sense that life cleanses what death has polluted.
This also means that, in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the slaughter of the animal is not itself the whole act of atonement. The animal is slain so that the blood can be obtained. The blood is then applied to the holy place. That application is the atoning act.
This is where David Moffitt’s work on Hebrews becomes important. Moffitt has argued that Hebrews does not treat the cross as the whole of Christ’s priestly offering. Christ dies, rises, ascends, and then enters the heavenly sanctuary as the true high priest.
Hebrews says:
Hebrews 9:11-12
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
And again:
Hebrews 9:24
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
On this reading, the resurrection is not an afterthought. Christ must rise because a dead priest cannot enter the heavenly holy place. He must ascend because the true sanctuary is in heaven. He must present His blood because atonement involves priestly application, not merely slaughter.
That explains one half of the Day of Atonement.
But it does not yet explain Hebrews 2.
Hebrews does not merely say that Christ makes atonement. It says that through death He destroys the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
How does the Day of Atonement defeat the devil?
A recent scholarly proposal by Katie Marcar turns to Passover and Exodus imagery. In that model, Satan is like Pharaoh, the realm of death is like Egypt, and Christ leads a new exodus out of bondage. I think that typology is valuable. But it still leaves a mechanism question unanswered.
How, exactly, is Satan’s power broken?
My contention is that the missing mechanism is the second goat.
The Forgotten Goat
Leviticus 16 describes two goats.
Leviticus 16:8-10
And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
The first goat is killed. Its blood is taken into the holy place.
The second goat is not killed. It is presented alive. The high priest lays both hands on its head, confesses Israel’s sins over it, and sends it away.
Leviticus 16:20-22
And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
That second goat is not a decorative appendage to the ritual. Leviticus says it is part of the atonement. It bears the people’s sins away.
So if Christ fulfills the Day of Atonement, where does He fulfill this goat?
The New Testament repeatedly describes Christ in sin-bearing language.
Isaiah 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:11-12
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
1 Peter 2:24
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Hebrews 9:28
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
This is scapegoat language.
Christ does not merely die. He bears sin.
The crucial question is where He bears it.
The first goat’s blood goes up into the holy place. The second goat goes out, away from the camp, into the wilderness, to Azazel.
If Hebrews’ heavenly sanctuary is a real place, and Christ’s priestly ascent is a real movement, then we should at least consider whether the scapegoat movement also has a real fulfillment. Not merely metaphorical. Not merely poetic. Real.
Christ bears sin outside the camp. Christ descends into the realm of the dead. Christ carries the sins of His people into the domain associated with Satan, death, and accusation.
That is where the scapegoat becomes central.
Christ’s Descent Was Victory, Not Punishment
The descent of Christ into Hades is an ancient Christian doctrine. It is confessed in the Apostles’ Creed. It also appears in several biblical passages.
Ephesians 4:8-10
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
1 Peter 3:18-22
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Romans 10:6-7
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Matthew 12:40
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 27:51-53
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
What is striking about these passages is that Christ is not pictured as a victim being tormented in hell. He is victorious. He descends, leads captivity captive, proclaims victory, and emerges with authority.
Revelation makes the outcome explicit.
Revelation 1:18
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Before Christ’s ordeal, Hebrews says the devil had the power of death. After Christ’s ordeal, Christ has the keys of hell and death.
Something changed.
Christus Victor theology has rightly emphasized the victory of Christ over Satan, death, and the powers. But Christus Victor often does not explain the mechanism. It tells us Christ conquered, but not always how.
The scapegoat supplies that missing mechanism.
Azazel and the Return of Sin
The Hebrew text of Leviticus 16 is uncomfortable.
Many English translations say the second goat is “for the scapegoat.” But the Hebrew word is Azazel. The lots are cast: one for Yahweh, one for Azazel.
That parallel matters.
If one goat is “for the LORD,” and the other is “for Azazel,” then Azazel looks less like a vague location and more like a personal being. This is why scholars such as Jacob Milgrom argued that Azazel is best understood as a demonic figure, not merely a cliff or a wasteland.
The later idea that the goat was pushed off a cliff is not in Leviticus. Leviticus emphasizes that the goat is presented alive and sent away. It is not sacrificed to Azazel. It is not a gift to a demon. It is a living sin-bearer sent into the wilderness.
Second Temple Jewish literature strengthens this connection. I am not treating 1 Enoch as Scripture. But it is an important witness to ancient Jewish thought, and Jude itself quotes from Enochic tradition. In 1 Enoch 10, Azazel is connected with the corruption of the earth.
1 Enoch 10:8
And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.
That line is crucial: “to him ascribe all sin.”
1 Enoch also depicts Azazel as bound in the desert.
1 Enoch 10:4
And again the Lord said to Raphael: Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein.
Now Leviticus 16 begins to take on a sharper logic.
Why send a goat laden with sin into the wilderness to Azazel?
There are two possible explanations.
The first is what I call the “trashcan view.” On this view, Israel’s sins are simply being removed from the camp. God’s presence dwells in the midst of Israel, sin pollutes the sacred space, so the sins must be taken outside and dumped far away. Azazel is incidental. The wilderness is the trash heap.
The second is what I call the “return to sender view.” On this view, the goat is not merely removing sin from Israel. It is returning sin to its true source. If Azazel is the one to whom sin is ascribed, then the goat is sent to him because the sin belongs to him.
This does not mean Israel is innocent in the sense that they never committed the sins. They did. But the ritual transfers the confessed sins away from Israel and sends them back to the one who introduced corruption, deception, and death into the world.
In that sense, the scapegoat is not a sacrifice to Azazel. It is a return.
“Here is the sin. It is yours.”
This is where the scapegoat begins to explain the defeat of Satan.
What Is Satan’s Power of Death?
If Christ defeats Satan by bearing sin into Hades, we still have to ask why that would defeat him.
To answer that, we need to understand the nature of Satan’s power.
Hebrews says Satan had “the power of death.” But this does not mean Satan is omnipotent, independent, or equal to God. Scripture consistently portrays Satan as powerful but limited. He acts, but he acts by permission. He has authority, but that authority is bounded.
Job gives us one of the clearest examples.
Job 1:12
And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Satan may act against Job, but only within limits.
Jesus says something similar to Peter.
Luke 22:31-32
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Satan desires Peter, but Christ intercedes.
The New Testament also speaks of Satan’s ongoing dominion in the world.
2 Corinthians 4:4
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
John 12:31
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
1 John 5:19
And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
In the temptation of Jesus, Satan even claims that the kingdoms of the world have been delivered to him.
Luke 4:6
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
Jesus does not answer by saying, “That is not true.” He resists the temptation, but the claim itself appears to have some real basis.
So Satan has authority. But what kind?
The first piece is temptation.
Satan is called “the tempter.”
Matthew 4:1
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Matthew 4:3
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
1 Thessalonians 3:5
For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
1 Corinthians 7:5
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
Satan tempts.
But temptation is not the whole story. He tempts so that he can accuse. He accuses so that he can claim death.
That is the chain:
Temptation leads to sin.
Sin leads to accusation.
Accusation leads to death.
This is why Satan’s power of death is sin-conditioned. He cannot simply kill at random. He must have a claim. He needs guilt. He needs a record.
The biblical connection between sin and death is everywhere.
Genesis 2:17
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Ezekiel 18:4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Satan’s power is not raw power. It is juridical power. It is legal power. It is accusatory power.
He has the power of death because sinners really are guilty, and death really is the sentence attached to sin.
Testing, Temptation, and the Strange Permission of God
This raises another difficult question.
Why would God allow Satan to tempt anyone?
Scripture repeatedly presents trials as tests. God does not tempt anyone with evil, but He does permit testing. He permits circumstances in which faithfulness is proven or exposed.
Abraham is tested with Isaac.
Genesis 22:12
And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Israel is tested in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 8:2
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Peter says trials prove faith.
1 Peter 1:6-7
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Revelation even describes the devil casting believers into prison so that they may be tested.
Revelation 2:10
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
James holds both truths together. Trials come, and they matter. But God is not the author of evil temptation.
James 1:2-4
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:12-13
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
There is a tension here, but it is a biblical tension.
God tests. Satan tempts. Sometimes the same event can be described from both angles.
David’s census is the classic example.
2 Samuel 24:1
And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
1 Chronicles 21:1
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
The same event is attributed, in different senses, to God and to Satan. God permits the test. Satan performs the temptation.
Even Jesus’ wilderness temptation follows this pattern.
Matthew 4:1
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. The devil tempts Him there.
This is not because Satan is God’s faithful servant from the beginning. The temptation in Eden was rebellion, not obedience. Satan was cursed for it.
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
But after Eden, Satan’s rebellion creates a terrible new arrangement. Humanity now possesses the knowledge of good and evil. Man’s eyes are opened. Man is accountable. Satan, the deceiver, now has access to weak humanity. He tempts. Humans sin. Sin brings death. Satan accuses.
That is his power.
The Handwriting Against Us
Now we can return to the cross.
If Satan’s power depends on sin, guilt, accusation, and death, then the cancellation of sin destroys his claim.
This is exactly what Colossians 2 says.
Colossians 2:13-15
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
The order matters.
First, we are forgiven all trespasses.
Second, the handwriting against us is blotted out.
Third, the principalities and powers are disarmed.
Why are they disarmed?
Because the record is gone.
The “handwriting” is the record of debt, the charge sheet, the accusatory document. Satan’s power rests on that record. If the debt is canceled, the accuser loses his weapon.
This is where the scapegoat mechanism becomes so powerful.
Christ bears our sins. Those sins are not His personally. He “knew no sin.” Yet He is made sin for us. He is numbered with the transgressors. He carries what belongs to us.
Then He descends into Hades.
But in doing so, He is not merely descending as a victim. He is descending as the true scapegoat. He carries the transferred sins into the realm of death, to the one whose power depends upon those sins, and returns them to their ultimate source.
The sins are removed from us.
The record is canceled.
The accuser is disarmed.
Satan’s deed claim collapses because the guilt on which it depended has been forgiven, removed, and returned.
That, I believe, is the mechanism by which Christ destroys the one who had the power of death.
Why Did Satan Take the Bait?
But this creates another problem.
If Christ’s descent into Hades completed the scapegoat movement and disarmed Satan, why would Satan do it?
Why would Satan kill Jesus?
Why would Satan take Him into the realm of the dead?
Why would Satan participate in the very event that would destroy his own power?
The answer must be that Satan was deceived.
But deceived how?
Some versions of Christus Victor suggest that Satan knew Jesus was sinless but killed Him anyway, not realizing that he had no right to hold a sinless man in Hades. There is truth in that. Satan could not hold the sinless Christ. Christ’s victory in Hades is real.
But I think we can go one step further.
If Satan’s power is sin-conditioned, then Satan would not knowingly kill a sinless man as though he were guilty. That would be an abuse of his own authority. It would be reckless, and Satan is not stupid.
A more plausible explanation is that Satan believed he had finally succeeded in bringing Jesus under sin.
He misread imputed sin as personal guilt.
He saw sin on Christ and thought it was Christ’s own.
That was the trap.
Satan’s Campaign Against Jesus
From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Satan tries to tempt Him.
Matthew 4:1
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
The temptation fails. But Luke adds an important detail.
Luke 4:13
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
Satan does not give up. He leaves until a more opportune time.
This makes sense. Satan knows the promise of Genesis 3:15. He knows that the seed of the woman will crush his head. When Jesus appears, Satan recognizes a threat. If he can get Jesus to sin, he can bring Him under the same death power as everyone else.
That is Satan’s ordinary strategy.
Tempt.
Accuse.
Kill.
But Jesus does not sin.
The Gospels repeatedly show people attempting to kill Jesus before His hour has come, and they cannot do it. Sometimes they try to stone Him. Sometimes they try to throw Him from a cliff. But He passes through their midst. His hour had not yet come.
Those failed attempts may have taught Satan something. If Jesus says things that would be blasphemous if He were not who He claimed to be, and yet death cannot touch Him, then perhaps those things are not blasphemy. If Jesus acts on the Sabbath in ways that would be unlawful if He were not Lord of the Sabbath, and yet He remains untouchable, then perhaps He truly is Lord of the Sabbath.
Satan’s direct campaign fails.
So, I suggest, he turns to an indirect one.
The Judas Gambit
This part of the argument is more speculative. It is not necessary to accept this in order to accept the larger scapegoat thesis. The core claim is that Christ defeats Satan through the scapegoat mechanism: He bears sin, descends into Hades, returns sin to its source, cancels the record, and disarms the accuser.
The Judas piece is an attempt to explain how Satan may have misunderstood what was happening.
Here is the proposal.
Having failed to make Jesus sin directly, Satan tries to implicate Him through Judas.
Jesus chose the Twelve after a night of prayer.
Luke 6:12-13
And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
If one of those chosen disciples becomes a traitor, Satan may think he has found an angle. Perhaps Jesus chose wrongly. Perhaps Jesus failed to hear the Father. Perhaps the betrayal of Judas can be charged back to Jesus’ account.
But the Gospel of John repeatedly insists that Jesus knew about Judas from the beginning.
John 6:64
But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
John 6:70
Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
John 13:11
For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
John 13:18
I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
John 17:12
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
John seems very concerned to tell us that Judas was not a mistake.
Jesus did not choose wrongly. He knew. The betrayal itself fulfilled Scripture.
That matters because it answers the very charge Satan may have hoped to bring.
Satan enters Judas personally.
Luke 22:3-6
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.
And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.
And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
John also says:
John 13:27
And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
Why does Satan enter Judas?
It is not merely to locate Jesus. Jesus often went to Gethsemane. The authorities could have found Him. Judas had already agreed to betray Him before Satan entered him in this final way.
The point was not merely location.
The point was betrayal.
The kiss mattered.
In Satan’s mind, the betrayal may have been the mechanism by which he thought he had finally compromised Jesus.
Gethsemane and Imputed Sin
The timing is fascinating.
Satan enters Judas at the Last Supper. Judas departs. Then comes Gethsemane. Then Judas returns with the soldiers.
Gethsemane is bracketed by Judas.
This suggests that something crucial happens in the garden.
I am not saying the cross is unimportant. Of course not. Christ bears our sins on the tree. But I am suggesting that the imputation of sin may begin in Gethsemane.
There, Jesus is overwhelmed.
Matthew 26:38
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
John gives us a similar window into the anguish of that hour.
John 12:27
Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
And in the same context:
John 12:31
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
The ruler of this world is being cast out.
The question is how.
If the scapegoat thesis is correct, then Gethsemane may be the moment when the sins of the world are placed upon Christ. Satan, returning in Judas, sees Christ under the weight of sin and misreads it. He thinks it is personal guilt. He thinks his Judas gambit has worked.
There is at least biblical precedent for sin or iniquity being visible in a heavenly court setting.
Zechariah 3:1-4
And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Iniquity appears as filthy garments in the presence of the accuser.
So perhaps Satan sees the sin-bearing Christ and thinks, “He is guilty.”
Or perhaps Satan does not see it directly, but infers it from the fact that, for the first time, the execution is allowed to proceed. Before this, His hour had not come. Now the hour has come. The arrest happens. The trial proceeds. The scourging happens. The crucifixion happens.
Satan thinks he has won.
But he has not won.
He has carried the true scapegoat into the realm of death.
He has brought into his own domain the sin that will be removed from us, returned to its source, and used to cancel the record by which he held mankind in bondage.
The trap is sprung.
The Illegal Death of the Sinless One
This also means Satan killed Jesus unjustly.
Christ had no personal sin.
The sins on Him were imputed, not His own.
Satan mistook transferred sin for actual guilt. He treated the sinless Christ as though He were a sinner. In doing so, he exceeded his authority.
There may be a parallel here with Psalm 82, where rulers lose authority because they judge unjustly.
Psalm 82:1-7
God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
I do not think Satan’s abuse of authority is the whole mechanism of his defeat. The deeper mechanism is forgiveness. Colossians says the record is canceled, and the rulers and authorities are disarmed.
Still, Satan’s unjust killing of Christ may be part of the public shame of the powers. They overreached. They judged unjustly. They condemned the Innocent One.
And by doing so, they unknowingly completed the very movement that destroyed their claim.
The Two Goats Together
Now the pieces can be brought together.
The first goat explains the cleansing movement.
Christ dies, rises, ascends, and enters the true heavenly sanctuary as high priest. His blood, His life, is presented in the true holy place. The heavenly sanctuary is cleansed. Atonement is made.
The second goat explains the removal and return movement.
Christ bears sin. The sins of His people are placed upon Him. He is driven outside the camp. He descends into the realm of the dead. He carries the sins to the one whose power depends upon them, and those sins are removed from us.
The first goat goes up.
The second goat goes out and down.
The first cleanses the sanctuary.
The second removes the sins and returns them to their source.
The first explains the priestly logic of Hebrews.
The second explains the defeat of Satan in Hebrews 2.
Together, they form one atoning work.
This means the cross cannot be isolated from the resurrection, ascension, heavenly offering, descent into Hades, and harrowing of death. The atonement is not less than the cross, but it is more than the moment of death considered in isolation.
The cross is the center, but the whole ordeal matters.
Christ dies.
Christ descends.
Christ rises.
Christ ascends.
Christ presents His blood.
Christ disarms the accuser.
Christ takes the keys.
Why This Matters
This proposal matters because it gives real content to biblical claims we often leave vague.
When Hebrews says Christ destroyed the one who had the power of death, it means Satan’s death claim was broken.
When Colossians says the handwriting against us was nailed to the cross, it means the accuser’s record was canceled.
When Revelation says Christ has the keys of hell and death, it means the authority of death has changed hands.
When Leviticus sends the scapegoat to Azazel, it is not an embarrassing primitive leftover. It is a shadow of Christ’s victory.
Christ did not merely suffer under Satan.
He deceived the deceiver.
Satan thought he was dragging a guilty man into death. In reality, he was receiving the sin-bearing scapegoat. He thought the imputed sin on Christ was Christ’s own guilt. In reality, it was our sin being carried away. He thought the crucifixion was his triumph. In reality, it was the cancellation of the record by which he held mankind captive.
This is why the descent into Hades is not a strange appendix to the gospel.
It is victory.
Christ enters the realm of death, not as one conquered by death, but as the one who conquers it from the inside. He enters bearing sin, but not His own. He enters under the accusation, but not under guilt. He enters the house of the strong man and plunders it.
And He leaves with the keys.
That is the good news.
The accuser has been disarmed.
The record has been canceled.
The sins have been borne away.
The scapegoat has gone to Azazel.
And Jesus Christ is alive forevermore.
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