Why Did Jesus Come in the Flesh-To Be Our Scapegoat

In Leviticus 16, we read about the day of atonement where the priests present two goats. One to be slaughtered as a sin offering for the Lord. The other would be kept alive and all the sins would be placed on the goat. After the goat is presented for the Lord, it is released in the wilderness as a symbol that the sins of Israel has moved away. This is where the concept of the "scapegoat" came from.

The dictionary defines scapegoat as "a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place." Jesus did exactly that. He took the blame for our sin and died in our place.

I know this sounds more like Easter than Christmas. Please understand this without Jesus coming in the flesh, we would not have any hope to be saved from our sin. We would all have to fulfill the Old Testament law to meet the requirements of God in order to gain access to Him. Jesus became our scapegoat not to take the blame for us, but in order for us to have access to God, "For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).

To Jesus to be our scapegoat, he had to be fully human (He is also fully God) and lived a perfect life on our behalf. He also had to die in our place. Paul wrote:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
(Romans 3:21-26).

He satisfied the righteousness of God by dying on the cross in our place. The most important verse in the Bible summarizes what happened on the cross is the one Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV). God made Jesus become a sinner even though He was perfect and made us perfect in His sight even though we are still sinners.

God is offering this gift to us as well, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). It is a gift to be received by faith.