Leviticus 16:6-10: in context

On the Day of Atonement, Aaron is to take two goats and cast lots over them: one lot for the LORD, the other for the scapegoat. The goat for the LORD is offered as a sin offering. But the other, the scapegoat, is presented alive, and then sent away into the wilderness, bearing the people's sin, carried far off, away from the camp. Two goats, and between them a picture: sin atoned for, and sin borne away, carried out of sight into a distant land.

The scapegoat gives a vivid picture of what God does with our sin: he does not merely cover it but carries it away. The goat was sent into the wilderness bearing the people's sin, taking it far off, out of the camp, away from them, into a distant and empty land from which it would not return. The picture is not only of sin forgiven but of sin removed, borne away, carried off so that it no longer stands against the people or remains among them. Their sin was placed on the goat and sent away; it was gone. And this points to what God does with the sins of those who are his. He does not only pardon them; he removes them, carries them away, puts them far from us. As far as the east is from the west, the psalm says, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Our sin, in Christ, is not merely overlooked or covered while remaining present; it is taken away, borne off, removed to a distance, no longer counted against us or held over us. Behold the Lamb of God, John the Baptist said of Christ, who takes away the sin of the world. The scapegoat foreshadowed him: the one who bears our sin away, carrying it off so that it no longer stands against us. There is deep relief in this. We can feel that our sins, though forgiven, still cling to us, still stand against us, still remain a weight we carry. The scapegoat says otherwise: that God carries our sin away, removes it far from us, sends it off so that it is gone, no longer among us or against us. In Christ our sin is not merely covered but taken away, borne off as the scapegoat bore it into the wilderness, removed as far as the east is from the west. We need not carry what God has carried away, nor hold onto what he has removed. The sin that Christ has borne away is gone, taken far off, no longer standing against those who are his; and we may live in the relief of sin not merely covered but carried away.

Do I feel that my sins, though forgiven, still cling to me and stand against me as a weight I carry, or can I take hold of what the scapegoat pictures, that God does not merely cover my sin but carries it away, that in Christ, the Lamb who takes away sin, my transgressions are borne off and removed as far as the east is from the west, gone and no longer standing against me?