And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.Why does it say apart from sin? Because upon entering the holy place, Jesus bore all our sins, but when we see Him again, He'll be apart from sin. Our sins no longer exist!
(Hebrews 9:27-28)
1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." It doesn't say the sin is hidden or pushed to the side. We're cleansed from all sin, completely cleansed.
The Bible even provides a parallel between the spiritual and the physical (Lev. 16).
There were four basic things that happened when the earthly priest made sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.
- There was the sin offering for the priest himself.
- There was the casting of lots between two goats.
- The chosen goat was sacrificed.
- The other goat was released into the wilderness as the scapegoat for the sins of the people. The word "scapegoat" we use today is actually a biblical term.
Notice in verse 13, it says if Aaron (or any priest) didn't perform the ritual in the manner God ordained it, he was a dead man. Dealing with sin was a life and death situation. The things God told the children of Israel to do were types and shadows of what was to come.
Excerpt permission granted by Larry Ollison Ministries