The Great Exchange - Leviticus 16-18

 Leviticus 16:20-22 (ESV)

“And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

On the Day of atonement the priest would bring before the alter two goats.  One goat would be for offering for the sins of the people, while the other goat would be the scapegoat.   The priest would not lay his hands on the head of the goat signifying the sins of the people were laid on the goat.  The first goat paid for the sins of the people and the scapegoat took the sins away.  This, of course, is a picture of Jesus not just paying the price of our sin, but actually taking our sin on Himself.   This is what Isaiah stated:

Isaiah 53:6 (ESV)

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Paul and Peter said it this way:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

The “great exchange” is that Jesus “exchanged” our sin for His righteousness.   We came with nothing but wickedness and left with His righteousness.  He came with righteousness and left with our wickedness.   That is the scapegoat.   We can rejoice that God has provided a way to not just pay for our sins but to remove them far from us.  

Psalms 103:12 (ESV)

as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.