What Does God Do With My Sin?

Leviticus 16 answers the question that sits underneath every attempt to hide: what does God actually do with sin? The instinct to cover, rename, compare, minimize, or outwait sin goes all the way back to Genesis 3. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves and hid among the trees, and that same adult hide and seek still shows up through busyness, religion, blame, and comparison. Hidden is not the same as gone.

The Day of Atonement shows that God does not ignore sin or pretend it did not happen. God provides atonement through the blood of the first goat, covering the uncleanness, transgressions, and sins of Israel so that a holy God can dwell in the midst of an unclean people. Atonement is not God looking away from the stain. Atonement is God dealing with the stain so that His people can be made right with Him.

The second goat gives another part of the picture. Aaron confesses all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the people over the live goat, and the goat carries them away into the wilderness. God does not merely move sin to a closet where nobody can see it. God removes it as far as east is from west. Forgiven sin may still carry real earthly consequences, but it no longer stands between the person in Christ and God as condemnation. The goat has been led away, and forgiven people do not need to drag it back into the camp as an identity.

Leviticus 16 also says that atonement is made “to cleanse you.” God deals not only with the record of sin but with the sinner sin has shaped. Forgiveness deals with guilt, while cleansing deals with the residue sin leaves behind: distorted desires, hardened habits, damaged relationships, and lies that begin to feel normal. Sanctification can be slow, full of battles and setbacks, but God does not forgive dirty people and then tell them to stay dirty.

The yearly repetition of Yom Kippur reveals its limitation. Another year brought another priest, another sacrifice, another confession, and another reminder that the work was not finished. Jesus changes everything. Christ needed no cleansing before entering the holy place, because He is holy, innocent, and unstained. Jesus is both the High Priest and the sacrifice, entering once for all by His own blood and securing eternal redemption.

Jesus’ cry from the cross, “It is finished,” means that His atonement does not need to be repeated or supplemented by self-punishment. Christ covers sin, removes sin, cleanses sinners, and finishes the work once for all. Being found by God ends spiritual hide and seek and begins real life.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Hidden is not the same as gone. The instinct to hide sin can look mature, religious, or even responsible, but it never makes sin disappear. God already sees every exposed place, including the places a person cannot yet see clearly. God’s invitation is not to become better at hiding, but to bring sin into the light where atonement is found. [35:42]
• 2. God removes more than guilt. The scapegoat carried Israel’s sins away into the wilderness, giving a visible picture of sins removed. God’s forgiveness does not require a believer to keep rehearsing confessed sin as a permanent label. Consequences may remain, but condemnation does not remain for those in Christ Jesus. [41:49]
• 3. Cleansing reaches sin’s deep residue. Forgiveness addresses guilt, while cleansing reaches the habits, desires, patterns, and distortions sin leaves behind. Sanctification does not make every struggle disappear overnight, but God refuses to leave His people defined by what once held them. A present struggle may describe where someone is, but it cannot finally define who someone is. [45:30]
• 4. Jesus finished what sacrifices repeated. The annual Day of Atonement made clear that another sacrifice would be needed next year. Jesus entered once for all with His own blood, bringing the work to its completion. Self-punishment and spiritual avoidance cannot add anything to the finished work of Christ.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [24:37] - Hide and Seek and Hidden Sin
• [29:33] - Leviticus 16 and the Day of Atonement
• [31:47] - God Covers Sin Through Atonement
• [37:03] - The Scapegoat Removes Sin
• [44:14] - God Cleanses the Sinner
• [47:57] - The Problem With Yearly Sacrifices
• [49:30] - Jesus Finishes It Once for All
• [51:51] - Stop Playing Spiritual Peekaboo
• [55:14] - Communion and Baptism Response

Bible Reading

Leviticus 16
The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died, and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. [29:33]

Genesis 3:7
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. [34:53]

Genesis 3:8
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. [35:04]

Hebrews 9:11-12
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. [49:57]

1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. [45:27]

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [45:30]

Observation questions

1. In Leviticus 16, what preparations did Aaron need to make before he could enter the Holy Place, and what does this show about approaching a holy God? [30:57]
2. What two different roles did the goats serve on the Day of Atonement: the goat sacrificed for the people and the goat sent into the wilderness? [37:03]
3. In Genesis 3:7-8, what did Adam and Eve do immediately after they sinned, and what are some modern ways people try to do the same thing? [35:31]
4. In 1 John 1:7 and 1 John 1:9, what two things does the blood of Jesus do for those who walk in the light and confess their sins? [45:34]

Interpretation questions

1. Why was atonement necessary for God to dwell in the midst of Israel even though the people were unclean and sinful? [34:09]
2. The scapegoat carried “all” the people’s iniquities, transgressions, and sins away from the camp. How does that picture help a believer distinguish between real consequences of sin and ongoing condemnation before God? [41:43]
3. Why is it important that 1 John connects forgiveness with cleansing? What kinds of damage or patterns can remain after sin has been forgiven? [45:38]
4. Hebrews says Jesus entered the holy places “once for all” by His own blood. Why does this mean that self-punishment, hiding from God, or trying to earn a way back cannot add to Christ’s work? [50:11]

Application questions

1. When sin, shame, or failure is exposed, what is the usual instinct: hiding, staying busy, blaming someone else, minimizing it, comparing with others, or something else? What would it look like to bring that honestly into God’s light this week? [35:31]
2. Is there a past sin that has been confessed and repented of, but still gets carried as a defining label—such as “failure,” “addict,” “liar,” or “unworthy”? How can Christ’s removal of sin reshape that label? [42:35]
3. Forgiveness does not always remove earthly consequences or instantly rebuild trust. Is there a relationship, responsibility, or repair that needs patient and honest attention while trusting that there is no condemnation in Christ? [41:49]
4. Where is there a desire for forgiveness without fully surrendering to God’s cleansing and change—perhaps in anger, bitterness, sexual sin, gossip, dishonesty, or another repeated pattern? What is one practical step toward walking in the light? [47:05]
5. Sanctification can be slow and may include real battles and setbacks. Where has discouragement made it tempting to believe, “This is just who I am”? What truth from these passages pushes back against that conclusion? [46:19]
6. After failing, is there a tendency to avoid prayer, church, Christian community, or Scripture until things feel “good enough”? What would it look like instead to confess quickly and rest in the finished work of Jesus? [51:01]
7. Jesus has covered sin, removed sin, cleansed sinners, and finished atonement once for all. What specific reason for gratitude can be carried into this week because of what Christ has done? [52:22]