THE TWO GOATS — ONE ATONING WORK

1. BROUGHT NEAR FOR WHAT?#

Packet 4 ended with a question: if Christ brings people near, what are they brought near for? The answer is larger than acquittal at a distance. The biblical story began with God giving life, presence, vocation, and blessing. The priestly work removes what cannot remain in His holy dwelling and opens the way of approach. But God's purpose is not merely to leave cleansed people standing outside the door.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; — Ephesians 2:18–19 KJV

Access moves toward household. The person once described as far off is not only permitted to approach; he is brought into a people in whom God intends to dwell.

2. THE PROMISE WAS NOT ONLY CLEANSING, BUT A NEW HEART AND SPIRIT#

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. — Ezekiel 36:25–27 KJV

Ezekiel places cleansing and indwelling in the same promise, but does not make them identical. God says He will cleanse, give a new heart, give a new spirit, and put His Spirit within His people. The movement is from removal of defilement to renewed inner life and obedient vocation.

The repeated subject is God: “I will.” The new-covenant life is not human self-improvement climbing toward God. It is God's action restoring the human being from within.

3. BORN OF WATER AND OF THE SPIRIT#

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. — John 3:3 KJV

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. — John 3:5–7 KJV

Nicodemus knew the prophets. Jesus' language of water, Spirit, new birth, seeing, and entering the kingdom sounds like the promised work Ezekiel had already described: cleansing, a new heart, and God's Spirit within.

Notice the direction again. A person is not merely told to admire the kingdom from outside. He must be born from above for entrance into the kingdom, and the Spirit is the life-giving agent of that birth.

4. THE PRESENCE MOVES FROM A HOUSE MADE WITH HANDS INTO A PEOPLE#

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? — 1 Corinthians 3:16 KJV

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. — 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 KJV

The old question was: how can God's Presence remain among a contaminated people? The New Testament answer becomes even more astonishing: by the Spirit, God's people themselves become His temple.

The result is not casual familiarity with holiness. Paul draws the opposite conclusion: because the Spirit dwells within, the body belongs to God. Presence creates vocation and responsibility.

5. “HE DWELLETH WITH YOU, AND SHALL BE IN YOU”#

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. — John 14:16–17 KJV

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. — John 14:23 KJV

Jesus describes the coming gift in dwelling language. The Spirit will not merely visit and depart. He will abide. Jesus then speaks of Father and Son making their abode with the one who loves Him.

The story has moved a long way from the guarded east of Eden. The holy Presence once approached through guarded sanctuary space is now promised as abiding presence within the people who belong to Christ.

6. THE SPIRIT IS THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF INHERITANCE#

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. — Ephesians 1:13–14 KJV

The sequence is precise: heard → believed → in whom → sealed. The Spirit is called the earnest of inheritance: the present gift that guarantees a larger future completion.

This prevents us from treating indwelling as the end of the story. The Spirit is real present possession, but also pledge. What God has begun in His people is moving toward resurrection, inheritance, restored creation, and permanent dwelling.

7. ABIDING PRODUCES FRUIT — NOT SELF-RULE WITH RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE#

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. — John 15:4–5 KJV

The restored life is dependent life. The branch does not become its own vine. Fruit does not prove independence; fruit proves connection.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. — Galatians 5:22–23 KJV

This answers the old temptation at its root. The serpent's offer was creaturely elevation through taking. The Spirit's work restores creaturely fruitfulness through abiding.

8. FROM MASTER-SELF TO MINISTER: RESTORED VOCATION#

A useful way to describe the contrast is master-self versus minister-self. The master-self treats desire as authority and the boundary as an obstacle. The minister receives authority as stewardship and asks what serves the will of the One who sent him.

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. — Matthew 20:25–28 KJV

Jesus does not abolish human vocation; He reorders it. Greatness becomes service. Authority becomes ministry. The Son Himself becomes the controlling pattern: He does not seize, but gives.

9. KINGDOM PRESENCE IN BROKEN PLACES#

A helpful prompt here comes from Tim Mackie’s teaching on the kingdom of God. He has emphasized that Jesus announces God's kingdom not merely as a distant destination, but as God's active rule arriving in the world through Him. That observation is especially useful when we follow the New Testament's own movement from Jesus' ministry to Spirit-indwelt people.

But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. — Luke 11:20 KJV

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. — Matthew 4:23 KJV

Where Jesus goes, the rule of God confronts what deforms God's good creation. He teaches truth where lies rule, heals where sickness deforms, liberates where hostile powers bind, forgives where sin accuses, and restores people to fellowship.

The point is not that every human problem is solved immediately. It is that the King has entered the contested space, and His works reveal what God's reign is like.

10. “GREATER WORKS” AND THE MULTIPLYING WITNESS#

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. — John 14:12 KJV

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. — Acts 1:8 KJV

Jesus' departure does not end the witness; it multiplies its human contact points. The Spirit comes upon believers, and they are sent outward as witnesses. The ministry remains Christ's; the power remains God's; the people become servants through whom the testimony spreads.

This is restored dominion without restored self-rule. Spirit-indwelt image-bearers pray, tell the truth, serve, give, suffer faithfully, reconcile, teach, and bear fruit. They do not become independent sources of life. They participate in the work of the living King.

11. ONE BODY, ONE SPIRIT, ONE HABITATION#

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. — Ephesians 4:4–6 KJV

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. — Ephesians 2:21–22 KJV

The dwelling is personal, but it is not merely private. Paul sees believers being built together. The same Spirit who dwells in the individual forms a people into God's habitation.

This answers another fracture introduced by sin. Self-rule isolates, rivals, accuses, and divides. The Spirit forms one body under one Lord.

12. THE DWELLING STORY IS MOVING TOWARD PERMANENCE#

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. — Revelation 21:2–3 KJV

The Spirit's present indwelling is moving toward a world where dwelling is no longer threatened. The Bible's answer to exile is not merely permission to visit sacred space. It is God dwelling with His people in a restored creation.

But one great question remains before we arrive there. If sin has been borne away, why does the present world still contain death, violence, deception, accusation, and rebellion? Has removal been accomplished but not yet consummated? And if so, what does Scripture mean when it finally says there will be no more death, no more curse, and nothing that defiles?

The next movement of the study must follow the sin that was sent away and ask where the story of removal finally ends.