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Vine Abiders Podcast

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by Chris White

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Theological studies with Chris White an author, filmmaker and podcaster. Holiness, Wesleyan, Early Church. <a href="https://vineabiders.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">vineabiders.substack.com</a>

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July 8, 2026

The Scapegoat in Atonement - Satan's Power of Death is Nullified Through Christ's Decent Into Hades

There is a line in Hebrews that Christians quote often, but I am not sure we have always stopped long enough to ask what it actually means.Hebrews says that Jesus became flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the devil.Hebrews 2:14-15Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.That passage raises several questions.What is “the power of death”?In what sense did Satan have it?How did Jesus’ death destroy the one who had that power?And why would Satan participate in the crucifixion if the crucifixion was the very event that would undo him?That last question is especially important. The New Testament gives us reason to believe that the crucifixion was, in some sense, a mystery hidden from the rulers of this age.1 Corinthians 2:8Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.That verse may refer to earthly rulers, spiritual rulers, or both. Either way, the logic is striking. Had they understood what was happening, they would not have crucified Jesus.So what did they misunderstand?More specifically, what did Satan misunderstand?My proposal is that the answer has been hiding in the Day of Atonement ritual, especially in the part of that ritual Christians often neglect: the scapegoat.The Day of Atonement did not involve only one goat. It involved two. One goat was “for the LORD,” slain, and its blood was brought into the holy place. The other goat was sent away alive, bearing the sins of the people into the wilderness, to Azazel.If Christ fulfills the Day of Atonement, then we should expect Him to fulfill both goats, not merely one. The first goat helps explain Christ’s blood, priesthood, resurrection, and heavenly offering. The second goat, I believe, helps explain His descent into Hades and the defeat of Satan.The scapegoat is the Satan-defeating part of the Day of Atonement.That is the thesis.Blood, Life, and the Logic of AtonementBefore we can talk about the scapegoat, we need to begin with the first goat and the broader logic of atonement.Jacob Milgrom, the great Leviticus scholar, argued that blood functions in the sacrificial system as a kind of ritual detergent. That may sound strange at first, but the logic is biblical. Blood cleanses because blood contains life.Leviticus gives us one of the clearest explanations in Scripture for why blood makes atonement.Leviticus 17:11For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’.The blood is effectual because of the life that is in it.This matters because sin pollutes sacred space. Israel’s sins defile the camp, the tabernacle, and the place where God dwells among His people. If sin leads to death, then it makes sense that life cleanses what death has polluted.This also means that, in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the slaughter of the animal is not itself the whole act of atonement. The animal is slain so that the blood can be obtained. The blood is then applied to the holy place. That application is the atoning act.This is where David Moffitt’s work on Hebrews becomes important. Moffitt has argued that Hebrews does not treat the cross as the whole of Christ’s priestly offering. Christ dies, rises, ascends, and then enters the heavenly sanctuary as the true high priest.Hebrews says:Hebrews 9:11-12But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.And again:Hebrews 9:24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:On this reading, the resurrection is not an afterthought. Christ must rise because a dead priest cannot enter the heavenly holy place. He must ascend because the true sanctuary is in heaven. He must present His blood because atonement involves priestly application, not merely slaughter.That explains one half of the Day of Atonement.But it does not yet explain Hebrews 2.Hebrews does not merely say that Christ makes atonement. It says that through death He destroys the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil.How does the Day of Atonement defeat the devil?A recent scholarly proposal by Katie Marcar turns to Passover and Exodus imagery. In that model, Satan is like Pharaoh, the realm of death is like Egypt, and Christ leads a new exodus out of bondage. I think that typology is valuable. But it still leaves a mechanism question unanswered.How, exactly, is Satan’s power broken?My contention is that the missing mechanism is the second goat.The Forgotten GoatLeviticus 16 describes two goats.Leviticus 16:8-10And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.The first goat is killed. Its blood is taken into the holy place.The second goat is not killed. It is presented alive. The high priest lays both hands on its head, confesses Israel’s sins over it, and sends it away.Leviticus 16:20-22And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.That second goat is not a decorative appendage to the ritual. Leviticus says it is part of the atonement. It bears the people’s sins away.So if Christ fulfills the Day of Atonement, where does He fulfill this goat?The New Testament repeatedly describes Christ in sin-bearing language.Isaiah 53:6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.Isaiah 53:11-12He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.2 Corinthians 5:21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.1 Peter 2:24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.Hebrews 9:28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.This is scapegoat language.Christ does not merely die. He bears sin.The crucial question is where He bears it.The first goat’s blood goes up into the holy place. The second goat goes out, away from the camp, into the wilderness, to Azazel.If Hebrews’ heavenly sanctuary is a real place, and Christ’s priestly ascent is a real movement, then we should at least consider whether the scapegoat movement also has a real fulfillment. Not merely metaphorical. Not merely poetic. Real.Christ bears sin outside the camp. Christ descends into the realm of the dead. Christ carries the sins of His people into the domain associated with Satan, death, and accusation.That is where the scapegoat becomes central.Christ’s Descent Was Victory, Not PunishmentThe descent of Christ into Hades is an ancient Christian doctrine. It is confessed in the Apostles’ Creed. It also appears in several biblical passages.Ephesians 4:8-10Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.1 Peter 3:18-22For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.Romans 10:6-7But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)Matthew 12:40For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.Matthew 27:51-53And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.What is striking about these passages is that Christ is not pictured as a victim being tormented in hell. He is victorious. He descends, leads captivity captive, proclaims victory, and emerges with authority.Revelation makes the outcome explicit.Revelation 1:18I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.Before Christ’s ordeal, Hebrews says the devil had the power of death. After Christ’s ordeal, Christ has the keys of hell and death.Something changed.Christus Victor theology has rightly emphasized the victory of Christ over Satan, death, and the powers. But Christus Victor often does not explain the mechanism. It tells us Christ conquered, but not always how.The scapegoat supplies that missing mechanism.Azazel and the Return of SinThe Hebrew text of Leviticus 16 is uncomfortable.Many English translations say the second goat is “for the scapegoat.” But the Hebrew word is Azazel. The lots are cast: one for Yahweh, one for Azazel.That parallel matters.If one goat is “for the LORD,” and the other is “for Azazel,” then Azazel looks less like a vague location and more like a personal being. This is why scholars such as Jacob Milgrom argued that Azazel is best understood as a demonic figure, not merely a cliff or a wasteland.The later idea that the goat was pushed off a cliff is not in Leviticus. Leviticus emphasizes that the goat is presented alive and sent away. It is not sacrificed to Azazel. It is not a gift to a demon. It is a living sin-bearer sent into the wilderness.Second Temple Jewish literature strengthens this connection. I am not treating 1 Enoch as Scripture. But it is an important witness to ancient Jewish thought, and Jude itself quotes from Enochic tradition. In 1 Enoch 10, Azazel is connected with the corruption of the earth.1 Enoch 10:8And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.That line is crucial: “to him ascribe all sin.”1 Enoch also depicts Azazel as bound in the desert.1 Enoch 10:4And again the Lord said to Raphael: Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein.Now Leviticus 16 begins to take on a sharper logic.Why send a goat laden with sin into the wilderness to Azazel?There are two possible explanations.The first is what I call the “trashcan view.” On this view, Israel’s sins are simply being removed from the camp. God’s presence dwells in the midst of Israel, sin pollutes the sacred space, so the sins must be taken outside and dumped far away. Azazel is incidental. The wilderness is the trash heap.The second is what I call the “return to sender view.” On this view, the goat is not merely removing sin from Israel. It is returning sin to its true source. If Azazel is the one to whom sin is ascribed, then the goat is sent to him because the sin belongs to him.This does not mean Israel is innocent in the sense that they never committed the sins. They did. But the ritual transfers the confessed sins away from Israel and sends them back to the one who introduced corruption, deception, and death into the world.In that sense, the scapegoat is not a sacrifice to Azazel. It is a return.“Here is the sin. It is yours.”This is where the scapegoat begins to explain the defeat of Satan.What Is Satan’s Power of Death?If Christ defeats Satan by bearing sin into Hades, we still have to ask why that would defeat him.To answer that, we need to understand the nature of Satan’s power.Hebrews says Satan had “the power of death.” But this does not mean Satan is omnipotent, independent, or equal to God. Scripture consistently portrays Satan as powerful but limited. He acts, but he acts by permission. He has authority, but that authority is bounded.Job gives us one of the clearest examples.Job 1:12And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.Satan may act against Job, but only within limits.Jesus says something similar to Peter.Luke 22:31-32And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.Satan desires Peter, but Christ intercedes.The New Testament also speaks of Satan’s ongoing dominion in the world.2 Corinthians 4:4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.John 12:31Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.Ephesians 6:12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.1 John 5:19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.In the temptation of Jesus, Satan even claims that the kingdoms of the world have been delivered to him.Luke 4:6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.Jesus does not answer by saying, “That is not true.” He resists the temptation, but the claim itself appears to have some real basis.So Satan has authority. But what kind?The first piece is temptation.Satan is called “the tempter.”Matthew 4:1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.Matthew 4:3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.1 Thessalonians 3:5For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.1 Corinthians 7:5Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.Satan tempts.But temptation is not the whole story. He tempts so that he can accuse. He accuses so that he can claim death.That is the chain:Temptation leads to sin.Sin leads to accusation.Accusation leads to death.This is why Satan’s power of death is sin-conditioned. He cannot simply kill at random. He must have a claim. He needs guilt. He needs a record.The biblical connection between sin and death is everywhere.Genesis 2:17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.Romans 6:23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.Romans 5:12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:Ezekiel 18:4Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.Satan’s power is not raw power. It is juridical power. It is legal power. It is accusatory power.He has the power of death because sinners really are guilty, and death really is the sentence attached to sin.Testing, Temptation, and the Strange Permission of GodThis raises another difficult question.Why would God allow Satan to tempt anyone?Scripture repeatedly presents trials as tests. God does not tempt anyone with evil, but He does permit testing. He permits circumstances in which faithfulness is proven or exposed.Abraham is tested with Isaac.Genesis 22:12And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.Israel is tested in the wilderness.Deuteronomy 8:2And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Peter says trials prove faith.1 Peter 1:6-7Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.Revelation even describes the devil casting believers into prison so that they may be tested.Revelation 2:10Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.James holds both truths together. Trials come, and they matter. But God is not the author of evil temptation.James 1:2-4My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.James 1:12-13Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.There is a tension here, but it is a biblical tension.God tests. Satan tempts. Sometimes the same event can be described from both angles.David’s census is the classic example.2 Samuel 24:1And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.1 Chronicles 21:1And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.The same event is attributed, in different senses, to God and to Satan. God permits the test. Satan performs the temptation.Even Jesus’ wilderness temptation follows this pattern.Matthew 4:1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. The devil tempts Him there.This is not because Satan is God’s faithful servant from the beginning. The temptation in Eden was rebellion, not obedience. Satan was cursed for it.Genesis 3:15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.But after Eden, Satan’s rebellion creates a terrible new arrangement. Humanity now possesses the knowledge of good and evil. Man’s eyes are opened. Man is accountable. Satan, the deceiver, now has access to weak humanity. He tempts. Humans sin. Sin brings death. Satan accuses.That is his power.The Handwriting Against UsNow we can return to the cross.If Satan’s power depends on sin, guilt, accusation, and death, then the cancellation of sin destroys his claim.This is exactly what Colossians 2 says.Colossians 2:13-15And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.The order matters.First, we are forgiven all trespasses.Second, the handwriting against us is blotted out.Third, the principalities and powers are disarmed.Why are they disarmed?Because the record is gone.The “handwriting” is the record of debt, the charge sheet, the accusatory document. Satan’s power rests on that record. If the debt is canceled, the accuser loses his weapon.This is where the scapegoat mechanism becomes so powerful.Christ bears our sins. Those sins are not His personally. He “knew no sin.” Yet He is made sin for us. He is numbered with the transgressors. He carries what belongs to us.Then He descends into Hades.But in doing so, He is not merely descending as a victim. He is descending as the true scapegoat. He carries the transferred sins into the realm of death, to the one whose power depends upon those sins, and returns them to their ultimate source.The sins are removed from us.The record is canceled.The accuser is disarmed.Satan’s deed claim collapses because the guilt on which it depended has been forgiven, removed, and returned.That, I believe, is the mechanism by which Christ destroys the one who had the power of death.Why Did Satan Take the Bait?But this creates another problem.If Christ’s descent into Hades completed the scapegoat movement and disarmed Satan, why would Satan do it?Why would Satan kill Jesus?Why would Satan take Him into the realm of the dead?Why would Satan participate in the very event that would destroy his own power?The answer must be that Satan was deceived.But deceived how?Some versions of Christus Victor suggest that Satan knew Jesus was sinless but killed Him anyway, not realizing that he had no right to hold a sinless man in Hades. There is truth in that. Satan could not hold the sinless Christ. Christ’s victory in Hades is real.But I think we can go one step further.If Satan’s power is sin-conditioned, then Satan would not knowingly kill a sinless man as though he were guilty. That would be an abuse of his own authority. It would be reckless, and Satan is not stupid.A more plausible explanation is that Satan believed he had finally succeeded in bringing Jesus under sin.He misread imputed sin as personal guilt.He saw sin on Christ and thought it was Christ’s own.That was the trap.Satan’s Campaign Against JesusFrom the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Satan tries to tempt Him.Matthew 4:1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.The temptation fails. But Luke adds an important detail.Luke 4:13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.Satan does not give up. He leaves until a more opportune time.This makes sense. Satan knows the promise of Genesis 3:15. He knows that the seed of the woman will crush his head. When Jesus appears, Satan recognizes a threat. If he can get Jesus to sin, he can bring Him under the same death power as everyone else.That is Satan’s ordinary strategy.Tempt.Accuse.Kill.But Jesus does not sin.The Gospels repeatedly show people attempting to kill Jesus before His hour has come, and they cannot do it. Sometimes they try to stone Him. Sometimes they try to throw Him from a cliff. But He passes through their midst. His hour had not yet come.Those failed attempts may have taught Satan something. If Jesus says things that would be blasphemous if He were not who He claimed to be, and yet death cannot touch Him, then perhaps those things are not blasphemy. If Jesus acts on the Sabbath in ways that would be unlawful if He were not Lord of the Sabbath, and yet He remains untouchable, then perhaps He truly is Lord of the Sabbath.Satan’s direct campaign fails.So, I suggest, he turns to an indirect one.The Judas GambitThis part of the argument is more speculative. It is not necessary to accept this in order to accept the larger scapegoat thesis. The core claim is that Christ defeats Satan through the scapegoat mechanism: He bears sin, descends into Hades, returns sin to its source, cancels the record, and disarms the accuser.The Judas piece is an attempt to explain how Satan may have misunderstood what was happening.Here is the proposal.Having failed to make Jesus sin directly, Satan tries to implicate Him through Judas.Jesus chose the Twelve after a night of prayer.Luke 6:12-13And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;If one of those chosen disciples becomes a traitor, Satan may think he has found an angle. Perhaps Jesus chose wrongly. Perhaps Jesus failed to hear the Father. Perhaps the betrayal of Judas can be charged back to Jesus’ account.But the Gospel of John repeatedly insists that Jesus knew about Judas from the beginning.John 6:64But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.John 6:70Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?John 13:11For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.John 13:18I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.John 17:12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.John seems very concerned to tell us that Judas was not a mistake.Jesus did not choose wrongly. He knew. The betrayal itself fulfilled Scripture.That matters because it answers the very charge Satan may have hoped to bring.Satan enters Judas personally.Luke 22:3-6Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.John also says:John 13:27And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.Why does Satan enter Judas?It is not merely to locate Jesus. Jesus often went to Gethsemane. The authorities could have found Him. Judas had already agreed to betray Him before Satan entered him in this final way.The point was not merely location.The point was betrayal.The kiss mattered.In Satan’s mind, the betrayal may have been the mechanism by which he thought he had finally compromised Jesus.Gethsemane and Imputed SinThe timing is fascinating.Satan enters Judas at the Last Supper. Judas departs. Then comes Gethsemane. Then Judas returns with the soldiers.Gethsemane is bracketed by Judas.This suggests that something crucial happens in the garden.I am not saying the cross is unimportant. Of course not. Christ bears our sins on the tree. But I am suggesting that the imputation of sin may begin in Gethsemane.There, Jesus is overwhelmed.Matthew 26:38Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.John gives us a similar window into the anguish of that hour.John 12:27Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.And in the same context:John 12:31Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.The ruler of this world is being cast out.The question is how.If the scapegoat thesis is correct, then Gethsemane may be the moment when the sins of the world are placed upon Christ. Satan, returning in Judas, sees Christ under the weight of sin and misreads it. He thinks it is personal guilt. He thinks his Judas gambit has worked.There is at least biblical precedent for sin or iniquity being visible in a heavenly court setting.Zechariah 3:1-4And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.Iniquity appears as filthy garments in the presence of the accuser.So perhaps Satan sees the sin-bearing Christ and thinks, “He is guilty.”Or perhaps Satan does not see it directly, but infers it from the fact that, for the first time, the execution is allowed to proceed. Before this, His hour had not come. Now the hour has come. The arrest happens. The trial proceeds. The scourging happens. The crucifixion happens.Satan thinks he has won.But he has not won.He has carried the true scapegoat into the realm of death.He has brought into his own domain the sin that will be removed from us, returned to its source, and used to cancel the record by which he held mankind in bondage.The trap is sprung.The Illegal Death of the Sinless OneThis also means Satan killed Jesus unjustly.Christ had no personal sin.The sins on Him were imputed, not His own.Satan mistook transferred sin for actual guilt. He treated the sinless Christ as though He were a sinner. In doing so, he exceeded his authority.There may be a parallel here with Psalm 82, where rulers lose authority because they judge unjustly.Psalm 82:1-7God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.I do not think Satan’s abuse of authority is the whole mechanism of his defeat. The deeper mechanism is forgiveness. Colossians says the record is canceled, and the rulers and authorities are disarmed.Still, Satan’s unjust killing of Christ may be part of the public shame of the powers. They overreached. They judged unjustly. They condemned the Innocent One.And by doing so, they unknowingly completed the very movement that destroyed their claim.The Two Goats TogetherNow the pieces can be brought together.The first goat explains the cleansing movement.Christ dies, rises, ascends, and enters the true heavenly sanctuary as high priest. His blood, His life, is presented in the true holy place. The heavenly sanctuary is cleansed. Atonement is made.The second goat explains the removal and return movement.Christ bears sin. The sins of His people are placed upon Him. He is driven outside the camp. He descends into the realm of the dead. He carries the sins to the one whose power depends upon them, and those sins are removed from us.The first goat goes up.The second goat goes out and down.The first cleanses the sanctuary.The second removes the sins and returns them to their source.The first explains the priestly logic of Hebrews.The second explains the defeat of Satan in Hebrews 2.Together, they form one atoning work.This means the cross cannot be isolated from the resurrection, ascension, heavenly offering, descent into Hades, and harrowing of death. The atonement is not less than the cross, but it is more than the moment of death considered in isolation.The cross is the center, but the whole ordeal matters.Christ dies.Christ descends.Christ rises.Christ ascends.Christ presents His blood.Christ disarms the accuser.Christ takes the keys.Why This MattersThis proposal matters because it gives real content to biblical claims we often leave vague.When Hebrews says Christ destroyed the one who had the power of death, it means Satan’s death claim was broken.When Colossians says the handwriting against us was nailed to the cross, it means the accuser’s record was canceled.When Revelation says Christ has the keys of hell and death, it means the authority of death has changed hands.When Leviticus sends the scapegoat to Azazel, it is not an embarrassing primitive leftover. It is a shadow of Christ’s victory.Christ did not merely suffer under Satan.He deceived the deceiver.Satan thought he was dragging a guilty man into death. In reality, he was receiving the sin-bearing scapegoat. He thought the imputed sin on Christ was Christ’s own guilt. In reality, it was our sin being carried away. He thought the crucifixion was his triumph. In reality, it was the cancellation of the record by which he held mankind captive.This is why the descent into Hades is not a strange appendix to the gospel.It is victory.Christ enters the realm of death, not as one conquered by death, but as the one who conquers it from the inside. He enters bearing sin, but not His own. He enters under the accusation, but not under guilt. He enters the house of the strong man and plunders it.And He leaves with the keys.That is the good news.The accuser has been disarmed.The record has been canceled.The sins have been borne away.The scapegoat has gone to Azazel.And Jesus Christ is alive forevermore. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://vineabiders.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">vineabiders.substack.com</a>

June 16, 2026

The Resurrection Is More Important Than You Think

If you have ever sat through an Easter sermon and walked away faintly dissatisfied with the explanation of why the resurrection matters, you are not alone. Preachers rightly treat it as the hinge of the Christian faith. Paul says that if it did not happen, we are still in our sins, so it clearly has something to do with the atonement. And yet the reasons usually given for it always struck me as thin.I once thought I understood this doctrine well. After a season of reading (the books are listed at the end), I have come to think my old view was not so much wrong as badly incomplete. The reality is stranger and far more important than I had been taught. Let me start with the three answers you have probably heard, and then build toward what I think is actually going on.Three Familiar AnswersFirst, that the resurrection vindicates Jesus’s teaching. Tim Keller put it crisply: if Jesus rose, you have to accept everything he said; if he did not, none of it matters. I more or less agree, but I would hesitate to make rising from the dead the thing that certifies a teacher’s words. The Antichrist, by my reading, will appear to rise from the dead too. More to the point, I cannot find an explicit teaching in Scripture that says we should believe Jesus because he rose. It feels more like worldly wisdom than a biblical argument. I will give Keller the benefit of the doubt, but it does not get to the heart of things.Second, that the resurrection proves Christ’s death accomplished salvation. John Piper frames it as proof that the death of Jesus was an all-sufficient price, that without the resurrection his death was a failure. In this model the resurrection is essentially a receipt: God’s wrath has been satisfied, so he raises his Son to show the transaction cleared. It is intensely cross-centered, and that is exactly what I want to challenge. The atonement could not have been completed until Jesus rose and ascended. If that is true, then the resurrection cannot merely be proof that the work was already finished at the cross. It is part of the work itself.Third, that the resurrection gives us hope of our own. This is the one you hear on Easter most often and at funerals, and it is the one I fully agree with. Christ is the firstfruits; because he rose, we have solid hope that we will too. But there is far more to say, and the deeper reasons are what I want to walk through.What Is the Atonement, Exactly?Before we can say why the resurrection matters, we have to ask a question most Christians never think to ask. What is the atonement?Most people would answer that it is Jesus dying for our sins on the cross. That is not wrong, but it mistakes the opening act for the whole drama. In the logic of the Old Testament sacrificial system, the death of the victim was never the moment of atonement. It was the preparation for it.This is not a controversial claim among scholars of Israel’s sacrificial system. The slaughter of the animal, by itself, accomplished nothing. Its purpose was to obtain the blood, and the purpose of the blood was to be carried to a sacred place and applied. The application was the atoning act, whether that meant sprinkling blood on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement or on the various implements of the tabernacle. Leviticus 17:11 is about the only place in the Bible that explains why this works:‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’The operative idea is that the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.. We meet this theme early in Scripture, in the severe prohibition against eating blood. Blood carries life, and that is precisely why it makes atonement. Atonement is fundamentally about cleansing, and life cleanses because what it cleanses is the opposite of life, which is death.Here is the picture, and it is worth holding onto. At the center of the tabernacle dwelt God’s own presence, the pillar of cloud and fire between the cherubim. I take this to be the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who will one day dwell in the temple of our bodies. The connection is close to one-to-one, and you will not fully grasp what the New Testament says about the Spirit until you see that the Spirit was that pillar of fire.Sin, which leads to death, defiled the place where this presence dwelt. (Leviticus 16:16–19)Atonement was the cleansing that kept it habitable, so that the Spirit would remain in Israel’s midst. When the nation sank into sin and the cleansing lapsed, the presence departed.So in the old system, atonement was not finished until the blood reached the sacred object. On the Day of Atonement the high priest, having first purified himself so he would not die, carried the blood into the Holy of Holies for one purpose: to place it on the mercy seat and withdraw. Until the blood touched that lid, no atonement had been made. Hold that thought, because it is about to do a great deal of work.The Lid of the ArkIf atonement requires blood on the mercy seat, then atonement cannot have been completed at the cross, because there was no Ark of the Covenant at Golgotha. That is not a clever objection of mine. It is the very point the author of Hebrews builds his argument around, and it is why Jesus had to ascend to where the true mercy seat is.The Hebrew name for that lid is kapporeth, from the same root that gives us Yom Kippur. It means, roughly, to atone. The Day of Atonement is the day, and the kapporeth is the place, of atonement. The phrase is almost circular: atonement is made on the place of atonement. The lid is so central that its very name is atonement.The New Testament writers refer to that same object with the Greek word hilasterion. Translated as “mercy seat,” it renders the Hebrew faithfully. Translated as “atonement,” it is also fair, since that is what the word carried. But some translations render it “propitiation,” meaning the satisfaction of a god’s wrath, and that I think is a mistake. Many of the translators, including those behind the King James, were Calvinists for whom atonement simply was the satisfaction of wrath, so substituting one word for the other cost them nothing. It costs us a great deal, because it smuggles a whole theory of the atonement into a word that never meant it.Hebrews and the Heavenly TabernacleThe book of Hebrews was written, in part, to explain how atonement works, and the author is insistent on a point modern readers tend to spiritualize away: there is a real tabernacle in heaven. The one Moses built was a copy and shadow of it. When I have tried to describe this to people, they reach for “in a spiritual sense,” but the writer of Hebrews means something more concrete. The cleansing capable of pouring God’s Spirit out on all flesh, as happened at Pentecost, could only be accomplished by a sacrifice offered not in an earthly sanctuary but in the heavenly original. He grounds this in Moses himself:Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.And he presses it further: Christ entered not the holy places made with hands, the mere figures of the true, but heaven itself, to appear before God for us. Whatever reality you grant the earthly Ark, Hebrews ranks it below the heavenly one, which is the real thing.Around this the author builds a careful case. First he must show that Jesus can be a high priest at all, since he came from Judah, not Levi. His answer is that Jesus belongs to a different and older order, the priesthood of Melchizedek. Then he establishes the real sanctuary above. Then he explains why a new covenant was needed in the first place: the old one was limited at every point, by the mortality of its priests, the earthliness of its tabernacle, the blood of animals, all of which capped how far its cleansing could reach. A greater atonement required a greater priest and a greater place. He brings the threads together in chapter nine:But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?The whole new covenant hinges on a logical fact: that Jesus is a real high priest, and that there is a real place in heaven for him to do his work. This, I suspect, is what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 15:17, that if Christ is not raised, our faith is vain and we are still in our sins. Read against Piper, the difference is sharp. For Piper the verse means the resurrection confirms a finished transaction. For Paul it means something stronger: you are not forgiven unless Jesus is raised. That can only be true if the dying was not the whole of the atonement. A Christ who died but never rose and ascended is a sacrifice slaughtered but never presented, blood that never reached the mercy seat, an atonement left unfinished.There is one more strand here I want to flag without overreaching. A high priest also maintains the covenant through ongoing intercession, which Hebrews ties to Christ’s endless life: he is able to save completely because he ever lives to intercede. I do not yet understand this aspect as well as I would like, so I will only note the obvious point. A dead savior cannot intercede. The resurrection is the condition of his ongoing priestly work as much as of his finished sacrifice.How Jesus Becomes LordThe second reason runs through the whole New Testament and is easy to miss: the enthronement, the way Jesus comes into his lordship.This is delicate, because in one sense Jesus was already Lord before his ordeal on earth. Yet the New Testament returns again and again, not in a stray verse here or there but as a steady theme, to the claim that through his resurrection he is given something. He is appointed heir. He is declared Son of God with power. The passages are worth reading rather than summarizing, so let me set several of them down.Romans 1:4:And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.The verse ties the declaration to the resurrection. Was Jesus the Son of God before that? Yes, and we will come to it. But notice the qualifier: Son of God with power. Another important passage is as follows:And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. Philippians 2:8-10The hinge is “wherefore.” Paul does not say Jesus was exalted alongside his humbling but because of it. The exaltation is the Father’s response to the obedience of the cross, and a reward genuinely earned cannot be something he already possessed in full. So this is not a return to a position temporarily set aside. It is an exaltation earned through suffering and issuing in a rule acknowledged everywhere, exactly the pattern the argument has been tracing. The one caveat: this need not mean the eternal Son changed in nature. The change is one of office and exercise, which is why it fits Orr’s middle view rather than the stronger claim that Jesus was not Lord at all before Easter.Ephesians 1:20 through 22 makes the same move more fully, speaking of what God accomplished in Christ:Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.Here the two themes arrive together, resurrection and enthronement at the right hand, and Paul tells us what the new authority amounts to. It is dominion. Nothing in Christ’s nature changed. What changed was the throne and the power that go with it.The picture I keep returning to is a king and his son. In the ordinary course of things the crown prince is royal by birth but does not rule until the old king dies and authority passes to him. They are of one substance; the son will be king; but the power transfers at a moment. The analogy breaks at the obvious place, since God never dies, so instead the Father voluntarily hands the Son all authority, in effect saying, “You take care of it.” And this happens only after a particular sequence: resurrection, ascension, enthronement.Hebrews 5:8 through 9 carries the same logic, that something was gained through the ordeal itself:Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.Whatever else is happening there, the Son who needed nothing nevertheless learned obedience through suffering and then became the author of eternal salvation. The nature held constant; an office was entered. Jesus says it of himself in Revelation 3:21, speaking to the churches:To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.He had to overcome in order to sit down with his Father on the throne. A change comes through the cross.Revelation 4 and 5 dramatize the whole thing. In chapter four the Father sits enthroned, worshiped without ceasing by angels crying “Holy, holy, holy,” surrounded by twenty-four elders, holding in his right hand a scroll sealed with seven seals. Then the scene turns on a crisis:And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.There is weeping in heaven, because no one is worthy. Then comes the resolution, announced by one of the elders: the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed. What John actually sees, though, is not a lion but a Lamb:And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.Before this the living creatures and elders had sung “Holy, holy, holy” to the Father. Now they fall down before the Lamb and sing a new song:Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.The slain Lamb becomes worthy to take the scroll because it was slain, and recieve the dominion of all things. Scholars handle the obvious tension here in different ways, and Peter Orr has usefully mapped them. At one end, Christ is fully Lord throughout and merely lays his lordship aside at the cross, so that the resurrection discloses what was always true without adding anything new. At the other end, the pre-Easter references to his lordship are anticipatory, so that when Jesus accepts the title “Lord” he is claiming what he will only truly hold once he receives the throne; the enthronement is what actually makes him Lord. In between, and this is where Orr himself lands, Jesus is truly Lord beforehand but enters his lordship in a fuller and more real way afterward. The one born Christ and Lord, whose lordship was silenced at the crucifixion, is made Lord and Christ through his literal enthronement at God’s right hand, like a prince who is royal by birth yet not king until the day of his crowning. Nothing changes in his nature, only his coronation.Because he humbled himself to the point of death, God highly exalted him. The resurrection and exaltation let him enter the full reality of his Davidic role.The Spirit Withheld Until the King Was CrownedThe third reason is the most surprising of all. The outpouring of the Spirit was deliberately held back until the King was enthroned.It is not simply that Pentecost had to wait for the cross. Jesus says something stranger than that. He tells the disciples plainly that it is to their advantage that he go away, because only if he departs will the Spirit come to them. Read that slowly. His leaving is not an unfortunate cost that the Spirit’s arrival makes up for. His leaving is the precondition. The implicit claim is bold: the universal outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh depended on Jesus being glorified, ascended, and seated on the throne. The whole case turns on Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, his explanation to a stunned crowd of exactly what they are seeing and hearing.One detail first, because it knits this section back to the first. The flames that rest over the disciples’ heads are not a random sign. The pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness and dwelt above the Ark was God’s own Spirit, and that is why fire attends the Spirit here as it did there. What had once filled a single sanctuary now rests on people, and it can do so because the atonement accomplished in the heavenly sanctuary has made them clean enough to hold it. The fire on their heads is the visible sign that the cleansing worked.Peter opens by reaching for Joel: God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh, on sons and daughters, young and old, menservants and maidservants alike. The point is that an ancient and almost impossible hope has finally landed. Under the old order the Spirit came upon a prophet here, a king there, and rested on him for a task. Moses had wished aloud that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that God would put his Spirit on every one of them. The prophets had gone further and promised it: a new covenant, with the law written on the heart and a Spirit set within, so that obedience would finally come from the inside out. The crowd at Pentecost would have known those promises well. Peter’s announcement is that the wish has come true in front of them, and then he tells them precisely how it happened:Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear... Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.The sequence is exact, and every step matters. Jesus is exalted to the right hand. There, in that enthroned state, he receives the promised Spirit from the Father. From there he pours it out, and the pouring is the very thing the crowd can see and hear. And because they can see it, Peter says, they may know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. The outpouring is not merely a blessing that happens to follow the enthronement. It is the public evidence of it. This is the same Jesus who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, overcame, became worthy to take the scroll, and sat down on the throne. The Spirit falling on the disciples is the proof, visible to anyone standing in Jerusalem that morning, that he is seated.If that inference feels like a stretch built out of one sermon, John states the principle flatly and removes all doubt. Commenting on an earlier promise of Jesus that rivers of living water would flow from the believer, John adds an editorial note:(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)This is as plain a confirmation as the argument could ask for. Why had the Spirit not yet been given? Not because the disciples were unready, not because the time was not ripe in some vague sense, but for one specific reason: because Jesus was not yet glorified. The giving of the Spirit is made directly contingent on Christ’s glorification. And we already know from Peter when that glorification occurred. It was his sitting down at the right hand of God, the moment of enthronement, which could only follow the ascension, which could only follow the resurrection. So John 7:39 supplies the missing link in the chain. Peter shows us the enthroned Christ pouring out the Spirit; John tells us that the Spirit could not come at all until that glorification had happened. The two passages lock together. Pentecost, and I would argue the whole purpose of the new covenant, waited on the throne.Max Turner names the mechanism behind all of this as well as anyone:You cannot pour out the Spirit as the executive power of your reign until you are reigning. The throne must be occupied before the Spirit can flow from it. The outpouring is not a separate event that happens to come after the enthronement. It is the active expression of enthronement itself.There is one last implication, and it is the sharpest. Every one of those prophecies said that God would pour out his Spirit. It was always God’s promise, God’s act, God’s prerogative. So when Peter stands up and says that Jesus has poured this out, he is saying far more than that Jesus is enthroned. He is identifying Jesus as the one doing what only God said he would do. If Jesus is the agent of an outpouring that was always God’s to give, then Jesus stands in the place of God, at his right hand, fulfilling a divine promise as only the Son could. The Spirit at Pentecost is proof of the throne, and the throne, in turn, is a quiet but unmistakable claim to his divinity.Pulling It TogetherThree things, then, that the usual Easter sermon leaves out.The atonement was completed in heaven. In the logic of Leviticus, it was never made at the moment of slaughter but when the high priest carried the life-bearing blood into the holy place and set it on the mercy seat. The cross is the slaughter. Hebrews insists the heavenly sanctuary is a real place, and into it the risen Christ carried himself as the offering. This is why Paul can say that without the resurrection we are still in our sins. A sacrifice slaughtered but never presented atones for nothing.Something happened to Jesus’s status at the ascension. He is made Lord, declared Son with power, given the name above every name, seated with all authority in heaven and earth. The eternal Son did not become something he was not. The King who laid his lordship aside at the cross entered its full and active exercise, a crown prince crowned at last.The Spirit was always meant to be universal. Moses wished for it, Joel promised it, Jeremiah and Ezekiel made it the heart of the new covenant. But a Spirit poured out on all flesh required a universal cleansing, which only the completed atonement could provide, and it required a throne, since the Spirit is how an enthroned Lord rules and stays present to his people.So the cross opens the door, but the risen Christ carries the offering through it. The ascended Christ takes the throne, and from that throne the reigning Lord pours out his Spirit and draws his people into union with himself. Easter is not where the story ends. It is where the risen Christ steps through the doorway into the true sanctuary, and from there reaches back to bring us with him.Further ReadingThe ideas in this post lean heavily on the work of several scholars. If you want to go deeper, these are the books that shaped my thinking, roughly in order of how central they are to what I argued here.David M. Moffitt, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Atonement-Resurrection-Epistle-Supplements-Testamentum/dp/9004258183">Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews</a>. The technical work at the heart of everything I said about atonement being completed in heaven. Moffitt argues that in Hebrews, Jesus’s death does not by itself accomplish atonement. It is the presentation of his resurrected life and blood in the heavenly sanctuary that does. This is the dense, academic version, but it is the foundation.David M. Moffitt, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Atonement-Moffitt/dp/1540966232">Rethinking the Atonement: New Perspectives on Jesus’s Death, Resurrection, and Ascension</a>. A more accessible collection that gathers and extends his argument, reaching beyond Hebrews into Matthew, Acts, and 1 Corinthians 15, with a foreword by N. T. Wright. If you only read one Moffitt book, this is the one to start with.Patrick Schreiner, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Ascension-Christ-Recovering-Neglected-Snapshots/dp/1683593979">The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a Neglected Doctrine</a>. A short, readable book on why the ascension belongs in the gospel itself, not as an afterthought. Schreiner works through Christ’s ongoing ministry as prophet, priest, and king. A great on-ramp to this whole subject if the others feel too heavy.Peter C. Orr, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Exalted-Above-Heavens-Ascended-Biblical/dp/0830826483">Exalted Above the Heavens: The Risen and Ascended Christ</a>. The source for my discussion of how Jesus “becomes” Lord, and the survey of scholarly views on what changed at the enthronement. Orr looks at the exalted Christ through his identity, his location, and his present activity.Max Turner, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Power-High-Israels-Restoration-Luke-Acts/dp/1498225551">Power from on High: The Spirit in Israel’s Restoration and Witness in Luke-Acts</a>. The basis for the third movement of the post, that the Spirit could not be poured out until the King was enthroned. Turner’s line about the Spirit as the executive power of Christ’s reign is drawn from this work.Related ReadingMatthew Thiessen, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Forces-Death-Matthew-Thiessen/dp/1540964876">Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism</a>. Not cited directly above, but closely connected to the post’s underlying logic that atonement is about life cleansing death. Thiessen shows how the Gospels depict Jesus destroying the forces of death and impurity rather than abolishing the Jewish law. Worth reading alongside the others. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://vineabiders.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">vineabiders.substack.com</a>

May 16, 2026

The Death of My Wife, Connie | Faith, Cancer, Trials, and Endurance

In this personal podcast, I talk about the death of my wife, Connie, after her battle with a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer. I share memories of Connie’s extraordinary life, our marriage, her faith, and the many lessons I learned through suffering, caregiving, cancer, prayer, and grief. I also discuss the realities of the cancer industry, the spiritual nature of trials, and the peace that can come through enduring hardship faithfully.C.E. White Books on Amazon: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/C.E.-White/author/B077V7FVPT">https://www.amazon.com/stores/C.E.-White/author/B077V7FVPT</a> This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://vineabiders.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">vineabiders.substack.com</a>

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