Jesus the Lamb of God

Jesus, The Lamb of God

Part One

This begins a series of posts about the work Jesus finished at the cross. We will start with the foreshadowing found in the Old Testament and then see its fulfillment in the New. So, we will get started by beginning at the beginning.

After Eve and Adam had eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and had thus separated themselves from relationship with God, they became aware of their nakedness. They judged that this was not good, but evil, so they tried to cover their nakedness (sin) using leaves. This was their attempt to appear righteous, but it was not an acceptable solution. In Genesis 3:21 (KJV) we read, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”

This is significant. According to Hebrews 9:22 (KJV) There is no remission (or forgiveness) of sin without the shedding of blood. To make coats of skins, animals had to die. Blood had to be shed. We know from Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” Where there is sin, life must be forfeit.

There is a connection between life and blood. We see this laid out in The Law, for example, Deuteronomy 12:23 (KJV) says this: “Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.
Leviticus 17:10-14 (KJV) elaborates on the concept. Here is an excerpt of the most pertinent sections: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.” and “For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

Blood and life are linked. Only blood can atone for sin. Blood is what secures a covenant as well. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He walked between the halves of a carcass. This indicated that if He violated the covenant, He would forfeit His life. Since God is the source of life and His life cannot end, neither could His covenant with Abraham end.

It is the same for us today. We live under the New Covenant with God. Like God’s covenant with Abraham, it is a unilateral covenant. It is a one-sided covenant under the terms of which only God is bound and held responsible. That’s good news for us because we are completely unable to keep our end of covenants that require perfection.

So, blood (life) is the required payment for sin as we see typified in Leviticus 5:9 (KJV) where we read, “And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering.”

Scripture points to Jesus, and God paints the picture of what Jesus will do even more clearly in Exodus 29:32-33 (KJV) where He says, “And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.”

The flesh of the sacrifice is to be eaten, as is the consecrated bread. The priest is to take it into himself. Verse 33 tells us that this is done to consecrate and to sanctify the priests, and it tells us that the flesh (and the bread) are holy.

Under the old covenant there were many laws about not touching unclean things and if you did touch them, you became unclean. Yet we know that Jesus touched lepers, and He was not made unclean. Jesus even taught, in Matthew 15:11 (KJV), “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” This made the Pharisees angry because the Law prohibited eating certain foods, and Jesus was saying that didn’t matter.

The point I want to make is this. Under the Law, touching unclean things made a person unclean, but under the new covenant touching what is holy, makes one holy. That might be something you need to consider for a while but hang in there with me and as we continue, I think you will see it.

Now let us get to the point of all this.

You probably remember the final plague brought upon the Egyptians before God released the Hebrews from bondage. Here is a refresher from Exodus 12:12 (KJV). “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.”

In the next verse, God provides explicit instructions about how the Hebrews will avoid this judgement. Exodus 12:13 (KJV) “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”

Earlier verses in Exodus 12 tell us what blood He was talking about.

Here they are: Exodus 12:5-8 (KJV)
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

The Israelites were to paint their doorways with blood. We have already seen that blood is life. They were protected from death because they were figuratively covered by blood; covered by life. In addition, they were to take the flesh of the lamb into themselves by eating all of it. This was called the Passover. God would pass over each house that was covered by the blood; each house that contained people who had eaten the flesh of the lamb. The blood of the sacrifice provided atonement. The flesh of the sacrifice provided sustenance for the journey to the promised land that lay ahead. The Israelites were contained within the place covered by the blood and the lamb of the sacrifice was contained in them.

This was a shadow of what happens when we come to belief in Christ. We get the benefit of His perfect blood. His blood does not simply cover sins, it takes them away altogether. This is why we read in 1 John 2:2 (KJV), “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Propitiation is a fully satisfying sacrifice. The blood of animals could never do that, as we see in Hebrews 10:4 (KJV) where we read, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”

In the next installment we will continue by seeing how we are not only forgiven forever by the blood of Jesus but sustained forever by His presence within us.

Grace and peace to you.

Larry