Jesus, the Lamb of God

After Adam and Eve 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. Using their newfound knowledge, they judged that this was not good, but evil. Therefore, they used leaves in an attempt to cover their sin. 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, blood had to be shed, animals had to die.

We know from Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. Where there is sin, life must be forfeit. There is also a connection between life and blood. This is made clear in The Law. 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: in saying, “10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 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. 12 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. 13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. 14 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 also what secures a covenant. 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’s the same for us today. We live under the New Covenant with God. Like God’s covenant with Abraham, it’s a unilateral covenant. It’s 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, as we read in Romans 6:23 earlier, the wages of sin is death. Blood (life) is the required payment for sin as we see typified in Leviticus 5:9 (KJV) “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) “32 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. 33 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. It is easy to see the picture of Jesus in the flesh and the bread. We will see this even more clearly as we progress.

Under the old covenant there were many laws about not touching unclean things. If someone did touch them they became unclean. Yet, we know that Jesus touched lepers. Even so, He was not made unclean. He even taught in Matthew 15:11 (KJV) that “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 essentially 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’ll see it.

Now let’s get to the point of all this.

You probably remember the final plague brought upon the Egyptians before God released the Hebrews from bondage. Just in case it’s not what you’ve been pondering today, here’s a refresher: 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.”

Here’s the blood he was talking about: 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’ve already seen that blood is life. They were protected from death because they were figuratively 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 believe in Christ. We get the benefit of His perfect blood. His blood doesn’t simply cover sins, it takes them away altogether. Therefore 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. It goes beyond covering, beyond forgiveness, to include cleansing, the removal of guiltiness. The blood of animals could never do that, as we see in Hebrews 10:4 (KJV) 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Then in addition to getting forgiveness and cleansing from sin through the blood, we get the Lamb of God inside us to sustain us as we travel toward the promised land. The fullness foreshadowed in Exodus.

Let’s go back there now. Exodus 12:26-27 (KJV) describes the reason the Israelites were to continue celebrating the Passover each year. There we read, “26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.”

Passover was instituted to provide an annual reminder of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. It’s a picture of what God would later do through Jesus Christ.

We see another important detail in Exodus 12:46 (KJV) “In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.” This also prefigured the cross. John records the fulfillment of this shadow in John 19:32-37 (KJV) where he wrote, “32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. 35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. 36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.”

None of Jesus’ bones were broken, and a prophesy from Zechariah 12:10 (KJV) was also fulfilled: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

The Spirit of grace is Jesus. John 1:14 (KJV) tells us that, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Then a few verses later in John 1:17 (KJV) we find that, “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

Now let’s get back to the Lamb and see how the reality gets fleshed out in the New Testament. John 1:29 (KJV) says, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Jesus is the Lamb provided by God. Perfect and spotless in every way. His coming was the ultimate fulfillment of Abraham’s statement to Isaac in Genesis 22:8 that God will provide Himself a Lamb.

When the time had come for Jesus to lay down His life (as Isaac did figuratively by allowing Abraham to place him on the altar) Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples. That the death and resurrection of Jesus should happen at Passover is not a coincidence. It was the substance, the reality, to which the Passover celebration and indeed all the Hebrew Scriptures pointed.

We in the Christian Church call this the Last Supper, but it was the Passover celebration as far as the Jews were concerned. Having celebrated Passover many times before, Jesus’ disciples would have been keenly aware of what they were doing. Let’s just peek in at the crucial moment.

Matthew 26:26-28 (KJV) “26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28 For this is my blood of the new testament (or covenant), which is shed for many for the remission (or forgiveness) of sins.”

Luke records it this way: Luke 22:19-20 (KJV) “19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” Here we see the reason we celebrate communion (sometimes called the eucharist) together. We do it in remembrance of Jesus and what He did for us.

Jesus’ statement about His blood echoes that of Moses in Exodus 24:8 (KJV) “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” The blood of the covenant; the cup is the guarantee of the new testament, or covenant.

Imagine for a moment that you are an Israelite. How do you suppose you might react if Jesus told you to drink His blood—even if it was figuratively? The disciples would have remembered the strict prohibitions against eating blood found in the Law of Moses.

Jesus upset the religious apple cart in many ways during His ministry, but this must have been particularly difficult for them. It must have given them pause as they considered whether their faith in Jesus was stronger than their devotion to the Law under which they had been raised. Now they had to choose whether to participate in what He was doing, or continue on in the traditions of their ancestors.

Earlier, Jesus had said something similar in the synagogue at Capernaum. After He said it many of His followers left Him and even His closest disciples found it a hard saying. Let’s listen in.

John 6:50-58 (KJV) “50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.”

Earlier I said that under the Law, touching unclean things made a person unclean, but under the new covenant touching what is holy, makes one holy. This is what Jesus is telling the people here. He is saying that they need to be in Him and have Him in them. “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”

We see this again later in John 15:5 (KJV). There Jesus says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth (or dwelleth) in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

When we are in Christ and Christ is in us, we have both sides of the life and righteousness equation resolved. Our sins are taken away completely by His perfect blood, His life, his propitiation, and we are given eternal life, sanctified and made righteous, or holy, by having Him in us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV) “For he (God the Father) hath made him (God the Son) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

As we think about all this a passage from First Peter provides a good summary that may help focus our thoughts. 1 Peter 1:18-21 (KJV) “18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation (or futile way of life) received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”

God Himself has provided a Lamb. When you took Him into yourself by believing in Him, He took you into Himself. He gave you a new spirit and He put His Spirit in you. You have become one spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV) “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”