When the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt, God’s Angel passed over the homes whose doors were smeared with the blood of a Passover Lamb. The same angel killed the firstborn offspring of man and beast in all the homes that had no blood on their doors.
The spotless year-old Passover lambs and their blood were God’s means of redeeming His people from slavery in Egypt. But to redeem us lost and condemned sinners from sin’s guilt and consequences, the blood of sacrificed animals could never be an adequate ransom. The only sufficient ransom price for you and me was the precious blood of Christ, the true Lamb of God. He took upon Himself the whole world’s load of sin-guilt. Jesus is the true Passover Lamb that was prophetically pictured by all the Passover Lambs sacrificed in Egypt -- and in all subsequent Passover celebrations. God the Father was perfectly satisfied by the ransom price Jesus paid. He plainly demonstrated this by raising Him from the dead.
In the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry John the Baptizer pointed Him out to his disciples and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
We are told that when John repeated this identification the next day, the disciples who heard him say this followed Jesus from then on. God the Holy Spirit has made the same identification for you, and to the same end, that you might put your faith and hope in Jesus Christ and follow your Redeemer. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.
Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.
My soul looks up to see
The burden He did bear
When hanging on the cursed tree--
And knows her guilt was there.
Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse removed;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice--
And sing His bleeding love.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 156) |
