The Lamb of God
To inherit eternal life, we must put our
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who
sacrificed His life as a perfect,
unblemished offering for our sin.
Here's Dr. Gene Getz to explain:
Actually the book of Leviticus emphasizes
offerings and sacrifices all the way
through the book. Different kinds of
offerings and sacrifices.
And so we read in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 1:
But if his gift for a burnt offering...
It's talking about a burnt offering.
You'll see there are other offerings.
...If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock,
from sheep or goats,
he is to present an unblemished...
And you're going to see that word
appear in Leviticus again and again.
...unblemished male.
He will slaughter it on the north side of
the altar before the LORD.
Aaron's sons the priests will sprinkle its
blood against the altar on all sides.
Let's go to the New Testament.
Let's go now to Hebrews. It helps us to
explain what's happening here as it's
fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus Christ becomes the
unblemished sacrificial lamb.
So in Hebrews, which really is a
commentary on the book of Leviticus,
this is what we read in chapter 9, verse 22:
According to the law almost everything is purified with blood...
And if you read through these chapters
in Leviticus, again and again you'll see
the word blood, blood, blood, blood.
And here the author of Hebrews--
we don't know who wrote this.
I personally think it might have been Apollos.
But it says--he said:
...and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
The concept of blood is pervasive
from Genesis to Revelation.
Now there are some people that
do not like that concept.
They try to do away with it.
In fact there was a time when liberal
theologians called Christianity a
"slaughterhouse religion."
They did not like the concept of blood.
And yet the Bible says without the
shedding of blood there is no remission.
And he explains this further--
that is the author of Hebrews:
He did not do this to offer Himself many times...
Who's that talking about? Jesus Christ.
...[Jesus] did not do this to offer Himself
many times, as the high priest enters the
sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. ...
The high priest had to go in again,
and again, and again to offer these sacrifices.
But not so, Jesus. Once He offered Himself.
...Otherwise [the author says], He would
have had to suffer many times...
He'd have had to die on the cross many times.
...since the foundation of the world.
But now [Jesus] has appeared one time,
at the end of the ages...
And by the way, when Jesus died on the
cross it was at the end of the ages.
What should that tell us about 2,000 years later?
We've been in the end of the ages for 2,000 years.
...But now He has appeared one time,
at the end of the ages, for the removal of
sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And just as it is appointed for people to die once--
[and] after this, judgment--so also the Messiah,
having been offered once to bear the sins of many,
will appear a second time...
He is coming again.
...not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to
those who are waiting for Him.
So Jesus Christ, you see, became the
Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
There's a Principle that comes from
Hebrews here in the New Testament,
which reads--and I've entitled this The Blood of Christ.
To inherit eternal life, we must
experience Redemption and forgiveness
that comes through Christ's shed blood.
It is the only way for redemption!
In John 1:29, when Jesus came and
John the Baptist saw Him, we read:
The next day John saw Jesus coming
toward[s] him and said, "Here is [what?]
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
Jesus is the perfect Lamb of God.
He was the perfect Lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world.
A Lamb without blemish. Perfect. 1st Peter 1:18 to 19:
For you know that you were redeemed
from your empty way of life inherited
from the fathers, not with perishable things,
like silver or gold, but with the [what?]
precious blood of Christ, like that
of a Lamb without defect or blemish.
You see, back in the Old Testament there
was the lamb without blemish--
as perfect as you could possibly be
within a human setting.
But Jesus Christ became the perfect
Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.
He was absolutely without blemish.
And if you go all the way into the book of Revelation,
you have an incredible scene in heaven--
probably during the great tribulation.
And people who were saved during the tribulation,
after the church was removed.
And this is what we read:
Then one of the elders asked me,
"Who are these people robed in white,
and where did they come from?"
I said to him, "Sir, you know." Then he told me: ...
This is now communication with John
who recorded the book of Revelation:
...These are the ones coming out of the
great tribulation. ...
And I believe that means that once the
church is removed, there will be many
people who are saved during this time of
great tribulation on the earth. But notice it said:
...They washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb.
From Genesis to Revelation we have the
blood of Jesus who is the perfect Lamb of God
to take away the sins of the world.
And so another Principle which is
reinforcing the Principle we saw in Hebrews.
The Blood of the Lamb:
To inherit eternal life, we must have our
sins washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now that raises a very significant question. And that is:
Why did Jesus Christ have to be perfect
God and a perfect man to be our Savior from sin?
The answer to that is that God demands
perfection--absolute perfection.
The lambs and the goats in the
Old Testament were to be without blemish.
But they were not perfect
because they were of this world.
Jesus Christ was the perfect Lamb of God, the God-man.
And so it takes perfection because God is perfect.
God is holy.
And so we're born in sin and we need a Savior.
And that Savior has to be perfect.
Those who teach that Jesus Christ was
just a great teacher, a wonderful man,
a high-level human being.
Who do not believe that he was the Lamb of God.
Who do not believe that he was perfect God
and perfect man--are really
not teaching the Word of God.
Because from Genesis to Revelation you
have this concept of the Lamb of God,
the perfect God-man. And you read in John chapter 1:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh [verse 14]
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
So here you have the perfect Lamb of God, the God-man.
There could be no forgiveness if Jesus Christ
were not the perfect Son of God.
He became flesh--God became flesh--
and dwelt among us.
And so we have here this very important Principle.
And the groundwork is laid right here in Leviticus.
Let me restate the Principle--the Lamb of God:
To inherit eternal life, we must put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who
sacrificed His life as a perfect, unblemished offering for our sin.
And the question of course that
everyone of us needs to face is:
Have we received that gift? Because it is a gift.
It is a gift that God has given when He
gave His Son to die for the sins of the world.
And the reason He gave His Son is that
we need a Savior. And without receiving that gift,
according to the Scriptures.
Without applying that blood to our own
situation through faith,
we do not have eternal life.
But the offer is available to everyone:
For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
So in Leviticus we have open communication--
the complete story of redemption.
That's our job as leaders, to communicate that.
What is the message?
It's the Lamb of God. Because from
Genesis to Revelation you have the
unfolding of that story of the coming of Jesus Christ.
That is the story of the Bible.
We have this scarlet thread, as it were,
that runs from Genesis to Revelation.