Behold The Lamb

Behold the Lamb

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

Charles Spurgeon said: - “The world was lost. God must punish sin. He sent His Son to take our sin upon Him that He might honor the Law of God and establish God’s government by being obedient to the Law of God and yielding Himself up to the death penalty. He whom Jehovah loves beyond all else came to earth, became a Man and, as a Man, was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. It is He who is called, “the Lamb of God,” the one Sacrifice for man’s sin. There is no putting away of sin without sacrifice there is only one Sacrifice that can put away sin and that is Jesus Christ, the Righteous. He is Divine, yet Human the Son of God, yet the Son of Mary, He is Theanthropos the God-man. He yielded up His life, “the Just for the unjust,” the Sinless for the sinful, “that He might bring us to God,” and reconcile us to the Father. That is the story and whosoever believes in Him shall live. Any man, woman, boy, or girl the world over, who will trust themselves to Christ, God’s great Sacrifice, shall be saved, for this is our continual witness, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life.” “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.”

My desire is not to teach a lesson that will make you shout; it is not my desire to tickle your ears with enticing words and shallow thoughts for that has no benefit of salvation. It is my desire to present to you the unadulterated Word of God that will cause you to stop and “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world”.

There are scarlet threads of prophecy weaved throughout scripture to reveal a glorious tapestry of redemption. One such prophetic symbol is the sacrificial lamb. Throughout the Old Testament, a lamb was sacrificed at an altar as an act of worship to God and the means of atoning for sin. The word atonement means to “cover over.” The sacrificial lamb was a substitute that covered the sins of mankind instead of a man or woman dying for his or her sins. God provided the lamb to take the place of that person, and the blood of the lamb paid the penalty for their sin. John McArthur said: - “There’s a simple principle; to be delivered from judgment requires death. Second, critical, that death can be the death of a substitute. God was saying, “I will spare you; I will deliver you from this judgment if there is the death of an innocent substitute”.

My desire is to show you through what is called progressive revelation a movement of God bringing you through theological infancy in the Old Testament to maturity in the New Testament. Now for those that may not be familiar with Progressive Revelation it is best explained as follows: - Progressive Revelation is like a window blind being gradually raised. The light of the sun outside (analogous here to God’s truth, the glory of the Gospel) is unchanging but through this stepwise revealing, ever more of this pre-existent light becomes apparent - J. Sidlow Baxter.

PRAYER

Behold the Lamb:- This is a very powerful statement that I feel loses so much in our modern translation. In the original Greek used by the Apostle John, who wrote the Book of John, he uses the Greek word ide for behold, meaning “look,” “see here,” or “consider.” He uses amnos for lamb, meaning exactly that a young sheep. And he uses theos for God, referring to “the one true God.” He also uses the word airo for takes away, which means “carries away” or “gets rid of.” He uses hamartia for sin, meaning "wrongdoing.” And he uses kosmos for the word world, referring to the entire world that is, the universe, not just the local place in which he is situated.

Essentially, John is saying: “Look, it’s God’s lamb who gets rid of the wrongdoings of the entire universe.” Matthew Henry says “John saw Jesus coming to him, and pointed him out as the Lamb of God. The paschal lamb, in the shedding and sprinkling of its blood, the roasting and eating of its flesh, and all the other circumstances of the ordinance, represented the salvation of sinners by faith in Christ. And the lambs sacrificed every morning and evening, can only refer to Christ slain as a sacrifice to redeem us to God by his blood.

Behold the Lamb!

1st is the Lamb of Necessity Genesis 3:21 “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them”. Many Bible scholars believe, and it is the opinion I hold as well that the coats of skins were made from a lamb for it was a lamb slain by an offended yet loving and compassionate God to provide covering and salvation for our fore parents who sinned eating the forbidden fruit and then realized they were naked. The necessity of their condition caused blood to be shed for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.