HF086 - The Doctrine of the Lamb
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003
Subject: HF Bible Study HF086 - The Doctrine of the Lamb
Hebraics,
In this study we will look at the very heart of the Christian experience. When I say "heart," I am speaking of what really makes a Christian, a Christian. And, by extension, what it is that gives strength to the Christian walk. It has to do with a love factor. This love factor encompasses itself around Jesus Christ.
This is Bible Study HF086 - The Doctrine of the Lamb.
It is so easy to get distracted by the peripherals, the non-essentials, and even the over-stretching of Christian doctrines. In doing this, we often find ourselves bogging down in our spiritual life. However, there is one doctrine that is the underflow of all the Scriptures. It speaks to the faith of the Old Testament saint, to the spiritual freedom of the new covenant believer, and especially to a love that fills the heart of that one who has been joined to Jesus Christ. The apostle said, "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." (1Cor 6:17).
This evolving doctrine of the Lamb can be compared a person who works with sculptures. The worker always sees the finished work in his own heart and mind. Others only see the work as it progresses.
The Old Testament prophets saw the Lamb through progressive revelation. The doctrine of the Lamb does not reach its completed form until the Lamb of God actually arrives on the scene. But even then the glory of the revelation continues to increase to the eyes of the beholders. (The Lamb is called the Father's glory.)
So not only is the doctrine of the Lamb a doctrine of progressive revelation, but the doctrine of the Lamb is also about the people of the Lamb, and it is about 'beholding.' Out of the Lamb comes forth a people. Thus we hear, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (Eph 2:10).
The Lamb and the people of the Lamb are forever linked. To discover life, one must discover the Lamb. To discover the Lamb means that you belong to the Lamb. To discover the Lamb is to fall deeply in love with Him. But it isn't a love that is common to man. It is actually the Father's love filling out our hearts.
The discovery element is a key issue in the Christian walk. This is why Paul said that in Christ "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." In another place he says that as we gaze upon the glory of Christ through the Scriptures, our inward man experiences spiritual transformations. It is the glory of Christ that fills our hearts. While this may sound mystical, it is a spiritual reality to those who are partakers of the new covenant.
These spiritual transformations go far deeper than our emotions alone. They are life changers. It is like the song that says, 'From the inside out, from the inside out, God is working on me.' The work of God has to do with image making. Not image making in the sense of an idol, but in the sense of our being conformed to the image of Christ.
This brings us back to the Lamb doctrine itself. The Lamb doctrine begins in Genesis and has its completion in the book of Revelation. The clearest picture of the Lamb in Genesis is when God directs Abraham to the mountains of Moriah. The 'testing' of Abraham was to reveal God's real purpose in the test. The test was about the Lamb. On the Mountains of Moriah we are given our first composite picture of God's redeeming program.
Abraham does what is required. He and Isaac make their journey together. The wood of the burnt offering is laid on Isaac's back. And finally Isaac asks, "My father!" "Here I am, my son." "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering."
Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering." It is interesting how the ancient Greek translates this; "God will provide himself a sheep for a whole-burnt offering, my son." Somehow we get a picture that the Lamb and God Himself are mysteriously linked.
This entire incident has troubled Jewish writers for centuries. To this day they remain perplexed. Their main question is, "How could God, who forbids human sacrifice, command Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac?" But the apostle said that in the rejection of Jesus Christ, "Their minds became hardened," and that a veil now "lies over their heart." (Cf. 2 Cor 3:14-15)
What happens on Moriah was a picture-perfect portrayal of the cross. Of course the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac. And while the ancients may not have understood its full implication, from that moment on the peoples of God took up a proverbial saying, which went, "In the mountain of the Lord it will be provided." (Cf. Gen 22:14)
When it came time for Israel to be formed as a nation, all sorts of sacrifices were offered. There were two particular sacrifices to be offered on a daily basis. The Lord's instruction to Moses was, "The one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight." (Exo 29:39) The lamb offerings were to be in perpetuated throughout their generations. Their minds were to think on the lamb offering every morning and every evening.
God reminded Moses that these sacrifices were a 'soothing aroma' to the Lord. The word 'soothing', that is, nichoach, speaks of resting, security and even tranquility of heart. It is the word from which the name Noah is related. Noah means 'rest.' The Messiah was to be the rest giver.
The soothing aroma also spoke of God being reconciled to His fallen creatures. John said that the sins of the whole world were placed upon Jesus. Paul said God was in Christ "reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them." (2 Cor 5:19) If God were in Christ, then the Lamb sacrifice cannot be disconnected from God. Such a mystery this. But the apostle plainly said that the blood of the Lamb was God's blood.
The statement "In the mountain of the Lord it will be provided," points to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built upon the mountains of Moriah. It was on the mountains of Moriah that God's Lamb was given as a sacrifice for the sins of all humanity.
In the minds of the Old Testament saints the picture of God's Lamb was being painted, or, as our metaphor goes, they were seeing the sculpture as it was being sculptured.
The Exodus out of Egypt was based upon the lamb sacrifice and its blood placed upon the homes. Moses wrote his song, which is referred to in Revelation as, "The song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."
Then we hear a voice crying in the wilderness, "Make way the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." The cry gets louder, and the peoples come by thousands to be baptized by John. Then one day, they hear him shout, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." (Cf. Rev 15:3; John 1:29) The Lamb was with us.
But let us come back to the sculptor who is always seeing the finished work in his heart. The apostle wrote, "For He [the Lamb] was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God." (1 Pet 1:20,21)
But just who is this Lamb of God? We know Him as Jesus the Son of the living God. Yet when we get to the finished work, we find out that the Lamb is somehow God Himself revealed.
No less that twenty-nine times the phrase 'The Lamb' is used in the book of Revelation. And in all these references we find that the Lamb is so associated with God. The book begins its closure by giving us a picture of God fully manifest as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It says, "Then he showed me a river of the water of life (Holy Spirit), clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God (the Father) and of the Lamb (Son of God)."
John is using archetypal images found through the Old Testament to describe God in His awesomeness. Notice carefully that there is only one throne. The Father's throne has become the Son's throne.
John's gospel draws attention to the vision of Isaiah, in which the prophet writes, "In the year of King Ussiah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with His robe filling the temple." John tells us that Isaiah actually saw King Messiah, that is, the Lord Jesus Himself. (Cf. Isa 6:1; John 12:41)
And so to love the Father unseen, is to love Jesus the only begotten Son. He is called the image of the invisible God. In fact Jesus was very plain in saying to one group, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me." (John 8:42)
One of the true signs that a person is truly born again is a love for Jesus. Peter says, "And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." (1 Pet 1:8)
But how can we possibly love someone we have never seen? We love Him because we have taken to ourselves the message of the cross. When we embraced the cross, that is, when we truly believed in Him, it was then that the Father poured His own love into our hearts. Jesus simply said, "The Father loves the Son." Thus we love Jesus with the very love of God. (John 5:20)
Here it gets quite mystical. We love the Son with the Father's love. Jesus said, "So that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26)
The mystery doesn't stop here. Out of this we can actually call God our very own Father because of the Spirit of His Son cries in us, 'Abba! Father!' Thus all believers carry in themselves a Father consciousness. Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:1)
It is the Lamb of God who gives us our freedom. Every person born from above is made alive in the Lamb. And because our lives have been perfectly joined to God's Christ, this allows our hearts to overflow with themes of life. (By the way, this is what the Spirit filled life is really about.)
The Spirit-filled life is about the power to show ourselves as a testimony to Christ. We witness to Him by our love. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, they would become His witnesses. He wasn't simply speaking of them giving verbal testimony. He was speaking of what they would become. They would be come Christ men and women. They would become people of the Lamb, out of whose hearts would flow a love that was not common to man. It would be His love.
In fact this love of the Lamb would be so strong that Christians through the ages would give their lives for Him. The Scriptures take note of this, in saying, "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death." (Rev 12:11)
There is much to be said about the Lamb. Feel free to respond. We can go any direction you wish. (As long as it relates to the Scriptures.)
The Lord bless you,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)