Behold The Lamb Of GOD

Genesis chapter four, records the first sacrifice. Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain was a tiller of the ground; Able was a shepherd. One day they brought sacrifices before the Lord. Cain brought what he had tilled from the ground; Able brought the best of the best he had, a lamb. Abel’s offering was a prophecy of Christ’s coming to sacrifice Himself for the sin of mankind. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice; He could not accept Cain’s. Cain’s sacrifice made an acknowledgment to His Creator; Abel’s was a sacrifice of atonement.

The shedding of the Lamb’s blood was the remission for Abel’s sin; through Abel’s sacrifice, he was acknowledging to God that he was a sinner. The Lamb became Abel’s mediator. From that point on, the blood of lambs flowed from Genesis up to the point Christ’s own blood flowed down His own body to pour out onto the ground where man stood and watched. Christ’s blood not only flowed from the cross to this very second you are reading this article and beyond, it also flowed before the cross to the moment Eve disobeyed God. His blood paid for all sin of all time. In the New Testament, one of the names of Jesus is the Lamb of God. He became our sacrificial lamb and the last lamb that would ever need to be sacrificed. His blood was sinless. The blood of lambs could never pay for our sins. Their blood held in place the sin of man till Christ died on the cross. Christ’s blood frees us from our sin; He was the unblemished Lamb of God. He became our atonement through His crucifixion on the cross; His crucifixion became the reconciliation between God and His ultimate creation, man.

Lambs were a highly valued possession for people in the Old Testament, but they were offered to God as a sacrifice for their sin to attain God’s even more highly valued favor. Each morning and evening a lamb was laid on an altar and slain for the sin of the people. In John chapter one verse twenty-nine, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and calls out to all that are around him, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John the Baptist saw that the promised Messiah was to be a sacrificed lamb for himself and all who had been and would be conceived. God had a plan to save His ultimate creation and that plan included His Son. God created us; He didn’t want to lose us. Christ’s sacrifice was foretold over and over again up till the cross through the lamb sacrifice and that of other animals. For thousands of years many lambs died and each and every one of them foretold of the ultimate Lamb. God provided a way that became the penalty for our sin.

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."John 14:6-14

After the cross, the sacrifice of lambs was no longer needed. Many of the Jews rejected Christ as their promised Messiah and continued to perform sacrifices for the next thirty-nine years in the Temple at Jerusalem. After the Temple was destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans, all sacrifices ceased and none have taken place since.