THE SPOTLESS LAMB

"A lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." -- I Peter 1.19-21.

     One day Jesus asked the disciples the opinions of the people as to whom He was. After hearing the various answers, He asked, "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter, always ready with an answer, quickly replied, "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God." To which Jesus replied, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."

     A faith that could look beyond the flesh and behold divinity was worthy of praise; a faith that can pierce the dark veil that hides the supernatural from our eyes, and detect the presence and workings of the Spirit of Christ, is worthy of double honor.

     There is no selfishness in the knowledge of Christ. When Peter learned the real character of the Christ he desired to impart his knowledge to others. And in the verses before us be attempts a description that will enable us to locate the Lamb of God. Beginning with the ceremonial representation, -- the sacrificial lamb, -- he proceeds in an ever-ascending scale until be reaches the reason for the manifestation of Christ, -- that our hope and faith might be in God.

     Oh, that my soul may have eyes to see the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world! And that, seeing him, I may be enabled to drink in of His nature as I would the cooling waters of a bubbling spring in a parched and desert waste!

     Reader, do you desire to see Him? Then allow me, with John the Baptist, to say, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

     1. Christ is here described as a spotless, sacrificial Lamb. "A lamb without blemish and without spot." No other kind of a lamb was ceremonially acceptable, and God could do no less than present a spotless sacrifice. Even Pilate must confess "I find no fault in Him." Neither the rabble, the false witnesses, the Pharisees nor the priests could find anything worthy of censure. They did not crucify Him because of His sins, but because of His good works and the fact that He told them the truth.

     2. This sacrificial lamb was foreordained of God. "' Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." The omniscient God foresaw the awful degradation of the human race, and His great heart determined on a remedy. Some say that God could have arbitrarily saved sinners, or that He could have saved them by some other means than the death of His Son; but let them search the entire volume of Holy Writ and they will not find one thing to bear them out in their statement. On the contrary, from beginning to end, in teachings, in prophecies, in types and in but one thing appears as a remedy for ceremonies, sin-a bloody sacrifice.

     The great heart of the Almighty saw the only remedy, and even before the transgression determined the course He would pursue, -- He would give His Son, His well-beloved, His only-begotten Son, He would offer Him as a sacrifice, and this sacrifice should be holy and acceptable. Jesus Christ was "slain from the foundation of the world," and Abel could take his lamb and approach God with as great confidence as though he had lived in the days of Peter and Paul.

     True, there was more or less of the shadow or type in ancient worship, but when God accepted a soul it was just as acceptable as at any time since. We cannot tell the religious exercises of the ancients, but we do know that if they gained the approval of God, they had His approval the same as we, for God has always abundantly pardoned.

     The provision for this acceptance was conceived in the heart of God even before the foundation of the world, and was operative as soon as a soul was found that needed help, and we hear God saying to the guilty pair, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's bead."

     Oh, wondrous grace! My mighty sins did not separate me from hope, but on the contrary these very sins brought forth from the heart of God that spirit of compassion, foreordained, indeed, before the foundation of the world, but only needed because I have sinned. He knew I would sin, He determined that I might escape my, sins. He knew that bell was my just portion, but His mercy conquered justice and I am saved. Thank God for His matchless grace!

     3. The sacrificial Lamb was manifested in the gospel age. "But was manifested in these last times for you." The prophets prophesied until John, but John cried, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." John the apostle could say, "The word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory."

     Jesus said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also." In Him all fullness dwelt, and in Him was manifested the glory of the Father. This glory, in the fullness of its revelation, was kept back from the ancients, but burst forth in all its splendor on the astonished vision of the waiting disciples.

     No wonder the happy company in the upper room acted like drunken men. To them had been revealed that remarkable grace which had been hidden in the heart of God since before the foundation of the world. Such an event and such a revelation could not be commonplace, and its results could not be so trivial as to lightly effect the recipients. As wave after wave of celestial glory streamed through their astonished souls their shouts of joy aroused the populace, who rushed together and said, "These men are full of new wine."

     This revelation is not for Peter and his associates alone, but in this place the fisherman disciple, writing to the members of the general church, declares that it is for them, -- and that includes me.

     4. Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb, is the means by which we believe in God. "Who by Him do believe in God." We sing,

     "The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin;

     The light of the world is Jesus:

     Like sunshine at noonday His glory shone in,

     The light of the world is Jesus."

     Without Jesus Christ our hearts and minds are too dark to even catch the idea of the infinite God. Men are groping in the awful darkness of sin and superstition, vainly attempting to fathom the great hereafter, but without Christ their minds become more and more dense, and their hope all the more hopeless.

     With boundless, fathomless pity the Prince of Peace, seeing our helpless condition, flew to our relief, brushed away the veil that hung between, and gave us a vision of the Infinite; cleared away the fogs from our darkened minds and gave us an understanding; and removed the pall of darkness that enshrouded our hearts, and gave us the ability to believe God to the saving of our souls.

     5. The sacrificial lamb was raised from the dead. "That raised Him up from the dead." Paul says, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain." If Christ was still among the dead what assurance would we have that He could help us? We might still be hurling at Him the old Jewish taunt, "He saved others, Himself He cannot save," and seeing Him impotent, we would refuse to accept Him. But He became the first-fruits of those who slept, He conquered death, He led captivity captive, and since He has done all this we can believe that He is able to help us and that He will give us a glorious resurrection and a blessed immortality.

     Then, His resurrection was a necessity to the completion of the plan of redemption. Death as well as the devil must be conquered. The fact is that to be a redeemer He must meet every force that would militate against the salvation of those He came to redeem, and, meeting them, He must conquer, or His redemption would be vain. The last enemy is death, and death must be vanquished. How well He succeeded we can never know, but He met death on its own territory and conquered. He robbed death of its fangs, and the saint exclaims, "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory? "

     6. The sacrificial lamb, being resurrected from the dead, was given glory. In this world He was a man of sorrows; in this world He became obedient; in the future world, as well as at the right band of God at present, He will be and is glorified. Angels may well look on and wonder, archangels may well hide their faces from the effulgent light of His infinite glory, and the spirits of just men made perfect may well shout in adoration of Him who has washed them in His own blood.

     There is no doubt that the heavenly hosts find abundant reasons for mighty rejoicing and tumultuous praises as the Almighty unfolds before their astonished gaze the councils of His will and the glories of His person; but it seems to me that there can be no greater cause for amazement than the sight of the great Being who could tread the winepress alone, and who could, by His own power and by the strength of His own right arm, regenerate and sanctify a poor, lost, degraded, fallen human spirit, and so renew it that it should shine in holiness and righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

     O Christ, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, may I laud and magnify Thy holy name!

     7. All this work and sacrifice of the Lamb was undergone that our faith and hope might be in God. It is well that our faith and hope are not in the things of the world, for the world passes away and the lusts thereof; but instead we are so securely anchored in God that

     "When the storms of life are raging,

     And the billows tossing high,"

     we have a rock in which we can hide and be secure.