The Timeless Lamb of God

… Where God is, there is life, and the life of God is not restricted by time.

You might not be familiar with the term “the Lamb of God”. In the Bible a lamb is a common sacrificial animal. Also in the Bible Jesus Christ is presented as the ultimate sacrifice for sinners, so that they can receive forgiveness. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Jesus is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Is this a mistake about when Jesus died? Actually, the apostle John in the book of Revelation is making a literary statement that the death of Jesus was always in the plan of God. Jesus is the timeless Lamb of God.

At the foundation of the world Adam and Eve (the first man and woman created) were sinless. But they quickly disobeyed God so that sin, death and destruction quickly engulfed the whole earth. The knowledge of God that Adam and Eve shared with their descendants was gradually lost. Eventually God began revelations of himself through a new covenant that he established with Abraham, the first Jew. Generation by generation God began preparing a nation of Abraham’s descendants to receive the ministry of Jesus Christ, the unique son of God.

John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

A few generations after Abraham’s death, God revealed himself to Moses by way of a personal name. That name was Yahweh, meaning “I am”. By this name God declared himself Creator of everything that exists by virtue of his eternal self-existence.

Many people do not understand the mission of Jesus Christ. Some have heard of his love for the poor, and others have heard of his miracles. Many think of him as an inspiring example of kindness and even as a teacher about the love God has for us. The more you learn about the things he did, and the more you study the things he said, then the more you are led to conclude that he was truly unique.

Now we are getting near to the heart of the Christian message. His disciples bowed before him being in awe of the miracles that he did. But the miracles did not stand by themselves. The miracles were performed by a perfect man, one who could not be convicted of any wrongdoing. Who was this guy, really?

Early in his public ministry Jesus let the miracles do the talking. His preaching was simple, teaching that every person needed to repent to God for their wrongdoings. John the Baptist had already been preaching that message. For a few months their ministries overlapped. Jesus nullified the excuses of the rich and poor alike when he called upon everyone to believe in the God who made them; and he preached that a judgment before God was imminent. His kingdom was close.

People repented to God and prayed to get their lives right. Only then could they handle the truth about Jesus. This truth was so out of the ordinary, and seemed so impossible, and so unique in all history, that to say it out loud appeared blasphemous. At his trial, immediately before being put to death, it was Jesus’s claim to be the Son of God that sealed his crucifixion.

But before his crucifixion, while he was still with his disciples, Jesus was teaching them about his true nature. He told them, “You believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). Another time he said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). When speaking to the crowds once he said, “Before Abraham was, I am”, thereby referencing the ancient name of God and proclaiming it as his own (John 8:58).

Although no one had ever seen God, Jesus was heard to say that when a person looked at him, they were looking at God. In Jewish culture the phrase “Son of God” meant there was a spiritual union of God the Father and Jesus. So when Jesus admitted that he is the Son of God at his trial, he was sentenced to death for blasphemy (claiming equality with God) even though it was true!

Jesus never said that ALL of God was visible in himself. An invisible, eternal and self-existent God cannot be fully revealed through the limitations imposed by flesh and blood. Jesus was named the UNIQUE (John 3:16) Son of God for a reason. He was the unique combination of human nature and divine nature. Therefore to preserve himself from premature murder he most often used the term “son of man” to refer to himself in the third person rather than “Son of God”. Since he was both human and divine and both terms were true of him.

What proof could Jesus offer that he was indeed both the “son of man” and “Son of God”? The best proof would be rising from the dead after he was killed for saying he is the Son of God. He openly predicted to his disciples that he would rise the third day after his death, even a great while before his crucifixion. The resurrection validated his claim and validated our forgiveness because the resurrection proved Jesus’s claims of being God’s promised Savior who would die as a sacrifice to save sinners.

What is the continuous theme that flows through the ministry of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus? Is it death? No. It is life.

Look carefully at John 10:17. Jesus says: I have life; I lay down my life; I take my life back. The theme of his redemptive work is clearly life. His death was a necessity for our sakes. His death was real, but should not be emphasized to the exclusion of his life, because death was only one obstacle along the way for the life in Jesus to overcome. When he died for us, he paid the price of our redemption. But because of his life, he was able to apply that benefit to us.

A few verses before speaking about laying down his life Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.” Life is what Jesus emphasized!

The ministry of Jesus was a manifestation of life through the power of the Spirit of God. Jesus announced this theme in his very first sermon (Luke 4).

In Luke chapter 8 there is the account of a woman suffering from a hemorrhage lasting 12 years. Because she was ritually unclean she determined to silently approach Jesus and stretch forth her hand through the crowd to obtain her healing by touching his cloak. She did this and was healed.

Jesus stopped and called upon her to testify because he said he knew that power (KJV: virtue) had gone out from him. This power of course was the inherent life of God flowing through Jesus because he was anointed completely with the Holy Spirit. The apostle John said that Jesus had the Spirit of God beyond measure. He also says of Jesus “in him was life, and the life was the light of humanity.”

Chronologically speaking, this woman obtained healing before Jesus died for her sins. How does that work?

It works in two ways. First, it works because Jesus is the eternal son of God. If Jesus, even in the days of his flesh, had the Spirit beyond measure, then it follows that in Jesus there is life beyond measure. The sick woman drew living water out of Jesus by using her faith. He told her directly, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” As light destroys darkness, life destroys sickness. She touched the giver of life at that moment and was healed.

Secondly, healing was available before the cross because time is created by God and there is no limitation with God to be in time or outside time. This is the subject of this study: the timeless lamb of God. Where God is, there is life, and the life of God is not restricted by time.

Believers in the Old Testament were saved by faith in God, the same way we are today. God validated their faith in Old Testament days on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus in the future. With God the future is a sure thing when it is his plan. Jesus is the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

In the Old Testament it was not just any animal that was a permissible sacrifice for sins. The atoning sacrifice had to be “perfect”, humanly speaking, without spot or blemish. Spotlessness was a precondition required prior to the act of sacrifice and was instrumental in the effectiveness of the sacrifice.

When we look at the timeless lamb of God, Jesus’s life was perfect before the crucifixion. The sick woman was healed on the basis of Jesus’s perfect life. It was precisely this perfection which made him an acceptable sacrifice on our behalf when he was crucified. When he was resurrected Jesus was the prefect priest “Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life” (Heb 7:26). Every blessing we have as Christians is because Jesus lived a perfect life and his life was a greater power than physical death. He promised that through his sacrifice we could live forever with him.

Although God is outside time, he has created us inside time, and designed the Old Testament sacrifices as prophetic pictures of the meaning of Christ’s death, which came at an appointed time in history. He spent thousands of years preparing the right nation and culture to receive the mission of his Son. God exalted Jesus Christ as not only a sacrifice for us but as a backdoor access for us to be restored to all we lost when Adam and Eve sinned and God locked the front door of the Garden to humanity.

God gives everyone the invitation to receive this gift of eternal life through the forgiveness of sins. What I want you to see today is that Christianity is not worship of a good man who was crucified, but the reception of the gift of life that is stronger than death. It was the life of Jesus Christ before and after his crucifixion that redeems us. He really is not dead; He laid down his life and He took it back again. He is alive now as Lord of All. His invitation to all of us is to worship him now as Lord and Savior of sinners.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:17).

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one of a kind Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).