“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29
“Behold the Lamb of God”=the incarnate, pre-existent, Divine Son of God, God in the flesh. This is a great mystery (1 Timothy 3:16) in that it is beyond that which is of the natural realm known to man.
Jesus was incarnated into human flesh, to be the ‘sacrificial lamb’ for our sins, according to God’s plan and purpose, foreordained before the foundation of the world. It would be through the merits of His Divine righteousness and perfect shed blood, offered to God for us, in our stead, that full, eternal redemption from our sin would be made, plus, our soul would be made acceptable to the believer. Thus, “which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can atone for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2.) The law of sin and death is: “…the day that thou eatest thereof (sinnest) thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17.) “The soul that sinneth it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20.) “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23.)
The shed blood is the sacrificing of “life” to pay sin’s penalty–“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11)
The perfect, sinless shed blood of Christ is what affords nothing less than eternal redemption for the believer–Hebrews 9:12.
Through the merits of Christ’s substitutionary offering for sinners, the believer obtains nothing less than eternal redemption from all his sin, as well as nothing less than the eternal Divine righteousness of Christ upon his soul. These are the merits for the believer’s eternal life, the gift of God!
All the questions about the sufficiency and eternal duration of the believer’s justification from sin, are answered by, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” It would be a rejection of Christ’s offering on the part of God, if God were to fail to freely give us what Christ died and paid for the believer to obtain, which is eternal life, thus “once saved, always saved.” Since a believer is saved through Christ’s offering, God would have to reject Christ’s offering in order for a saved person to lose their salvation. Embracing the truths of salvation supplies the vision and inspiration for godly living–Hebrews 11:13-16 and 1 John 3:3.
SHARING
