The Daily Word of Righteousness

Behold the Lamb

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

The slain lamb, the figure of Christ, always is the emphasis of Passover.

In human thinking, the important aspect of Passover was the release of the Hebrew tribes from Egyptian slavery and their start toward the land of their inheritance. In God's thinking it is not the release from Egypt but the lamb that is of primary significance; for the lamb speaks of Christ who is to come. Only Christ can bring true, eternal release to human beings.

In the exodus from Egypt, Israel left one kind of bondage only to enter another. After the Jews settled in Canaan, they embraced demons. They gave themselves to serve the lusts of their bodies (a vicious kind of slavery) and offered their children as burnt offerings to the god Moloch.

Israel turned against the Lord. The members of the royal priesthood accepted the chains of demonic bondage. As a result the Lord gave them into the hands of their enemies.

We understand, therefore, that the central issue of Passover is not the physical release from Egyptian slavery but the eternal release of spirit, soul, and body that can come only at the hand of Christ.

The true Passover Lamb is Christ. Christ is the Hope of Israel, the Light of Israel, the Bridegroom of Israel.

In the Passover, God is telling us that release from slavery to the wickedness of the world can come only through the atonement made by the blood of Christ and through eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ. To be free from the sin of the world we must eat Christ—eat of Him in whom God dwells, whom God has chosen.

When we eat Christ, we come into union with Him. We marry the Bridegroom. The Lord has come to Israel and to us Gentiles as well in the Person of Christ Jesus. The Lord, the Bridegroom, has come for His Bride. Israel is the Bride of the Lamb. We Gentiles become part of Israel by eating the Lamb.

John the Baptist pointed to Jesus of Nazareth as God's Passover Lamb.

Indeed, the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. He is our Passover. By the protection of His blood we are saved when the judgment of God strikes the gods of this world.

Even though we are shielded from the death angel by the blood of Christ, we remain chained in bondage to the wicked world spirits, to the lust of our flesh, and to our stubborn self-will.

How can we escape the chains of spiritual slavery? By eating the flesh of God's Lamb and drinking His blood. Only by eating of the Lamb of God and drinking His blood can we escape spiritual slavery and begin the sometimes joyous, sometimes painful journey toward the land of inheritance, the land of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Christ Jesus stands before the door of the heart of each of His elect, Jewish and Gentile. He patiently knocks. If the individual opens the door and receives Him, Christ enters and dines with him or her. He gives him to eat of His body and to drink of His blood. This is the new covenant.

Let us always and forever live by eating the flesh of Christ and drinking His precious blood. The Spirit and the Bride say come. Let whoever will, come and eat and drink freely of eternal Life. (from Behold the Lamb!)