The Popular Dictionary of Bible Prophecy: More than 350 Terms and Concepts Defined by Ron Rhodes

Author:Ron Rhodes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-01-14T13:46:00+00:00

Lamb of God

A type is an Old Testament institution, event, person, object, or ceremony that has reality and purpose in biblical history, but which also-by divine design-foreshadows something yet to be revealed. The Passover lamb in the Old Testament (Exodus 12:21) was a "type" of Christ, who is Himself the Lamb of God (John 1:29,36).

An understanding of the Passover lamb in the Old Testament provides significant insight on the concept of substitution, a theological concept directly related to Christ's role as Lamb of God. The Old Testament reveals that the sacrificial lamb had to be "unblemished" (Exodus 12:5; Leviticus 4:3,23,32). At the time of the sacrifice, a hand would be laid on the unblemished sacrificial animal to symbolize a transfer of guilt (Leviticus 4:4,24,33). Notice that the sacrificial lamb did not thereby actually become sinful by nature; rather, sin was imputed to the animal and the animal acted as a sacrificial substitute. In like manner, Christ the Lamb of God was utterly unblemished (1 Peter 1:19), but our sin was imputed to Him and He was our sacrificial substitute on the cross of Calvary. Simply because our sin was imputed to Him does not mean He changed in nature or actually became sinful.

Scripture reveals that Christ's death, as the Lamb of God, was "for" (Greek: huger) us in the sense that it was on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). The word is used in this same on-behalf-of sense elsewhere in Scripture. Jesus at the Last Supper said: "This is my body which is given foryou" (Luke 22:19, emphasis added here and in the verses that follow). Likewise, in John 10:15 Jesus affirmed, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Paul thus exults that "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8; see also Galatians 3:13; 1 Timothy 2:6; Hebrews 2:9). Jesus "gave himself for us to redeem us..." (Titus 2:14), "the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18; see also 2:21). The idea of substitution richly permeates these verses relating to Christ's role as the Lamb of God.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.