| THE LAMB OF GOD by Julie Anne Hood |
| This month we celebrate Easter and Christians from around the world will be talking about the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But do we fully understand all that He did for us? Sometimes I don’t think so. Rev. 14:8 uses the phrase “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. Do we really understand that phrase? Before God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1), God the Father may have turned to His Son and said something like, If we create this world, you’re a dead man!”. For before Christ created this world, He looked ahead and knew Adam and Eve would sin and bring death (both physical and eternal separation from God) into this new world. He also knew that it would require His death to pay for sin so we could be cleansed from our sin through His blood. Can you imagine before creation, Christ looking far ahead into time and seeing His own crucifixion? We know God hates sin, it makes Him sick. Yet in 2 Corinthian 5:21 we read, “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin,”. Christ knew He would have to BECOME sin on that cross. Every sin that was ever committed would be placed on Him as He hung on that cross. He knew before He created us that He would have to become that which He hates! And if that were not enough, His Father whom, He had always been with from eternity past, He would at the cross have to be separated from. |
And, of course, we are all aware of the agony He suffered with all the beatings, the stripes on His back, the crown of thorns on His head, hanging completely naked for all the world to see and everything else that went into that crucifixion. Why would God go through all that? Because when He saw the crucifixion before He even created this world, I believe He saw you. And the only way He could have you with Him throughout all eternity would be to endure the cross and all that went with it. So the next time you read “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, remember all that it entailed and you, too, will cry out, “What a God! What a Savior!”. |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |