Behold, the Lamb of God

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary

Short Summary
The discourse explores the biblical significance of the word “behold,” highlighting its use to signal important revelations, such as God’s provision in Genesis and Pilate’s presentation of Jesus as “behold the man.” It delves deeply into Jesus’ unique nature as the Lamb of God who takes away sin, emphasizing that His sacrifice offers what animal offerings could not: a complete cleansing of conscience through justification and the Holy Spirit, enabling true inner transformation and ultimately the eradication of sin and death. The reflection concludes by encouraging personal spiritual growth and reliance on God’s grace in the ongoing process of transformation.

Long Summary
Introduction to the word “Behold” in the Bible:
– The word “behold” is often used by statesmen and in significant biblical passages to signal important statements.
– First usage is in Genesis 1:29:
*”Then God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you.”*
– “Behold” commands attention, signaling something crucial is about to be declared.
– Next appearance: Genesis 6:12 — describing God’s observation of a corrupt earth:
*”God looked at the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”*
– The seriousness of corruption led to the flood that wiped out the first human civilization.

Frequency and significance of “Behold”:
– More frequent in the Old Testament, especially Jeremiah (~130 times).
– In the New Testament, Matthew (60 times), Luke (52 times), John and Revelation (26 times).
– Famous usage: Pilate’s statement in John 19:5:
*”Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man.”*
– Pilate’s words might have been ironic or a plea for pity, unaware of Jesus’ true identity.
– Retrospectively, “behold the man” is profound: Jesus was uniquely qualified, voluntarily sacrificing His life for eternal life to be possible for all.

Jesus’ unique nature:
– Born of Mary but fathered by God, making Him free from Adam’s genetic curse (aging and death).
– Despite a perfect body, Jesus was exposed to decay in a fallen world.
– Israel’s covenant promised divine protection for those obeying God’s law, possibly sustaining Jesus physically.
– Moral perfection: Even at age 12, Jesus showed dedication to God’s will (Luke 2:49):
*”Did you not know I had to be in my Father’s house?”*
– As an adult, He lived without sin.

John the Baptist’s use of “Behold”:
– John 1:29:
*”The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”*
– The title “Lamb of God” appears only twice, both times by John the Baptist.
– John 1:30-34 reveals John’s recognition of Jesus’ divine mission and pre-existence:
*”After me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.”*
– John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the Son of God by the Spirit descending like a dove upon Him.

Meaning of “Lamb of God”:
– Lamb was the primary sacrificial animal in Israel, used daily and during festivals.
– Passover lamb symbolism: blood on doorposts protected Israelites from death in Egypt, symbolizing faithfulness and loyalty to God.
– The lamb represents gentleness and sacrifice; also a rejection of Egyptian pagan worship.
– Isaiah 53:7-8 prophecy describes the Messiah as a lamb led to slaughter, silent before His accusers.
– This prophecy was pivotal in early Christian evangelism (Acts 8:32-35).
– In Revelation, the Lamb is portrayed as slain yet alive, holding seven horns and seven eyes (Revelation 5:6).
– Revelation 22:1-5 describes the Lamb’s throne in the new kingdom, where sin and curse are no more.

The work of Jesus in “taking away sin”:
– The phrase implies complete removal of sin, not just forgiveness.
– Romans 5:12 emphasizes sin entered through Adam, causing death, even before the law was given.
– Sin relates to breaking God’s moral law written in conscience, not merely human law.
– Revelation 20:14 describes the ultimate destruction of death and sin (lake of fire).
– Sin’s removal requires transformation of human conscience to fully obey God’s law.

Limitations of the Old Testament animal sacrifices:
– Hebrews 10:4,11 states animal sacrifices could not take away sin permanently.
– They only cleansed ceremonial uncleanness and specific sins temporarily.
– They prevented God’s punishment but could not change the sinner’s inner nature.
– Christ’s sacrifice is unique (Hebrews 10:12; 9:14):
*”He offered one sacrifice for sin for all time,”* cleansing conscience and enabling service to God.

Justification and the Holy Spirit as essentials for spiritual transformation:
– Justification: Being declared righteous through faith in Christ (Romans 3:20,24-26; Romans 4).
– Faith credits righteousness, not works (Romans 4:5).
– The Holy Spirit enables believers to put to death sinful deeds and live according to God (Romans 8:13-14; Galatians 4:4-6).
– The Spirit leads to inner renewal and transformation.
– Joel 2:28-29 prophesies the Spirit poured out on all humanity in the future new covenant.

Summary of John the Baptist’s declaration:
– “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” encapsulates:
– Jesus as the divinely appointed sacrifice, replacing animal sacrifices.
– The provision of justification and the Holy Spirit for inner cleansing and transformation.
– The ultimate goal of completely removing sin and death from the world.

Personal application and reflection before the memorial:
– Spiritual growth requires active engagement; it is not automatic.
– Self-examination is needed: Are we progressing in spiritual transformation? Are we listening to and obeying the Spirit?
– Reliance on justification and God’s help is essential to persevere despite failures.
– Continuous effort and faith are necessary to advance spiritually.

Key Bible Verses Cited:
– Genesis 1:29
– Genesis 6:12
– John 19:5
– John 1:29-34
– Isaiah 53:7-8
– Revelation 5:6
– Revelation 22:1-5
– Romans 5:12
– Hebrews 10:4, 10-12
– Hebrews 9:14
– Romans 3:20, 24-26
– Romans 4:4-5, 24-25
– Romans 5:18-19
– Galatians 4:4-6
– Romans 8:13-14
– Joel 2:28-29

This discourse explores the biblical significance of the word “behold,” focusing on Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away sin, the uniqueness of His nature and mission, the limitations of Old Testament sacrifices, and the essential roles of justification and the Holy Spirit in spiritual transformation and ultimate sin removal. It encourages personal reflection and commitment in preparation for the memorial.

Transcript

Many statesmen in the Bible starts with the word behold. The very first time God uses in Genesis 1:29 when he speaks directly to Adam and Eve.

Then God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface, all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you. Behold can carry different shades of meaning, but in the Bible it’s almost always the signal stop and pay close attention because something important is coming. The next time this word appears in the Scripture is in Genesis 6:12.

God looked at the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. This verse describes what God saw when he looked at the earth. The word behold is placed right before his verdict to make sure we don’t miss how serious it was. The earth was corrupt. We know how that story ended.

The flood wiped out the first human civilization.

The word behold appears far more often in the Old Testament than in New 1. Jeremiah uses it most about 130 times in the New Testament. Matthew leads with about 60 occurrences, followed by Luke with 52 and John in Revelation with about 26. One particular use of this word became famous throughout the Christian world, especially in its Latin form, ecce homo, meaning behold the man. These words were spoken by Pilate and recorded in John 19:5.

Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man.

What did Pilate actually meant by that? Maybe he was trying to stir some pity, pointing to the blooded Jesus and saying, ironically, look at this man. Can he really be a threat to anyone? Or maybe it was an acknowledgement that even after the brutal flogging, Jesus still hadn’t lost his dignity and Pilate genuinely couldn’t find any real charge against him. Pilate had no idea who he was really looking at.

But looking back with everything we now know we can see he accidentally spoke a profound truth about the man before him. He was indeed the man, the only person at the moment in history who fully deserved this title, who was voluntarily laying down his perfect life so that eternal life could become possible for Pilate, for the soldiers beating and crucifying him, and for the crowd screaming for his death.

The phrase behold the man has captured the imagination of artists, writers and composer for centuries. Actually the Latin form at te homo. If I’m not mistaken, the COVID of the for this Cause video cassette the depicts exactly this scene.

When we reflect on those words today, behold a man. We can appreciate just how extraordinary Jesus really was. His family was of royal descent, but Living in poverty, he himself was born in condition barely fit for animals, and yet he stands apart from every person who ever lived. He was the only person in history who didn’t inherit Adam’s genetic legacy.

We believe that while he was born of Mary, his father was God himself. Which means he wasn’t born under the same curse of aging and death that every descendant of Adam carries. In practical terms, his body probably didn’t deteriorate the way ours do.

But even perfect body needs a perfect environment and nourishment to sustain itself. Living in fallen world, Jesus body was exposed to the same decay and corruption as everybody else. That said, Israel had a special covenant with God that promised divine protection for those who kept his law. It is possible that this divine protection would offset the effect of corrupted environment and could have sustained Jesus in eternal life on earth.

But physical nature alone wasn’t enough. There was also a moral requirement. Living without ever breaking God’s law. Even as a 12 year old, Jesus showed where his heart was. When his parents found him in the temple, he said to them, why is that you were looking for me?

Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s home? In those words you can see his desire to understand and live by his Father’s will. If that was his heart at age 12, we can be sure it only grew stronger as he matured, and as an adult, he was able to live without sin.

So when we hear Pilate say behold the man, here is what it really means to us. Jesus was the only person that had both the right nature, a body free from the genetic curse of death, and the right character being completely obedient to God’s law to live forever on earth.

About three and a half years before that moment with Pilate, John the Baptist also used the word behold to describe Jesus coming towards him. We read it in John 1:29.

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In this case there is no doubt. This declaration is clearly prophetic. John calls Jesus a Lamb of God. That title or name appears just twice in the Bible, and both times it’s John the Baptist that says it.

We already quoted the first time. The second time happens the next day.

Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, behold the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. It was his testimony that led some of John’s own disciples to become disciples of Jesus.

Since this name, the Lamb of God, does not exist anywhere in the Bible, why John the Baptist used that name and what does it mean? We’ll attempt to answer this question later in our discussion.

John the Baptist knew far more about Jesus than Pilate did. He was Jesus cousin. They may never have actually met growing up, but John must have heard things about him from his mother. In verses 30 to 34, he tells us what he really knew and what was revealed to him by God himself.

This is he on behalf of whom I said, after me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. I did not recognize him, but saw so that he might be manifested to Israel. I came baptizing in water. John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he remained upon him. I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, he upon whom you see the Spirit descending and mining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.

I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.

It is worth pausing and emphasizing one detail. John says, after me comes a man who had a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. We can ask who was older. We know that John the Baptist was older by about six months.

So why does he say Jesus existed before him? This tells us something important. At the moment John made this statement, only he alone knew about Jesus pre human existence. Mary knew that her son was the Son of God, but she knew nothing about his existence. Before his birth.

John the Baptist apparently received a revelation that explained not only his own mission, but also this unknown truth about the one he was preparing the way for.

And he also knew that ultimate purpose of Jesus work, the taking away of sin.

It is interesting that the apostle John picks up this expression from John the Baptist and uses it in his first letter. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. The apostle Paul also talks about taking away of sin in Hebrew 10:4.

For it is impossible for the blood of bull and goats to take away sins. In this verse, Paul writes that the blood of bull and goats cannot take away sins. Then in verse 12 he he writes, but he, having offered one sacrifice for sin for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. So what the blood of animals couldn’t do, the blood of Jesus can. It is able to take away sins.

But what does it actually mean to take away sin? Is it just forgiveness? Or is it something deeper included in that phrase.

Let’s think through these two aspects of what John the Baptist said, why he calls Jesus the Lamb of God, and what it means that sins are taken away.

Let’s start with the first question. Why does John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God? Honestly, we will probably only know the full answer when we get to ask John the Baptist that question face to face. For now, we can only offer a few suggestions. The most obvious connection that might come to mind, especially with the memorial approaching, is the Passover lamp.

The connection gives to us APostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 5:7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lamp, just as you are in fact unleavened for Christ. Our Passover also has been sacrificed, but Paul’s letter didn’t exist yet in John’s time and we can’t be sure that this is what John meant. What we can say with certainty is the lamb was the most common sacrificial animal in all Israel. The scale of lamb sacrifices in ancient Israel is remarkable.

Every single day there were two lambs sacrifice, one in the morning and one in the evening. Every Sabbath two additional lamps were sacrificed. Every new moon monthly additional seven lamps were sacrificed during the festival of unleavened bread two additional lamps each each day for seven days Festival of weeks Pentecost seven additional lamps Festival of Trumpets Rosh Hashanah seven additional lamps Day of Atonement Yom Kippur and here Descriptions are different in different parts of Bio Bible but let’s assume seven additional lamps Festival of Tabernacles Sukkot 14 lamps per day for seven days plus seven on eighth day.

That adds up to roughly 1058 lamps a year, and that’s not even counting voluntary offering or the Passover. For Passover, the number of lambs depends on how many people came to Jerusalem. One estimate from the time of King Josiah puts it around 30,000 lambs. Josephus, writing about time near John the Baptist’s area era, suggested in it could have reached as many as 256,000, though that figure is disputed since it is hard to imagine that many animals being slaughtered in the single day.

And supposedly it was only three hour window.

Whatever the exact number were. One thing is clear, an enormous number of lambs were sacrificed in Israel every year, and this wasn’t a human tradition. God himself ordained it. The lamb was apparently chosen for its gentleness and specific qualities.

We probably could find a discourse that describes why God chose chose the lamb as this particular animal above all other Animals, and it’s probably those same qualities that made the lamb the right choice at the original Passover lamb in Egypt, when its blood on the doorposts protected Israel’s firstborn. Why Egypt’s firstborn Firstborn died.

There may have been another reason for choosing the lamb in Egypt. Specifically, rams and lambs were actually worshiped in Egypt as symbol of fertility and divine power. For an Israelite to slaughter a lamb in their home was a public act of rejection of Egyptian religion and declaration of loyalty to the one God of Egypt, Israel.

Later in Israel’s history, there were many ideas how to understand symbolic meaning of the Passover lamb. The blood of the lamb came to symbolize faithfulness to the covenant. The requirement to share a Passover lamb with neighbors if your family was too small for a whole one, also carried symbolic meaning. It builds a community of mutual support. There is also a connection to the ram that God provided when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac.

Just as that ram substituted for Isaac, the Passover lamb rescued Israel’s firstborn, enabling their liberation from slavery and the birth of of the nation.

For us, the symbolic meaning goes deeper. We see the period of Egyptian slavery as a picture of humanity in Satan’s bondage sunk into sin that brings death. The death and blood of the lamb has the power to free humanity from that bondage. Just as the blood on the doorposts protected Israel’s firstborn on the first Passover night, so in the gospel age, the death of our Lord frees from sin and secures life for those who follow him.

It was God himself who commanded that the lamp be the central offering in all those sacrifices were listed. So when he directed Isaiah to write his famous prophecy about his servant, he described him as a lamp led to slaughter. This was the passage a high official of the Egyptian queen was reading when he met Philip on the road. Isaiah 53, 7, 8.

He was oppressed and and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its sharers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.

The official asked Philip, is Isaiah writing about himself or somebody else? Philip started with that very passage and explained the good news of the Lamb of God who died to justify many and birth their iniquities, and Isaiah writes, as Isaiah writes in verse 11 the official believed and was baptized. It is reasonable guess that this Isaiah prophecy was exactly what John the Baptist had in mind when he said behold the Lamb of God. Using this name, he was saying God himself chose this man for this role and gave him this name.

Outside of John the Baptist statement, the title Lamb is almost never used for our Lord in the Gospels or the letters of the apostle. But that changes in the book of Revelation. There the word lamp is nearly always used to refer to our Lord. The first time it appears, it comes with fuller description. A lamb as if slain.

Pointing to why the lamp holds such an exalted position, we read it in Revelation 5, 6, and I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamp standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirit of God sent out into all the earth, and the last time the title lamp appears in the Revelation is in the vision of the world at the end of the resurrection process. These verses give us a picture of the future kingdom.

Verses from Revelation 22, verses 1 to 5. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street, on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of tree were for the healing of the nation.

There will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of Lamb will be in it, and his bondservant will serve him.

They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads.

And there will no longer be any night, and there will now have need for the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them, and they will reign forever and ever. What a magnificent picture of the coming kingdom of God, the ultimate crowning achievement of our Lord’s work.

Let’s come back to the second thing. John the Baptist said that our Lord’s work would be taking away of sin.

Polish translation used word and that word strongly suggests a complete removal, a state where sin simply ceases to exist. What does it actually look like for sin not to exist anymore? One approach is to connect sin to law and say that sin doesn’t exist when there is no law to define it. That’s how human law works. If there is no law that says that something is forbidden, it is not a crime.

But the apostle Paul argues that sin is not just merely breaking a set of rules. In Romans, chapter 5, starting at verse 12 he traces the history of sin in the world.

Therefore, just as though one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sin. For until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come. Paul’s point is that sin is more than just breaking a written code.

Even before the law of Moses existed, sin was already causing death. That means sin also involves transgression of unwritten moral principles that God has built into the human conscience and the conscience, and the consequence of sin is death. But Revelation tells us that death will one day be destroyed, or as Revelation tells 2014 puts it, thrown into the lake of fire, which means it will simply cease to exist. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. Death won’t end because the laws that condemn humanity to die for sin will be abolished. It will end because the cause of death, sin itself, will be eliminated. For that to happen, the human conscience must be genuinely transformed so that people are capable of keeping not just society’s law, but the unwritten inner law of conscience. Only when that transformation takes place will the new world order we read about in Revelation 22 become possible.

When Apostle Paul describes the ineffectiveness of the law, he writes, in Hebrew 10:11, every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. Now, were the animal sacrifices under the law of Moses completely useless? Paul doesn’t say that. Quite the opposite. In Hebrew 9:13 he writes, for if, as in the case, the blood of bulls, of goats, and the ashes of heifer sprinkling, those who are in the state of uncleanness, set that person apart with reference to the purity of the flesh.

That means that the annual sacrifices indeed were able to cleanse those who were unclean or in the state of sin. But earlier, in Hebrew 10:4 and 10:11, he says, for it is impossible for blood of bulls and ghosts to take away sin, and in 1011, every priest stands daily ministering, okay, I think we already had it. Offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. How do we reconcile those two statements?

Here’s the key. The animal sacrifices could cleanse someone from specific sin that they had already committed. If someone recognized they had sinned, they could offer an animal sacrifice and be freed from the consequences of that particular sin. Those sacrifices were essential. They protected the whole community of Israel from God’s punishment.

And history shows that when Israel neglected them, those punishments did come. But what those sacrifices could never do was produce an inner transformation, a deep change in the conscience that would actually prevent a person from sin again. What animal sacrifices couldn’t accomplish, the sacrifice of Christ does. Paul describes it in Hebrews 10:12 and 9:14.

But he, having offered one sacrifice for sin for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without a blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? There is the crucial difference. Our conscience can be cleansed in a way that actually enables us to recognize sin and avoid it. But for that inner renewal to be possible, two additional things are justification and the Holy Spirit. Paul explains the law’s fundamental limitation in Romans 3:20.

Because by the work of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. From this verse we learn that there was no way for anyone to be justified, to be considered righteous without bringing the required sacrifices. A few verses later, Paul explains what Christ’s sacrifice provides. Romans 3:24, 26 being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith.

This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of of the one who has faith in Jesus. Whoever believes in Jesus can be justified there can be seen as a righteous before God, even though in reality they still stumble and fall. Paul develops this theme Further in Romans 4:4, 5, Romans 4:24, 25 and Romans 5 and 18 and 19. 4 to 5. Now to 1.

Now to the 1 who works his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, the faith is credited as a righteousness.

Okay, sorry, 24, 25. But for our sake also to whom it will be credited as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He who was delivered over because of our transgression and was raised because of our justification, and finally, 5 18, 19.

So then, as though one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so though one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as though the one man disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. In summary, justification is the key element needed for inner regeneration. It can be obtained through faith during the gospel age and through the existence of the mediator between God and humanity in the millennial age. This is the first element essential to the destruction of sin, one that is provided through Christ’s sacrifice and didn’t exist under the law covenant.

The second essential element is the Holy Spirit. Paul addresses this in several places and let’s start with Galatians 44546 but when the fullness of the time comes, God sent forth His Son born of woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, and that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying abba Father, those who believe in Christ are adopted as God’s children, and God sends His own Spirit into their hearts. But Paul also notes in Romans 8:23 that what believers receive now is only the first fruits.

And not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons. The redemption of our body Full measure of the Spirit comes when believers are transformed to Spirit nature. Right now faith is the only way to becoming a child of God and receiving His Holy Spirit. Galatians 3:5 so then does he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the law or by hearing, with faith?

And Paul explains in Romans 8:13, 14 why we receive the Holy Spirit. For if you are living according to flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live for all who are being led by the Spirit of God. These are sons of God. The Spirit is given to help us put to death the deeds of the flesh, to see the world from God’s perspective.

This is exactly what we talked about earlier. The Spirit helps us transform our minds and consciousness so we can learn to live in line with God’s law and his will.

All of this applies to believers in the gospel age. But if the presence of the Holy Spirit is necessary for inner renewal, then the people of the future age will need it too, and indeed the prophet Joel speaks of the Spirit being poured out on all humanity.

It will come about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind and and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants. I will pour out my Spirit in those days. These words are addressed primarily to Israel, but we believe that they apply to anyone who will choose to come under the protection and blessing the new covenant.

After reading all these passages, we can go back to John the Baptist’s words, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and now we can connect that phrase, who takes away the sin of the world? To everything we just studied. Indeed, the purpose of sacrifice of Christ is to completely eliminate sin from this world. We see that it also provides all the necessary elements to get that job done.

It gives what the law could never give, justification and the ability to receive the Holy Spirit, both of which are absolutely essential for the inner spiritual transformation that that will ultimately wipe the sin from this world.

We are preparing for the memorial at this time, and our spiritual development is often on our mind. We have to remember that it doesn’t happen automatically and AI is not ready at this stage for our prompt. Check my character flaws and make the necessary corrections.

This verse about putting to death the deeds of flesh by the Spirit reminds us that we have to be actively engaged in this process. The seasons before the memorial is a time for honest reflection. Am I actually making progress in this transformation? And to what degree am I protecting the Spirit within me from forces that are trying to put it on? Am I learning to listen to its quiet voice, to recognize its guidance?

Do I have enough spiritual strength and determination to actually follow through on what it’s telling me? Honestly, we’ll often have to answer, not yet, not quite, and that’s exactly why we need to lean on our justification to be able to get back up and keep going. That time I didn’t manage it, but I will try again, maybe with a little more attention and a little more reliance on God’s help. I hope this reflection have been helpful.

Thank you, brethren.

Click Here for the PDF transcript.