WHY DID GOD NEED A LAMB?

 

Jesus, Son of Man, Lamb of God.

 

All men, according to the Word of God, are made and continue to be made in the image of God.

But this does not mean any man IS God.   Genesis 9: 6     Colossians 1: 15

Jesus was sent by God out of the realm of the heavens and was birthed as A MAN.   John 3: 13.

God by His Spirit overshadowed Mary and all that was necessary to create Jesus as a man, in the image of God, was placed in a body prepared by God.   Hebrews 10: 5-7    Isaiah 7: 14-16.

Jesus’ Blood, that was his Life, was supplied by God The Father Himself and not by the one called Joseph.

Jesus lived as other men in the presence of Death but in his blood were no defilements of any sort, because God had supplied his blood.

(God ‘supplied’ the blood but it can not be said it was literally God’s Blood for God is not flesh and blood but Spirit.)

Due to this fact Jesus would not be hindered by that which would normally hinder men, i.e. ancestral bondages, hereditary sicknesses etc.

Jesus came to be The Son of Man, the one who when created by God into the womb of Mary was to be the second Adam, through whom all mankind can escape if they choose to from death and enter life.

1 Corinthians 15: 20-22    Galatians 3: 22

 

He was the child, who was to be of the House of David,   Romans 1: 3

He was The Son whose name means THE MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER IS PLANNING GRACE.     Isaiah 9: 6   Hebrew Tanakh

He was to be A MAN and by his death and resurrection, God would break the yolk of the curse of the Law of Sin and Death that all mankind are born into.

He would give his body.   Colossians 1: 20-22,  he would shed his blood by God’s demand.

A MAN whom God called His Son.

A MAN who was to shed God’s blood.

A MAN as God’s Lamb and to be His Burnt Offering.   Genesis 22: 8  (Tanakh)

God was to die.    Acts 20: 28

Jesus was to be God’s Lamb according to the O.T. regulations and stipulations of sacrifice.

Just as the men in the Old Testament killed their lamb and it was in place of them dying so Jesus was God’s Lamb in place of God’s dying!

 

So Jesus was GOD’S SUBSTITUTE, because Jesus was God’s Lamb.

THE VICARIOUS WORK WAS FOR GOD – AS JESUS SHED HIS BLOOD  -  IN GOD’S PLACE.

 

This was to fulfil God’s CRITERIA of mans total redemption where it required A MAN, by which God’s blood be shed.   Genesis 9: 5-6     Acts 20: 28

(See Criteria Of The Blood)

Jesus, God’s Lamb as A MAN had to learn to choose between good and evil,  Isaiah 7: 15.

He grew in wisdom and stature and in favour WITH GOD and MAN.   Luke 2: 52.

He learned obedience through suffering.    Hebrews 5: 7-10.

 

He calls us brothers and those Baptised with Holy Spirit are Sons of God, who are co-heirs with Christ.  Those for whom he was made perfect through suffering and this was not just on the cross and going into death but in his total life as The Son of Man.   Hebrews 2: 11 & 18.

 

He would have gone to the temple and sacrificed as God demanded in His Law.

He had been circumcised according to God’s Law.    Luke 2: 21

At the age of 30 he was brought into public ministry at the time when he was Baptised with the Spirit of God Himself when he received God’s fullness, to fulfil the words of the Prophets that his name should be called Emmanuel, meaning  ‘God with us’.   Colossians 1: 19    1 Peter 1: 10-12.

He was anointed by God.    Acts 10: 36-38.

He was God’s Word, he preached every word according to what and how it was to be said.   John 12: 47-50.

He continues to be God’s Word.    Revelation 19: 13.

It is his Name.

He was what God expected of him.  He was God’s Word of expectation.

 

The Father Himself several times spoke to Jesus confirming THE SON OF MAN AS BEING HIS SON.

But in regard to him being in the “position of The Son of God”, as Christ and Lord and High Priest of the order of God’s priesthood, i.e. Melchizedek, it was not until his resurrection that he entered into the POSITION of what the Son of God was and is now.    Romans 1: 3-4.

 

God declared this,  Hebrews 5: 5-6.

Jesus AS THE SON OF MAN WAS God’s Lamb, God’s Word and to be The Way for mankind, from Death to Life for those who would trust in the work of God’s shed blood and be reconciled to God through the giving of his body unto death.

Colossians 1: 20-22    Galatians 3: 22.

THE MAN who ‘MUST’ die as God’s substitute because God cannot die.  God cannot enter death, but it was being called for that God shed His Blood.

 

The question is how can God die?  And how does it come to be that it is the requirement of God Himself, to shed His blood and that by A MAN?

 

The answer is because of His own CRITERIA which is His rule or standard for mans full redemption, whether under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant.

He made this in  Genesis 9: 5-6 to Noah after the flood, which was for all people of the earth.  There is to be an accounting for the shed blood of a man, and not only of mankind, who are in the image of God, but every animal.  According to God’s Word which is irrevocable.  N.B. Animals which were the sacrifices given by men to die in their place.

 

As time continued men shed their blood and that through the killing of an animal WHICH WAS THE MAN’S SUBSTITUTE FOR HIS LIFE BLOOD.

Both the man and the animal were accountable and by God’s DEMAND which is the condition for accountability.

They shed their blood on the demand of God, by God causing them to shed their blood through the SACRIFICES (Leviticus Chapters 1 to 7     Genesis 15: 9-18)  and CIRCUMCISION (Genesis 17: 9-14) which they did in obedience to God because of their LOVE for Him.  (This was very important.)

 

These men were seen as holy men and credited righteousness by God.  Genesis 6: 8, 9, 27.

They were given Promises by God, through the shedding of blood.  Not only forgiveness of sins and maintaining redemptive care in their daily lives but promises of an eternal city and gaining entrance into it.   Hebrews 11: 13-16,  39.

When these men died they did not go to heaven, but Paradise, yet He still knew and remembered them.    Deuteronomy 33: 2-3     John 3: 13.

 

1.  They could not enter heaven because of God’s own unchanging word regarding the curse of the Law of Sin and Death.   Genesis 2: 16  &  Genesis 3: 21-24.

                                           AND

2.  The Testator (God) could not die, which was the requirement under the Law for anyone to inherit what is Promised them.    Hebrews 9: 16.

 

This is why God was to shed His Blood and how He came to be in the position to have to, because it was according to His Own CRITERIA, His Own Word which was accomplished according to the O.T. stipulations and regulations by His plan.

So that all righteous mankind who desire to believe God could go straight to Heaven and enter where no one had entered, up to the time of Jesus coming as the Son of Man.

John 3: 13     Ephesians 2: 6.

 

Why did God need to shed His Blood?

Because of His love for those to whom He had made promises of an eternal city.

Hebrews 11: 13-16.

 

He needed to make a way for man to come to Him, to be delivered out of the Realm of Death and its law of Sin, by which no man could know life eternal but only its judgement.    Revelation 20: 11-15.

 

The Holy Ones were righteous before God in spite of the Curse.

It’s the promises that were blocked by the Curse.

So it was required that God’s own Word regarding the curse be revoked, so that it be possible for all men to be saved.

The condition being that man chooses God’s Way of Salvation.

Galatians 3: 22.

 

So by shedding His own Blood He could deliver mankind as they choose to be delivered from death and bring them not only into life itself but to spiritually sit them in the heavens, while a man is still physically alive.  To know God, to ask of Him, and be taught by Him.

John 16: 13-15    1 Corinthians 2: 10    Ephesians 2: 6    Colossians 3: 1-3

 

This CRITERIA was a wonderful intricate plan of God the Father.

For God to shed His Blood for a world he loved was at great cost to Himself, in sending His Son, the one who came in loving obedience to His God and Father.

Jesus to be God’s Lamb and Burnt Offering for the total purposes of God.  All was planned by the operation of the CRITERIA of God.    Genesis 9: 6.

However to the prophets He did not reveal all.      1 Peter 1: 10-12.

 

The CRITERIA that to many was vague and without knowing the connection to the shedding of blood through animals.  But God’s love and faithfulness is predominant always so that we see the cross as a DEMONSTRATION OF JUSTICE.

Romans 3: 25, so that for all who would be righteous before God before and after the cross, where God would shed His Blood through His Son, could enter into the Promises of God.

Acts 20: 28    Hebrews 8: 8-12    Hebrews 10: 10-18    Hebrews 9: 15.

 

Jesus died – shedding God’s Blood as God planned,  IMMEDIATELY THE HOLY ONES WERE RAISED just as the Temple curtain was torn from top to bottom.

For God’s own CRITERIA had been accounted for.

Matthew 27: 51-53     Hebrews 9: 15-16.

That is He who had demanded that MAN shed their blood, figuratively, in lieu of God’s promises, He shed His Blood by His Lamb.  This made it possible for the Promises to be received.

Because God’s Word regarding the curse of the Law of Sin and Death was revoked by the death of him who was God’s Word,  i.e. Jesus.     Romans 8: 1-2.

 

Jesus as God’s Lamb and Word accomplished God’s CRITERIA by his death.

That is in giving himself to be God’s Lamb.    John 1: 29     Isaiah 9: 1-6

He was ‘The Child – The Son’  whose name meant  “The Might God is planning grace; The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler”.  Hebrew Tanakh.

At the cross by the shed blood, Jesus did a VICARIOUS work.  HE WAS GOD’S SUBSTITUTE  -  GOD’S LAMB.

 

Dying for mankind however, Jesus gave his body and having died he went into death and was raised out of it by His God and father.

1 Peter 3: 18-19    Ephesians 1: 19    Galatians 1: 1     Colossians 1: 20-22.

 

This is where Jesus descended into death and it is here he is MANS SUBSTITUTE.

By going into death so that we, like Jesus could be raised out of death by God Himself.

Colossians 2: 9-13    Romans 6: 3-14    1 Corinthians 15: 20-22    1 Peter 3: 18-22

This work is EFFICACIOUS.  That is, what it accomplished, is what was purposed by God, and it is a VICARIOUS work for man, because it is here MAN DIES and it is NOT when he comes to the cross BUT at the time of being Baptised with Holy Spirit,  Galatians 2: 20,    Romans 6: 3-14,  sure to produce the desired effect if trusted in.

Matthew 3: 11-12 (Mark 16: 16 but condemned if not trusted in,  -  this verse is not speaking of water baptism but Spirit).

 

Jesus made the Way of deliverance out of death so when we are raised out of death by God Himself, it is said we have been spiritually circumcised of death and are now in Life.  Which then results in us being Baptised with Holy Spirit.

We are redeemed by the work achieved by the cross.  (Jesus died IN ORDER THAT WE QUALIFY to receive the Baptism with Holy Spirit where I die, FIGURATIVELY.)   Galatians 3: 14

We are then to continue to die to self and alive to God’s Will – for real – so that God’s criteria is operative.

Matthew 7: 21-23    Galatians 2: 20    Galatians 3: 14    Romans 6: 3-14    Colossians 2: 9-14    Matthew 3: 11-12  takes place,   Romans 8: 1-2  is the result.

Jesus paved the Way out of death according to God’s purposes so that we can come, out of death, to God Himself.    Romans 8: 1-2,     John 14: 13-17.

The Baptism with Holy Spirit is to be asked for as evidence of our love for Christ and the keeping of his commandments.    Acts 1: 4-5    John 13: 34

 

And by this we have received the Promise of the shed Blood of God by Christ.

Hebrews 9: 22     Hebrews 10: 22.

Both the work of the cross and the Baptism with Holy Spirit are only received and operative for us as WE CHOOSE to believe and act upon what wonderful work both God and Christ have done for us.

Galatians 3: 22    Galatians 3: 14     John 14: 13.

 

After Jesus’ resurrection he ascended into Heaven to His God and Father.   Acts 2: 31-36.

With him went the Holy Ones who are now present as the foundation of the Spiritual Temple of God, of which Christ is the Cornerstone.

Christ went through the heavens and the Holy Ones understood at last the wonderful Salvation God had planned and how He did it.

1 Peter 1: 10-12     Ezekiel Chapters 40 – 47     Hebrews 9: 24****

(Matthew 27: 51-53)    Ephesians 4: 10    Ephesians 2: 18-22    Hebrews 12: 22-24

 

The criteria operated even for Jesus.   John 17: 5    Acts 2: 33-36.

NOTE:  Finally.  It was God’s initial purpose in making man to fill the heavens and the earth but due to the curse of the fall, this was curtailed,  Isaiah 45: 18.

Jesus ascended to heaven in order that he fill the whole universe.   Ephesians 4: 10 so that men in the image of God who are called the Church, that is those IN CHRIST, (Baptised with Holy Spirit,  1 Corinthians 12: 13-18), are to be the manifold wisdom of God to all rulers and authorities in heavenly realms.   Ephesians 3: 10-12.

 

The Church is what God shed His Blood for.  He shed His Blood on behalf of the Holy Ones of the Old Testament.  The Church, are those who God has made to be Holy and Blameless through His shed Blood by Christ and the PROMISE OF THE BLOOD is the Baptism with Holy Spirit, which is to be Baptised into God’s Spirit and that by Christ.

Acts 20: 28    John 1: 29-34    Galatians 3: 14    1 John 2: 2    1 John 4: 7-18.

 

The CRITERIA is still to be seen as operative by those who are Sons of God, while continuing on and knowing all the while God’s Covenant Promise to Sons of God, of Him writing His Laws on our hearts and in our minds, and being our God.

Hebrews 8: 10-12     Hebrews 10: 15-18     John 16: 23-28.

 

We are to continue to die to our own will and self purposes – in doing this we are figuratively shedding our blood.  We are to do God’s Will and then the Promises of the CRITERIA as Sons of God shall work for us, in that we shall inherit and rule with Christ.

Romans 12: 1-2    2 Corinthians 5: 10    Matthew 7: 21-23    Revelation 2: 27-29    Revelation 20: 6.

 

We shall finally enter the Eternal City, only after Christ has fulfilled his role as King for a 1,000 years on David’s Throne and God has accomplished all judgments.    Revelation 20: 11-15

Consider  Colossians 1: 23  and  Hebrews 10: 29-31.

Jesus came for the purposes of God out of Heaven and came as the Son of Man.

All the while he was The Son of God, but did not come into this full position and all that it meant until his resurrection and returning to heaven to a glory BEYOND THAT GLORY WHICH HE HAD BEFORE HE CAME as the Son of Man.  The CRITERIA also worked for him.  That was God’s plan.   Amen.

John 17: 5     Acts 2: 31-36.

Also the titles of the Churches in Revelation speak of Christ’s present glory, with Revelation 19: 11-21  and  Daniel 7: 13-14     Daniel 7: 27.

 

By the Blood of God shed by Christ vicariously and by the Spirit of God into whom we are Baptised we are to know THE NEW COVENANT PROMISE:

 

Hebrews 8: 10-12     Hebrews 10: 15-18.   Note  warning promised to Israel – but it is for all mankind and by their choice they shall know judgment, according to their choice of who is their God.

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