THE
LAMB OF GOD
SLAIN
FROM THE FOUNDATION OF
THE WORLD
Gary Ray Branscome
Jesus Christ is, “The lamb of God slain from
the
foundation of the world // The lamb of God, which takes away the sin of
the
world.” (Revelation 13:8, John 1:29)
Scripture’s reference to
Christ as, “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” tells us
that the
efficacy or effect of His sacrifice is not limited by time, but has
been
available to all men “from the foundation of the world” – just as if it
had
been made before the creation of the world. Or to put it another way,
“the
efficacy of His Son's death extended backward as it also extends
forward from
that day on
Because the efficacy of
Christ's sacrifice is not limited by time, the covenant of grace is
actually
older than the covenant of the law, and those believers who lived and
died
prior to the time of Christ were justified and saved in the same way we
are
justified and saved. In fact, that is exactly what the Apostle Paul was
trying
to tell us when he said, “The covenant, that was confirmed before of
God in
Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot
disannul” (Galatians
If Abraham had been
justified by his works he would have had something to be proud of, but
his
works were not what pleased God, for the Bible says that “Abraham
believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:2-3).
Moreover, I would
like you to take special notice of the word “righteousness,” for only
one thing
can make a person righteous in the sight of God and that is the total
and
complete forgiveness of sins (Romans 10:4). Therefore, since the blood
of bulls
and goats cannot take away sin, Abraham’s sins had to be washed away by
the
blood of Christ, and that fact is proof positive that he had access to
the same
forgiveness that we do (Hebrews 10:4, Acts 4:12).
Because Job was trusting in
that forgiveness, he could speak of his Redeemer in the present tense
saying,
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter
day upon
the earth” (Job
Since Abraham was saved by
grace, you might wonder why the law was given at all. And, the Bible
answers
that question when it tells us that the law came because of
transgression
(Galatians
The fact that Ten
Commandments were literally “written in stone” gives them a special
status as
the foundation of the political law. Furthermore, a proper enforcement
of those
laws not only provides us with a certain amount of protection, but also
results
in getting people to take sin seriously. While many of the other
regulations
given by Moses did not carry any political punishment, they helped the
people
living before the time of Christ to see that they were not doing
everything
that God’s law required (Acts 15:10).
This brings us to the next
set of laws given by Moses, namely those requiring animal sacrifice.
While the
Bible plainly tells us that sacrifices were for the forgiveness of
sins, it
also tells us that the blood of bulls and goats was not what took away
sin. On
the contrary! The act of offering a sacrifice was symbolic (Numbers
In other words, when someone
who felt a burden of guilt brought his sacrifice to the priest, he went
away
believing that God’s anointed priest (who was a type of Christ) had
made
atonement for his sin, and that his transgression was covered by the
blood. For
that reason, his assurance of salvation did not rest on faith in his
own
righteousness, but on faith in God’s mercy (Psalm 13:5). And, because
Christ is
God, faith in God’s mercy was a form of faith in Christ. In that way,
God used
the law to point people through type and shadow to Christ. And, even
today, God
uses the Biblical record of those sacrifices to help us understand the
reason
for Christ’s sacrifice.
The fact that Christ’s
sacrifice is not bound or limited by time, is a very important part of
the
salvation message. For, if the effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice did
not
extend backward in time (just as if He had been crucified before the
world was
created), it would not extend forward in time either. In which case, we
would
need a new sacrifice for any sins committed after His death on the
cross. And,
we know that such is not the case for the Bible tells us that Christ’s
sacrifice is everlasting (Hebrews