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HOUSMAIL
HM114C
7 April 2004 THE LAMB OF
GOD AND THE RANSOM THE
ATONEMENT - A WORD NOT FOUND ON THE LIPS OF JESUS Have
you noticed that not even once does Jesus mention the word
"ATONEMENT"? Why does the word "Atonement" never appear
in the Gospels anywhere? Or in the preaching of the Apostles in Luke’s
"Acts of the Apostles"? Could it be possible that we can preach the
Gospel without using it? Jesus apparently thought so! And He did! Of course
He was not completely silent about His death -- but when He did mention it,
he used words like "Ransom", "Covenant" and "remission
of sins" (not atonement!) to describe what He saw Himself doing. For
Jesus it is summed up mainly in the simple parallel concepts of
"RANSOM" and the "PASSOVER PROPHECY".[1] And just in passing
we also notice that Jesus managed to say it all in just a few verses. (which some of you might also observe was about 1.5 pages less
than this short article!) THE
MAJOR EMPHASIS OF THE GOSPELS It
is important to first notice that the major Gospel
emphasis from Jesus, is about "repentance" as
the doorway of entry to the Kingdom of God. There is far less about His death
than there is about how to live in a way which pleases God, and thus become
reconciled to God as "SONS". Repentance comes first! (Matthew 4:17) Without repentance
and obedience, and consequent friendship with God, the death of Jesus has no
meaning at all! There can be no ransom paid, and no forgiveness! Without true
repentance, there is no way open for us to enter the future Kingdom of God. THE
LAMB OF GOD When
John the Baptist first introduced Jesus to the Jewish nation, he referred to
him as "The Lamb of God". (John 1:29, John 1:36) But what does John
mean by that? It is a term which appears nowhere else in the Bible, exactly
that way. In the Old Testament there are rams and goats and lambs everywhere.
They were used extensively in the blood sacrifices offered by Jews, in their
daily temple rituals and annual feasts. So why did John single out THE LAMB
on this occasion? Does John have a particular Old Testament Lamb in mind? Why
did he not choose "Bullock" or "Goat" -- both of which
would have been more appropriate to the subject of "Atonement". As
we shall see below, Jesus chose one particular lamb from among all the
others, to give meaning to His death. He chose the PASSOVER Lamb. RANSOM
AND FREEDOM According
to the dictionaries, a "Ransom" is the price paid to buy back a
prisoner. That
is how Jesus describes His death in Mark 10:45. His life was given as the RANSOM PRICE which has purchased
"freedom for many". There is nothing difficult about applying the
concept of "Ransom" to the death of Jesus. The "ransom
price" Jesus was talking about is readily perceived to be His own life.
His life was cut short by that undeserved criminal’s death, not for any need
of His own, but as a "Ransom" to purchase US out of
"slavery". But
we may well ask, freedom from what slavery? John
8:34-36 provides the additional information we need
to understand what Jesus meant by "freedom" and
"slavery". Jesus regards all sinners as "slaves
of sin" in need of freedom from their slavery to sin. He is the
"SON" in that parable -- NEVER a sinner Himself, and therefore
NEVER a slave Himself. All the rest of us who have sinned, need "the
Son" to set us free -- free from the practice of sin which first
enslaved us -- and free from the penalty of sin which would otherwise prevent
us from living for ever in the "Father’s house". Jesus
achieves that goal in two ways: 1.
For those who truly
repent, His death "ransoms" us from the penalty we incurred. 2.
His teaching and
example shows us how to LIVE in freedom from sin, so that we can be ready for
"eternal life". (Romans 2:6-7) The
"ransom price" of that "freedom" was paid in full, in the
highest possible "coin of the realm", when Jesus died FOR US on the
cross. But it is not unconditional. It comes with very strict conditions that
we MUST meet NOW to make it effective for us. Jesus calls us to repent and
become Children of God, (John 1:12-13, 1 John
3:1-2) and learn to live as He teaches us in the
Gospels. THE
FIRST PASSOVER Digging
just a little deeper, we see that the words of Jesus at the last supper, are
unquestionably associated with the meaning of the PASSOVER feast. They point
us back to that first Passover in Egypt. That was the night of the final
plague on Egypt by which God finally convinced the Egyptians to set the
Israelite slaves free. The Egyptians had planned to destroy them. They were
powerless to help themselves. But they had cried out to God -- and God heard
their cry. (Exodus 2:23-24) By
God’s determined display of His Power, the arrogance of the Egyptians was
finally broken, and they were at last eager to be rid of their slaves. The
Israelites were set free to leave Egypt, and worship God as a holy nation of
free men. (cf Exodus 19:6, with 1 Peter 2:4-10) For those enslaved
Israelites, it was simple choice: Sacrifice a lamb and live. THE
FULFILLED PASSOVER PROPHECY Although
the phrase "lamb of God" does not appear again in any of the
Gospels, all four lead inevitably to an ending in which one particular Old
Testament lamb gives meaning and purpose to all the rest of the ministry of
Jesus. That is of course the Passover lamb. At
the last supper, and in Gethsemane afterwards, Jesus linked the meaning of
His death to what would happen at the Passover Feast which was about to be
celebrated. (Read HOUSMAIL No
104 - " The Passover Prophecy And The Crucifixion ".) It
is painfully obvious that Jesus knew he only had hours to live. The next day
at the precise time the first Passover lamb was slain for that year’s
festival, by his own freewill choice, Jesus
does not repeat the story in all its detail, but there can be no question
that we are meant to read it for ourselves in the context of our own
desperate need for forgiveness and purity of heart. (See Exodus 12:1-23) The
meaning of the PASSOVER applied to our own lives, confronts us with the same
choice as faced those enslaved Israelites of Moses’ day. Don’t keep flocks?
Haven’t got a "lamb"? Of course you haven’t! But God has already
provided one! Jesus is our "Passover" sacrifice, given by God to
save us from our own personal "Egypt". (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) The sins we committed
made us "slaves", and there is a death penalty attached to that,
which will be carried out at the Judgement, if we refuse to repent and accept
the sacrifice provided for us. When
Jesus returns to judge the world, unrepentant sinners will suffer the same
judgement as the Egyptians of Moses’ day -- death! To escape that awful fate
we need our own personal "Passover Lamb". Jesus is that lamb! We
need our personal "house doorposts" (our bodies, hearts and minds
where God dwells with us) marked with the indwelling Holy Spirit and
its fruit, to identify us as God’s chosen -- protected from the
judgement which will be poured out on a world as corrupt as that of Noah’s
day. We
need to leave "Egypt" NOW, pass through our own personal "Red
Sea " (a symbol of baptism! -- 1 Corinthians 10:1-2) and wander in the "wilderness of probation", led by
the daily continuing presence of God in our lives. (Numbers 14:14) There we may feast
daily on the spiritual food and drink provided by God. (1 Corinthians 10:3-4) This food is the
words of Jesus, the words of eternal life, (John
6:63, John 6:68) which will sustain us
in good spiritual health, until we are ready to enter the Promised Land --
the Everlasting Kingdom of God. Promised
Land? You can’t miss it! In fact you are already standing on what will become
the territory! (Matthew 5:5)
All you need to find the well-marked narrow entry gate, is a broken and
contrite heart. From there it is just a few short years down a hard road, (Matthew 7:14 RSV) with a short sleep (no
more than the twinkling of an eye) at the end. There is even a trumpet to
guarantee our awakening at the right time! This
is one of a series of papers on this topic. It should be read in company
with: *
HM113 What do You
Mean - Atonement? *
HM114A Theories
of the Atonement - Part 1 - Faulty Foundations A Barrier to
Understanding *
HM114B Theories
of the Atonement - Part 2 - False Theories Allon Footnote [1] There are of course a few other ways in
which Jesus speaks about His death. e.g. *
A grain of corn. *
The brass serpent "lifted up”. *
A good shepherd defending his flock at the cost of his own
life. *
The destruction and rebuilding of a temple. We will try to discuss those another time. See HM 128. For
this paper, we have confined it to "The Ransom" and "The
Passover". |