CHRIST, OUR SACRIFICE

In obedience to God, Abraham took his son Isaac to a mountain to offer a sacrifice. Along the way Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for sacrifice?” Abraham answered with faith: “My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8). And God did, leading Abraham to find a ram caught in a brush.

Abraham’s faith speaks clearly to us today, just as it spoke to Isaac: “If only you had been looking, you would see God provide for the sacrifice.”

If only God’s people had believed the words of John the Baptist. Here was one of their own prophets, revered and trusted, who said of Jesus: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Later, John again identified Jesus this way: “Looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’” (John 1:36).

God provided his own lamb for a sacrifice: Jesus, his only Son. And when Christ was crucified, buried and raised from the dead, he became our atonement, our peace. Jesus willingly took on himself our sin, guilt and shame. He died and rose again to set all men free.

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:18-21).

Just like the church two thousand years ago, we are reminded of this glorious truth: “Christ is our hope!”