Christ The Eternal Lamb

Now we pursue that matter in order to try to see what it means, or at least something of what it means, to “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth”, that is, in unreserved utterness.

So we allow the very designation to lead us “the Lamb”. 

And when we look into the Scriptures to find where the first glimpse of the Lamb is given~I do not mean of lambs but the Lamb...we find it here in Rev. 13:8 “And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain”.

You will see that there is an alternative rendering...“written in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world”, and I think that is the more correct order.  

The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  

That is really the first glimpse that we have of Christ as the Lamb.

A remarkable statement...“slain from the foundation of the world”.  

Probably you know that the word “foundation” there could be more literally translated “the laying down of the world”, that is, the setting out of the whole scheme of creation.

We speak of laying down a plan, a scheme, a project, and when God laid down the plan, the scheme, the project of the creation, at that time the Lamb was, in intention, slain, which, of course, in the very first instance means that the Cross is no afterthought.

The Cross is not something brought in as an afterthought because of certain emergencies. 

The Cross was in the foreknowledge of God, as we have read in Acts 2:23 “being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”: “delivered up… by the foreknowledge of God”: “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”.

That takes us back to God’s counsels from eternity.

A purpose, a purpose framed, a purpose projected, initiated.

There we find ourselves once more in the presence of those counsels of the Godhead to which Paul so much refers; wonderful, great, glorious counsels. 

How full, far-reaching, and glorious were those counsels before times eternal.

It is a matter about which we can truly be in contemplation and meditation and consideration all our days and never exhaust it. 

How many times have we come back to those parts of the Word which speak so much about God’s eternal counsels, God’s foreknowledge, God’s predestinating purpose, and still we feel we have not touched the fringe. 

There is always something more.

Yes, it was all there before, and when God, so to speak, drafted His great, universal, eternal plan and purpose, He at the same time anticipated its disruption.

He foresaw what would happen as a mighty spiritual reaction against His intentions.

He took the whole situation in, knowing that the very nature of the purpose must leave the door open for voluntary obedience and committal and acceptance.

The very essence of it all, which is love, must leave the place for option, and He foresaw the side on which man’s option would move, He foreknew the tremendous activity of spiritual forces against His purpose.

He foresaw all that has happened since man gave way to the great spiritual foe of God’s intentions concerning His Son Jesus Christ. 

Having projected, and having foreseen, He provided, and redemption was forthwith established.

~T. Austin Sparks~