Septuagesima Week – Tuesday

Behold the Lamb of God! – John 1:36.

Now came the Feast of the Passover.  Jesus arose and went with His disciples from Ephraim to Jerusalem by way of Jericho.  And on the road between Ephraim and Jericho He took the twelve disciples apart and said to them: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For He shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him unto the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him, and on the third day He shall rise again” (Matthew 20:18-19; Luke 18:31-33).

And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken (Luke 18:34).  Ahead of the actual events, Jesus knew all that would happen to Him in Jerusalem.  And willingly He went to suffer all for us and for the whole world, to satisfy for us and for all God’s perfect demands in His holy Law, and God’s perfect justice in punishing the sins of the whole world.  Jesus, as the all-knowing Son of God, knew that He was the Lamb of God who should suffer all these things for God’s justification of all sinners (Romans 3:22-24).  The Prophet Isaiah declared concerning himself and all other human beings: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him [Christ, the Messiah] the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:6-7).

He suffered all of this for my sins, for your sins, and for the sins of all people.  The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Galatian Christians, said of Christ Jesus: He “loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  Do we deserve such great, genuine, and marvelous love?  Absolutely not!  Jacob, in Genesis 32:10 confessed for all of us: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which Thou hast shown unto Thy servant” .  The Prophet Jeremiah announced this wondrous truth: “It is of the Lord’s mercies [in Christ, the Messiah] that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not; they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

How grateful and thankful are you for these undeserved, unearned, and unmerited mercies and compassions from God through Christ’s vicarious atonement for you, for me, and for the whole world?  Jesus’ disciples could not comprehend the prophecies which Jesus spoke to them in Matthew 20 and Luke 18.   How often have you not comprehended a truth or truths from God’s precious Word?  Remember and continue to repeat the confession of the psalmist in Psalm 119:104-105 “Through Thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.  Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”.   The clear words of God in the Holy Scriptures give God-pleasing, right comprehension, understanding, and interpretation, especially concerning God’s grace toward the human race through the “one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (I Timothy 2:5-6).

Let us continue to look, with the eyes of faith, to “Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

PRAYER – I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, O Lamb of God, that Thou so willingly did atone for my sins through Thy bitter suffering and death, and did so utterly abolish the consequences of my sins through Thy victorious resurrection, so that these consequences can in no wise harm me anymore.  Keep me faithful to Thee, to the heavenly Father, and to my Comforter, the Holy Ghost.  Accept my thanks and grant my requests according to Thy will and Word.  Amen.

On my heart imprint Thine image, blessed Jesus, King of grace;

that life’s riches, cares, and pleasures, have no pow’r Thee to efface.

This the superscription be: Jesus, crucified for me,

is my life, my hope’s foundation, and my glory and salvation.  Amen.

(Hymn 179; TLH)