Preparing for Sunday

Song Highlight: Behold The Lamb of God

This week’s hymn highlight is Behold The Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson. This hymn was written as the culminating song in Peterson’s album by the same name which tells the story of Christ’s coming. The album starts in the Old Testament and works its way through the history of Israel, to the prophecies of the coming Messiah, to Mary & Joseph, and ultimately to the King’s humble birth. If you want to listen to the full album, here is a YouTube playlist. It’s a beautiful album and a great way to prepare the heart and mind for Christmas. 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL42LOQVutXirhRQU2JiMSWdn8ZfMzsTmV 

The words “Behold the Lamb of God” come from the lips of John the Baptist in John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (ESV). John was the voice crying out in the wilderness making ready the coming of the Messiah. When he saw Christ, he proclaimed that salvation had come through the Lamb of God. John rightly called Jesus the Lamb of God because Christ came to be the ultimate sacrifice for sins. Rather than continually offering up animal sacrifices which were a shadow of things to come, Christ came to be the once and for all sacrifice to bring salvation and forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9-10). As we see in Revelation 5, Christ is the Lamb who was slain so that we could be given life eternal with Him. He died and rose again victoriously to bring the light of life amid the darkness of sin and death. His blood cleanses us from our sins and makes us righteous in His sight. This Lamb of God was born to die so that through His death, we could be born again. The lowly child in the Bethlehem manger is the King of the World who died to take away our sin and welcome us into His kingdom. Truly, God and sinners are reconciled through the blood of the lamb. We are left with no other response than that of the Angels: “Glory to the newborn King!”