AS OF A LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH

The first time we read of an unblemished lamb in scripture is in connection with the Passover in Exodus 12. Perhaps the Israelite, who obeyed the divine command to take a lamb without blem­ish, thought only of the fact that God required him to offer the best of the flock. In that thinking, he would have been correct, but the real significance of the lamb being unblemished would have been unknown to him. On that important night in Israel’s history, God clearly had in view the Lamb, ‘who verily was fore­ordained before the foundation of the world’, 1 Pet. 1. 20. There was to be ‘a lamb for an house’, Exod. 12. 3, and it is possible that the number of lambs slain exceeded half a million. But, however great the actual number was, God spoke of them as though they were one, ‘And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening’, Exod. 12. 6.

The unblemished lamb is a lovely type of the Lord Jesus, not only in the perfect submissiveness of His sacrifice but also of His unsullied holiness and absolute sinlessness. The writer to the Hebrews says of the Lord Jesus, ‘who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God’, Heb. 9. 14, and the words ‘without spot’ are the same in the original text as ‘without blem­ish’ in our reading today. Peter also uses the expression ‘without spot’, a different word from that used in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14, and he uses it in the same way as does James when he speaks of the believer keeping himself ‘unspotted from the world’, Jas. 1. 27.

When we consider the Saviour as a lamb without blemish and without spot, we are remembering that there was nothing that could defile Him from within, and He never could be tainted by that which was around Him. Only the blood of such a pure sacrifice could make an end of our sin. Someone has well said, ‘Reason back from the greatness of the sacrifice to the great­ness of the sin. Then determine to be done forever with that which cost God’s Son His life’. The tremendous cost of my redemption, if I rightly appreciate it, will keep me from thinking that I can ever be at home in this world again.