Becoming Unblemished Lambs For God

The covenant between God and Israel that is codified primarily in Leviticus and Deuteronomy consists of both ethical commands and ritual sacrifice.  The most important sacrifice was the sacrifice of a lamb for the purpose of atonement, or restoring relationship between God and Israel.  When the relationship between Israel and God was broken, it was Israel that was the breaching party.  Consequently, restoring relationship was really about God offering Israel redemption. 

God commands Israel in the Hebrew Bible to only sacrifice animals without blemish, and this is true of the lambs that were sacrificed.  In fact, particular lambs were cultivated with particular care in the hope that they would be suitable for sacrifice.  The task of the shepherd was to ensure that lambs were raised so that they could become the instrument of reconciliation between God and Israel.

As the Lamb of God, Jesus acted as the instrument of God's reconciliation of the whole world.  Similarly, we are described as the sheep of Jesus' sheepfold.  Consequently, God pours His grace upon us so that we can become God's instruments of facilitating the reconciliation and redemption of the world.  God's intent for us is not that we would be protected from harm, but that we would be God's agent in the redemption of the world.  Through the Church, we seek God's sanctifying grace so that we might become unblemished lambs suitable to be God's agents in the world.

God Turns the Sacrificial System Upside Down

In the ancient world, religious practice centered on ritual sacrifice.  The central purpose of the sacrificial system was to effect reconciliation between the believer and the god in whom they believed when the believer had engaged in some act or omission that violated the relationship between them.  In this system, the believer is the active participant and the god the passive participant; the believer is presenting their offering to god in the hope that god would accept their offering and thereby reconcile with the believer.

In the resurrection of Christ, God turned the sacrificial system upside down.  The image of Jesus as the Lamb of God was deeply evocative for the disciples and other earliest followers of Jesus: lambs without blemish were sacrificed to bring about reconciliation between God and Israel when Israel had violated their covenant relationship with God.  But now it is God who offers up a sacrifice, Jesus, to the world, to bring about the redemption of the world and the reconciliation of the world with God.  In Jesus, God does what God ultimately did not demand of Abraham in the story of Abraham and his son Isaac.

Before we have the capacity to know God, or even speak God's name, God has already begun a good work in us in the hope that we will turn to God and enter into relationship with Him.  And when we sin, God remains willing to forgive and let the reconciliation effected in Christ be manifest in His relationship with us.