The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 17

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Pusuiisnep BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTiERAN SyNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post ONice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. XXX.

2 St. Louis, Mo., Marcas 1908. .

For Sinners Slain.

“Lamb of God, for sinners slain,
Slain for me;

Who didst suffer grief and pain
On the tree;

I to Thee my all resign,
Bought with blood.

May I evermore be 'Thine,
Lamb of God!”

———

The Lamb of God.

Jesus is the Lamb of God. Of Him John the
Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world.” He was delivered as
a sacrifice for the world’s sin “by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Therefore He
is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world.” i

When the fullness of the time was come, He, the
Son of God, became man to make atonement for
sin, for the world’s sin. In Him there was no sin.
He was “a Lamb without blemish and without
spot.” He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners.” But on Him were sins, our sins,
- the sins of the world. “All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to His own way;
and the Lord hath laid on Him 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,” says the prophet. ,

In the holy season of Lent we behold the Lamb
of God, laden with the world’s sin, brought to the
slaughter to be sacrificed for us upon the altar of
the cross. He shed His blood in bitter sufferings
and unspeakable agony that we might have redemp-

tion through His blood, even the forgiveness of.sins.
He died that we might live.

Thus we were redeemed, “not with corruptible
things, as silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb .without blemish and
without spot,” 1 Pet. 1, 18..19. Therefore the
saints in heaven, who have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb, sing the
song of praise at the throne of the Lamb: “Thou
wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy
blood,” Rev. 5, 9.

Nothing less than the blood of God’s own Son
could atone for sin. His blood alone can cleanse
us from all sin. Therefore John the Baptist pointed
sinners to Him as the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world, and the Church, in all
her mission work, directs every one to Him as the
sinner’s only help. She preaches Christ and Him
crucified; and in this preaching Christ Himself
is brought. to every sinner with all the blessings of
His salvation. Woe to those who reject-this Gospel
of the Lamb of God and count His blood an unholy
thing. They reject their only salvation and will in
vain seek a hiding-place from the wrath of the-
Lamb on the great day of judgment, Rev. 6, 16. 17. .
But blessed is every sinner that heeds the Gospel
call and comes to Jesus, just as he is, for salvation.
In the blood of the Lamb he will find cleansing
from all sins, and clothed in the righteousness of

_ Christ in which the saints of God are arrayed, he

will be among the blessed in heaven that are called
to the marriage supper of the Lamb, Rey. 19, 7—9.

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!”