Redeemed ..... but when?

"Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the lamb", so wrote Fanny Crosby back in 1882. And I have no argument with that wonderful truth. My question is, according to God's Word, just when did this happen? I was told from early on in my Christian walk that it was through the blood of Jesus which He shed on the cross. He is the Lamb of God who was pictured in the Old Testament sacrifices now sacrificed for us on the cross. But, as was pointed out in my previous blog, the focus of the cross is victory over death, not redemption. First, allow me to point out a few problems with the picture we have been given.

We begin with a statement made by the Apostle Paul to the believers in Corinth. First we need to recognize the audience Paul was writing to. Acts 18:4 tells us, when visiting Corinth, "he [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks [Gentiles]." So in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians he writes to Jewish and Gentile followers of Messiah. They are all well versed in Jewish tradition and Torah. They meet at the Synagogue on the Sabbath, as that is where the Word of God was and could be heard (There were no Bibles and no printing press). In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul writes,"I delivered to you first of all that which I also received; that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." Now as a Jewish believer or a Gentile well familiar with Jewish teaching, where would your thoughts go? Most likely to Leviticus where all the information about sin offerings was written. You were to bring a lamb, goat, bull, turtle doves some approved animal, female or male, depending upon the passage. It had to be spotless, without blemish, presented to the priest, hands laid on it in identification, at the Tabernacle or the Temple, where it was killed painlessly, and its blood poured out at the altar for the forgiveness of sin. This would be the picture in the mind of the Corinthian believer. A person was redeemed by the grace of God, through the blood of the approved sacrifice. How does any of that remotely remind you of the events of the cross. No Temple, no priest, no altar, blemished beyond recognition, dying slowly in agony, no laying on of hands, no blood poured out at the altar; no way do the events of the cross look like a death for our sins, according to the Scriptures.

Where does that leave us? Let me suggest that our redemptive timing is off a bit. Isaiah writes of God's suffering servant in Isaiah 53. Most of the verbs are in the perfect tense or are participles. In Hebrew there is no past, present and future. Perfect is a completed event with ongoing results, and imperfect being incomplete action, sort of present or future. What this means is that when Isaiah wrote these words he wrote them as an event that was completed with ongoing results. Our Bibles translate it as a past event. "He was wounded, He was oppressed He was lead like a lamb to the slaughter."  Past event with ongoing results. How can this be? Jesus had not even been born yet. Now hop over to Revelation 13:8 If you have a KJV or a NKJV it reads, "All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from (or before) the foundation of the world." The NASB, NIV and other translations rearrange the words to make it "the names written before the foundation" but the Greek reads the Lamb slain before the  foundation of the world. Was the Lamb really offered before the foundation of the world? 

Looking back to Revelation Chapter 5, we see John's vision as he enters heaven. He sees One called the Lion of the tribe of Judah (vs 5), but what John also sees is a lamb as though it had been slain. His vision will go on to see an altar and servants making offerings and incense, the prayers of the saints. It appears to be a heavenly temple. The writer to the Hebrews, in chapter 9, tells us that Christ is a better sacrifice and a better High Priest. Verse 11 explains that He entered a better more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation. Verse 12 goes on to say He offered His blood when He entered the Most Holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of bulls and goats was not enough but "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot or blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (14). Where is the record that , during his earthly ministry Jesus ever enter the holiest part of the temple to offer Himself as a blood sacrifice? Being from the tribe of Judah he could not enter the earthly temple. It was a heavenly temple not of this creation.

As the Apostle John writes his Gospel account he quotes John the Baptist in 1:29 where John proclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." The word translated "takes" is airon. It is a present active participle. Which means it is an ongoing action. A more accurate translation would be "who is taking away the sin of the world". The Lamb of God is, as John writes, taking away the sin of the world. Not in the future, not at the cross, but now, for the price has already been paid. His blood has already been shed on a heavenly altar in a heavenly temple perhaps by the Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Perhaps the picture of the sin sacrifices in Leviticus are looking back instead of forward. Perhaps the Old Testament believers were already under the blood of the Lamb. The picture of the sacrifices was to remind them of the past rather than to have them hope for a future redemption. Just as the celebration of the Lord's Table reminds us of His death, for it is His death that is proclaimed, not His redemption (see I Cor. 11:26), until He comes again. If Messiah paid the price before the foundation of the world, the whole issue of redemption for the Old Testament believers is taken care of. Like all who believe they have always been under the blood of the Lamb.

It seems that, just as we were chosen before the foundation of the earth (Eph. 1), we were also redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, before the foundation of the earth. God was so passionate for us and loved us so much He resolved the sin problem before sin even entered the world. The curse of death would not be dealt with until the cross, when the Son of Man rose again and defeated death and broke the curse. Death has no Sting and the grave no victory for He is risen. This is the focus of the cross; however, redemption was already ours.

"And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain"(Revelation 5:6), "the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. How about you?