This series is from the booklet 'Forgiven, Forgotten and Gone Forever' written by Pastor Carl H. Stevens, Jr - the Founder of Greater Grace World Outreach.
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Chapter Two
THE VISUAL AID OF THE CROSS
"The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8b). ."The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:7b). "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." (1 Peter 2:24).The Eternal Convention of the Trinity
According to Revelation 13:8, the Lamb was slain long before time began. Long after time is over (Revelation 10:6), the Lamb will still be slain. In Isaiah 53:7, the Lamb was slain, in the dimension of time, on a cross. That cross, in time, was a literal place. Jesus Christ suffered a literal death. He had a literal burial, a literal resurrection, and a literal ascension. But the cross of Calvary was a visual aid of what the Trinity had always known and seen. Billions of years ago, in eternity past, the Trinity had an eternal convention. It was there that the Son's crucifixion in time was predetermined through foreknowledge: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23). According to Isaiah 46:10, the Trinity saw the end from the beginning. They also foresaw all who, in time, would believe on the Lamb as Savior, and predestinated them in Christ before they were born: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30). Every believer was "chosen" in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Though in time we may be a certain age, in eternity we are billions of years old. Just how old are we? We cannot say exactly, because it is impossible to relate to eternity in time. But we do know our beginning was in the eternal convention of the Trinity, not when we were conceived in our mother's womb. The Father has always seen the Lamb as slain. Jesus Christ in His humanity, hanging on the cross, bearing our sins in His own body was a "visual aid" for us, depicting what the Trinity had seen from before the foundation of the world. Think of the thousands and thousands of sacrifices that were offered throughout the Old Testament: goats, lambs, bullocks, even turtledoves for the poor. Then picture that certain day when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" John 1:29b). Here was the one offering-the last offering that would take away the sins of the whole world (see Hebrews 10:1-14).Predestinated "In Christ"
In His foreknowledge, the Father knew each of our names. He knew the very day that we would choose to believe and receive Jesus Christ as Savior. Therefore, He predestinated us inside the Lamb before we were born. When the Father looked at us in eternity past, He did not see our sins. He saw the Lamb who died for our sins, though we were not yet born. The Father looked and said, "There is the Lamb. Now, because of Him, My plan can be perfected before the angels and the human race are created-before the plan begins." God could never impute sin to us because, in His plan, we already believed in the Lamb. Man is not predestinated apart from Christ. It is vital that we understand this. The believer's predestination is "in Christ." We are hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Therefore, we are predestinated to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29-30). This is why 1 John 3:2 says, "When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."The Father Looks upon the Son, Not Our Sin
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12). This verse says nothing about sin. It is not, "He that has not sinned has life." It is a Son issue, not a sin issue. "Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed" (Psalm 84:9). Jesus Christ is God's Anointed. According to Ephesians 1:6, we have been accepted in the Beloved (the Greek says, "graced in the one having been loved"). Because we are inside the Anointed, the Father never looks upon our sin; He looks upon the righteousness of the Son. That is why 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Though God never looks upon our sins, sometimes we, as Christians, do. Ezekiel 26:16 and 21:24 give us a picture of what happens when we look upon our own sins. According to Ezekiel 26:16, we lose confidence: "Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and layaway their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment." In Ezekiel 21:24, the children of Israel entered into bondage when they looked at their sins: "Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered...ye shall be taken with the hand." God never looked at their sins because Jesus bore them as the Lamb before the foundation of the world. But by choice, Israel looked at their sins, lost confidence, and were taken into bondage.Look Upon Christ
In Numbers 21:4-5, the people of Israel were "discouraged because of the way." They began to speak against God and His representative, Moses. In the midst of their complaining, God sent fiery serpents to bite them, and many died (verse 6). Then the people carne to Moses and repented. They asked Moses to pray to God that the serpents might be taken away. As Moses prayed, the Lord told him to make a fiery serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. "And it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Numbers 21:8b). This is a picture of Jesus Christ upon the cross-a visual aid. The brazen serpent was made like a real serpent, yet it had no poison in it. Similarly, Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, though He never sinned (Roman 8:3). He had no poison in Him. John 3:14 says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." Jesus Himself said in John 12:32, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Those who had been bitten by the serpents were told not to look at their bites, or the bites of those around them, but simply to look at the brazen serpent, and they would be instantly healed. . Jesus Christ's invitation to the human race IS found in Isaiah 45:22: "Look unto me, and be ye saved [or delivered), all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith ... " (Hebrews 12:2a). The word "looking'" ill the Greek is aphorao which means to look away from everything else and fix your gaze on Jesus Christ, the Lamb who took away the sins of the world. . The Cross is the focal point of all history. The .Old Testament saints looked forward to it. Every sacrifice pointed to the ultimate Sacrifice. Church Age saints look back to the Cross as an historical reality. It IS the only thing that the apostle Paul would glory In (Galatians 6:14). The preaching of the Cross is power unto those who are saved (1 Corinthians 1:18). It is in keeping our eyes upon this glorious Cross as our Visual aid that we receive a progressive, personal revelation of the eternal Cross. This series is from the booklet written by Pastor Carl H. Stevens, Jr - the Founder of Greater Grace World Outreach.