Abounding Grace: Belonging, Behold, the Lamb

Sunday we’ll finish our study of how the Lord’s Table communicates that we belong to God. The focus is on how the table presents salvation from God. In Genesis 22, Abraham is taking Isaac up on Mount Moriah because God had told him to sacrifice his son. As they walk up the mountain, Isaac asks about the missing sacrificial lamb. Abraham, confident in the promises and power of God responds, “God will provide for himself the Lamb a burnt offering, my son,” (v8). Why is that important? In the Gospel of John, John the baptizer, sees Jesus and declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” John 1:29. Through the narrative of Abraham and Isaac, God is explaining how he can offer his people salvation by grace through the Lamb that he would provide.

As we read, we learn that the Lamb is none other than God’s beloved Son. This deeply affects our understanding of the communion meal. As we partake by faith, we declare our union with the Lamb. His death is our death. His sacrifice is our sacrifice. But this Lamb is God’s Son, the one who is accepted, beloved, with whom God is well pleased, so symbolically we join ourselves to the One who truly belongs. Join us Sunday as we worship the Lamb of God.