No 25
(Christ’s Substitutionary death)
“But
the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him
not, then shalt thou break his neck: All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem” Exodus 34:20
In the Old
Testament, every firstborn creature was the Lord’s, but since the ass was
unclean (Leviticus 11:3), it could not be presented as a sacrifice on the
altar. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means because God admits to no exceptions. The ass was
his due, but he would not accept it and he would not cancel the claim; yet he
was not pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained but redemption; the
creature had to be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not
redeemed, it must die. Here is a wonderful teaching of the substitutionary
death of Jesus Christ. That unclean animal was us; we were justly the property
of the Lord who made us and preserves us, but we were so sinful that God would
not and could not accept us; the Lamb of God had to stand in our place or we
would’ve died eternally. Let all the world know of our gratitude to that spotless Lamb
who has already bled for us, and so redeemed us from the fatal curse of the
law. We can only admire the boundless love of God to us and to others of the
human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far
above silver and gold! What a doom had been ours had not redemption been found!
The breaking of the neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty, but who can
measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? The Lord in His grace has redeemed us from
eternal damnation. Once redeemed, what
are we to do? The Lord has given us
marching orders in Acts 1:8 where the Bible states: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in