"Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.
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Discipleship Training Course Come… Follow Me!
Lesson 25: Behold! The Lamb of God:
Review
In the first series of discipleship lessons, we considered the secure relationship that we now have with the creator God who is our heavenly Father. We discovered that there is no stronger bond in the universe as the bond between God and those who believe and trust in Him. See John 10:28.29 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."
2. We have
been made
alive in our spirits, and we can now know the will of God for our
lives. Consider again the diagram below.
3. Having been adopted into the family of God as a son and heir, you have begun to search for the good works that God had prepared beforehand for us to.
4. In the second series of lessons, we considered principally Hebrews 6:1-3 which reveals the plan for the laying of the right foundations for fruit bearing in the family of God.
Hebrews 6:1-3
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.
5. Turning away from works that do not have the life of God in them, demands that we put our faith in the promises of God. Those promises contain the very nature of God, which we can share in, as we believe them. See 2 Peter 1:4 God has "given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature..."
6. By being joined to Jesus Christ through the one baptism of water, spirit and fire, we are equipped for service. The release for service comes through the laying on of hands by those in spiritual authority. All these works God has prepared are to be done in resurrection power because the believer has passed from death to life. See 1 John 3:14
7. Our works done for the Father are all ultimately judged in the Judgment of Rewards when they are assessed for our part in the millennial reign of Jesus upon the earth. See Luke 19:17 "And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'
In this next series of lessons, we will consider the covenant that God has made with us.
In this lesson, we will see...
1. The power of the Cross-to deal with the woes of man.
2. The effects of the
Cross-in the believer to bring life to every aspect of his being.
Our objective is...
To understand and sense to reality of our security in Jesus
and our
relationship with the Father.
1. The Message of the Cross
(1 Corinthians 1:18)
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The message of the Cross is – the Power of God
(Philippians 2:5-11)
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery
to be
equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name
which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven,
and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.
Christ’s death on the Cross enabled Him and us to be exalted.
2. The Ministry of the Cross
(Isaiah 53:3-11)
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was
despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we
esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His
stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its
shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His
generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the
transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked; But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When
you make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall
prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His
hand.
11 He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied. By His
knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear
their iniquities.
He bore OUR griefs
He carried OUR sorrows
He was wounded for OUR transgressions
He was bruised for OUR iniquities
His chastisement brought US peace
By His stripes WE are healed
He was stricken for US
He justified US
3. The Mystery of the Cross
(Galatians 3:13)
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse
for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),
Jesus bore our curse
(1 Corinthians 1:23-25)
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to
the Greeks foolishness,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
of God and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness
of God is stronger than men.
A sacrificial offering that defies human reason.
4. The Mediation of the Cross
(2 Corinthians 5:21)
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
The great exchange – sin for righteousness
(Colossians 2:11)
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the
circumcision of Christ,
Christ Jesus was cut off - as in circumcision – to provide us
with
purity.
5. The Man of the Cross
(1 Corinthians 15:45-49)
45 And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being."
The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward
the spiritual.
47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the
Lord from heaven.
48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and
as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly Man.
God, Our father in heaven, is supremely fair. One man sinned, Adam, one Man, Jesus Christ, pays the price.
(Hebrews 4:15)
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our
weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
The Man who paid the price becomes our High Priest, the one
who stands
between the Father’s anger and us for our sin.
6. The Miracle of the Cross
(John 1:12-13)
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God, to those who believe in His name:
13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God.
Receiving Him gives us the right to become sons of God.
(Romans 8:3)
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,
God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on
account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Father did all this because, even though the Law is perfect, it was incapable of saving us.
(2 Corinthians 5:21)
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
(1 John 2:1-2)
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not
sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.
2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours
only but also for the whole world.
(Romans 8:15-16)
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God,
(Romans 8:32)
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
(Colossians 2:13-17)
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you
all trespasses,
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against
us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way,
having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival
or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of
Christ.
The written code of punishment against us for the broken law, i.e. the wages of sin being death, has been wiped out.
Malcolm Vine, Cornerstone Ministries. September 2004.
To contact the Bible School email: bibleschool@cornerstoneministries.org.uk
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