Today I want to tell you how I came to write a song called See The Lamb. It is a very special song for me and it came to me on February 26, 2004…the day after watching the Mel Gibson movie, “The Passion of the Christ”. I had determined from the beginning of the movie I would view it with this mindset: I would consciously place my sin upon Jesus again and realize that all I was seeing was because of my sin…and willingly done out of love for me.
I wept through most of the film. I remember vividly how it made me feel to understand the depth of suffering that Christ had been willing to undergo for me. How could I not give my life passionately back to Him? This song came quickly and is very hymn like in many ways. I love to sing it, yet I hate to sing it…just as I loved the movie but hated the movie. I love the passion of Christ for me…but I hate being reminded of the pain I caused Him…and of my hand in it. Yet this very truth continues to lead me to depths of gratitude where I know I must live. the truth is I want to know Him even more intimately.
Just as John the Baptist said When He saw Jesus in John 1:29 "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ In other words, see the Lamb. He was innocent. Blameless. Holy. Perfect. Yet He took the weight and depravity of the sin of mankind upon His innocent shoulders and paid the debt we could not pay. Isaiah describes the Lamb of God perfectly:
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no [stately] form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
Isaiah 53:1-7 NASB
Jesus is the Lamb of God Who was slain for the sin of mankind. Let’s not overthink this truth today. Let’s accept if for what it is. The greatest gift ever bestowed upon humanity. Jesus wanted us so much He declared we were worth His own life. That is beautifully simple. You are worth His life. The question becomes is Jesus worth your life?
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this teaching and to hear the song See The Lamb, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/see-the-lamb/
Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/12/08/00/42/lamb-1081950_1280.jpg