Video with full commentary.
Podcast with full commentary.
Slideshow presentation.
Lesson: The Atonement of Jesus Christ – Behold the Lamb of God
Some key topics discussed:
– What is the atonement of Jesus Christ?
– What was the purpose of the atonement?
– How the atonement overcame: physical death, spiritual death, our afflictions, our infirmities, our weaknesses, and our imperfections.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/45callister
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/28holland
Looking up from water’s edge, past the eager crowds seeking baptism at his hand, John, called the Baptist, saw in the distance his cousin, Jesus of Nazareth, striding resolutely toward him to make a request for that same ordinance. Reverently, but audible enough for those nearby to hear, John uttered the admiration that still moves us two millennia later: “Behold the Lamb of God.”
It is instructive that this long-prophesied forerunner to Jesus did not call Him “Jehovah” or “Savior” or “Redeemer” or even “the Son of God”—all of which were applicable titles. No, John chose the earliest and perhaps most commonly recognized image in the religious tradition of his people. He used the figure of a sacrificial lamb offered in atonement for the sins and sorrows of a fallen world and all the fallen people in it.
By offering their own little symbolic lambs in mortality, Adam and his posterity were expressing their understanding of and their dependence upon the atoning sacrifice of Jesus the Anointed One.
Unfortunately, as a symbol of genuine repentance and faithful living, this ritualistic offering of unblemished little lambs didn’t work very well, as so much of the Old Testament reveals. The moral resolve that should have accompanied those sacrifices sometimes didn’t last long enough for the blood to dry upon the stones.
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