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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 49 - The Meaning of Christ's Death from the Old Testament

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

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REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Where was Jesus crucified? On a hill outside of Jerusalem.

2. Why was Jesus crucified? To die for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

3. What did David write would happen to the hands and feet of the promised Deliverer? They would be pierced. Nails were driven through His hands and feet.

4. Why did it become very dark for three hours while Jesus was on the Cross? It was God’s sign that Jesus was taking the punishment for sin by being separated from God.

5. What did Jesus mean when He said, “It is finished”? Jesus meant that He had completed the work given to Him by His Father which was to bear the complete punishment for sinners to be delivered from the power of Satan, sin, and death.

6. If Jesus didn’t have any sin, why was He crucified? He was dying for our sins.

7. Why did God rip the curtain in the temple from top to bottom?

a. To show that He was fully satisfied with the payment which Jesus had made.

b. To show that there was no more need for the high priest to take the blood of animals into the inner room of the temple.

Have you ever thought of the Old Testament as a signpost? God knows that everyone has been lost. But He has made sure that the way back to Himself is well marked. The Old Testament is like God’s signpost because a great many of the historical incidents recorded in the Old Testament pointed forward to the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

In our lesson today we will review some of these past events and see how they pointed forward to the Lord Jesus and His death for us on the Cross.

Do you remember what Adam and Eve did when they sinned and became aware they were naked? They made coverings of leaves.

Did God accept the clothing they made? No, God refused to accept what they made because He wanted to teach them that they couldn’t do anything to make themselves acceptable to Him.

- Consider:

This, too, is what God wants each one of us to realize. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God. Going to church, providing for our families, doing good deeds, giving to the needy, taking care of the environment—all of these are things we should do. But none of these things will make us acceptable to God.

Are you trying to do something to make yourself right before God? If you are, you need to realize that what you are doing is no more acceptable to God than the clothes Adam and Eve made. No matter how hard we try, we can never make ourselves fit for Heaven by the things we do.

God refused to accept the clothing Adam and Eve made.

Instead, He Himself killed animals and made clothes for them.

- Consider:

Similarly, God refuses to accept anything we do to make ourselves pleasing to Him. But because He loved us, He sent His Son the Lord Jesus to die for us so we could be made acceptable to Him.

How then must a person respond to God in order to be accepted by Him?

If you put your faith only in Him, then, just as God put the clothes He had made on Adam and Eve, He will forgive your sins and accept you as perfectly right before Him. God will accept you, not because you are sinless, but because the Lord Jesus who died in your place is sinless. All who trust in Him alone are forever accepted by God because they are clothed, or covered, with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus.

The next story we need to consider is the one about Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s first two sons, who both brought offerings to the Lord.

Whose offering did God accept? Abel’s.

Why did God reject Cain and the things he brought?

God rejected Cain because he came to God in his own way, according to his own ideas, and not in the way God had commanded. God had made it clear from the beginning that, whenever anyone came to worship Him, he must bring an animal, kill it, and allow its blood to run out.

God said to do this because He knew that one day His own Son would give His blood to pay for the sins of the world. Abel was a sinner too, but he was accepted by God because he trusted in God to save him and brought the blood sacrifice God required.

The lamb that Abel killed and offered to God reminds us of the Lord Jesus. Do you remember what John the Baptist said about the Lord when John saw Him walking toward him on the banks of the Jordan river?

God accepted Abel because he trusted in Him and brought the right offering. In the same way, God will accept all those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus and His blood that He shed for the sins of everyone in the whole world.

Do you remember reading in the Bible about the way people were living in Noah’s time, before the flood?

Finally, because the people refused to listen to God’s warning given through Noah, God said He was going to destroy the world by a flood.

But did God intend to destroy Noah who, like Abel, knew he was a sinner and trusted in God to send a Deliverer?

Do you remember how many doors God told Noah to make in the ark?

There was only one way they could enter the ark and be saved from God’s judgment.

- Before the flood came, the animals and Noah and his family all entered by the one door, and God shut them in.

- Inside the ark, they were safe from God’s punishment on the sinful world.

Everyone outside died in the flood because they refused to believe God and enter the ark by the one door.

- That door reminds us of the Lord Jesus who is the only way to eternal life.

- When anyone believes that Jesus died for his sins and puts his trust only in Him, God forgives his sins and gives him eternal life.

Don’t be foolish like the people in Noah’s day who refused to enter the ark and be saved.

Another incident recorded in the Old Testament that pointed forward to the Lord Jesus and His death for sinners is when God punished the Egyptians by killing the firstborn child in every family.

The Israelites would have lost their firstborn, too, but God made a way for them to escape.

1. A lamb without blemish

- God commanded the Israelites to choose a lamb that was in perfect physical condition.

- These perfect lambs of the Israelites remind us of the Lord Jesus:

He was born without sin.

He lived a sinless life.

- Because Jesus was sinless, He could be accepted by God as the payment for our sin.

- Note:

To hasten the death of a crucifixion victim, the guards would break the leg bones. This made it impossible for the person to use his legs to push up to help him breathe. But John 19:32,33 says that when the soldiers came to break the bones of Jesus and the two men who were crucified with him, Jesus was already dead. They did not break his bones. Do you remember that this was one of the requirements of the Passover lamb? The Israelites must not break its bones. Thus Jesus fulfilled every requirement of the perfect sacrifice for sin.

2. The lamb had to die.

- The Israelites had to keep the lamb until the time God had said they should kill it.

- Consider:

The lamb had to die and its blood had to be shed if the firstborn child was to be saved from death. In the same way, it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to give His blood as the payment for our sins. There was no other way we could be saved from God’s judgment on our sins.

3. The lamb’s blood had to be placed on the top and sides of the door frame.

- Even though the Israelites killed the lamb and caught its blood in the basin as God had commanded them, the firstborn child would still have died unless they did the next thing God commanded them.

- This teaches us that merely knowing that we are sinners and that the Lord Jesus died for our sins will not save us from God’s terrible judgment.

- Consider:

The Israelites had to put the blood of the lamb on the door frames of their houses to show God they were trusting in the blood to protect them from the angel of death. In the same way, we have to trust personally in the Lord Jesus and His death as the payment for our sins to God.

- We must believe that what the Lord Jesus did on the Cross was for us as individuals.

Jesus died for me personally.

Jesus died for you personally.

- Only in Jesus can we find forgiveness of our sins.

4. None of the Israelites’ firstborn died.

- Did the angel of death kill any firstborn child inside a house where the blood had been applied?

- God always does what He says.

- Consider:

He said He would pass over every house where He saw the blood, and He did. In the same way, you can be absolutely certain that, if you trust in the Lord Jesus and His death for you, you will never be punished for your sins.

- Because Jesus’ blood paid for all your sins, you can be certain that God will never demand a second payment.

- All who trust only in Christ have everlasting life.

- Recall:

After God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, He led them through the Red Sea and into the wilderness until they came to Mount Sinai. Here at this mountain God gave them His commandments which showed them they were helpless sinners under the condemnation of death. But because God is also loving, merciful, and gracious, He instructed Moses to have a tabernacle built where He would meet with His people and forgive their sins.

LOCATE THE INNER ROOM, THE HOLY OF HOLIES. Refer to the details in this picture as you continue this lesson.

Once a year the high priest was to enter the inner room of the tabernacle and sprinkle the blood of a lamb on the mercy seat between the two cherubim. Year after year animals were sacrificed and their blood sprinkled on the mercy seat in the tabernacle, and later in the temple in Jerusalem. But the blood of animals could never pay for sin. These offerings only pointed forward to the Lord Jesus who was yet to come to provide the one complete sacrifice for sin by the giving of His own perfect life.

- Do you remember what God did in the temple when Jesus died?

- This is the curtain that hung in front of the place in the temple where the lamb’s blood had been sprinkled year after year to cover the sins of Israel.

- Why did God tear it in two?

- God wanted everyone to know that Jesus had paid the full price for sin. There was no longer any need to offer the blood of animals. The payment Jesus made was once for all.

- How foolish the Jews were who refused to accept that Jesus was the Deliverer sent from God.

- How foolish they were not to believe that His blood had fully paid for all sin. They probably sewed up the curtain in front of the holy of holies and continued to offer the blood of animals. How foolish it would have been for them to do that when the price for the forgiveness of all sins had been paid by Jesus once for all.

- Consider:

But aren’t people today just as foolish when they try to save themselves by the things they do instead of simply trusting in what Jesus has already done?

- What are you going to do?

- Are you going to trust in what you do or in what Jesus has done for you on the Cross?

- Jesus Christ made the full payment for all.

The sins of all who believed in the coming Deliverer in Old Testament times, men like Abraham, Moses, and David, were fully forgiven because Jesus died for them on the Cross also. All who lived in Jesus’ time and trusted in Him—people such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—were also forgiven by God and accepted by Him because of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. And since that time, millions of people from countries all over the world have looked back to what the Lord Jesus did when He died for them, and they have trusted in Him as their Savior.

- Testimony:

I am one who has agreed with God that I am a sinner and have trusted in the Lord Jesus and His death for me. I know I have eternal life because Jesus paid for all my sin. But it was not only for me that Jesus died; it was for you too. So, if you trust only in Him and accept His death as the payment for your sin, God will forgive you and give you everlasting life, just as He did me.

QUESTIONS:

1. Why can the Old Testament be likened to a signpost?

2. Do you remember what Adam and Eve did when they sinned and realized they were naked?

3. What did God do when He saw the clothing Adam and Eve had made?

4. How does this incident remind you of what God has done for us?

5. How then can you be made acceptable to God?

a.

b.

6. Why did God reject Cain and the things he brought?

7. What did John the Baptist say about the Lord when He saw Him walking towards him on the banks of the Jordan river?

8. How many doors did God tell Noah to make in the ark?

9. How does the one door into the ark point forward to the Lord Jesus?

10. What sort of lamb did God command the Israelites to choose so their firstborn child would be saved from death?

11. How does the perfect lamb remind us of the Lord Jesus?

12. Could the firstborn children of the Israelites have been saved if the lambs were not killed?

13. Was there any way we could have been saved from God’s punishment for our sins if Jesus had not died for us?

14. After an Israelite had killed a perfect lamb and caught its blood in a basin, was there anything else he had to do to ensure that his firstborn child would not die?

15. What does this remind us that we, too, must do if we are to be saved from the punishment we deserve for our sins?

16. Did the angel of death kill any firstborn child that stayed inside a house where the blood had been applied?

17. Why is it now totally unnecessary to offer any sacrifice for sin?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 246: Ezra, Chapters 9 and 10

Day 247: Nehemiah, Chapters 1 and 2

Day 248: Nehemiah, Chapters 3 and 4

Day 249: Nehemiah, Chapters 5 and 6

Day 250: Nehemiah, Chapters 7 and 8