Page 488 - Bible History

Unit Eight
HOW CHRIST REDEEMED THE WORLD AND RETURNED TO HEAVEN
I. CHRIST, THE SAVIOR OF MANKIND
CHRIST HAS MERCY ON SINNERS
''Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him o taketh away the sins of the world.'' Thus did John the Bap- f tist introduce our blessed Savior to the people. Like the Paschal lamb which was slain in order that its blood, being sprinkled on the doorposts, would save their rst-born from death the night before the Israel-
ites left Egypt, so would the blood of Jesus save from
the death of sin those who believed in Him. The sac­ ri ces of the Old Law could not open the gates of Heaven, for only God Himself could take away the sins
of the world. By His death on the cross, Christ paid
the debt that man owed to God and bought for him the
right to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is beauti­ fully expressedin the Thirty-ninth Psalm, "Sacri ce and oblation Thou wouldst not, but a body Thou hast tted to Me. Holocaust for sin did not please Thee. Then said I, behold I come. In the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Thy ll, 0 God."
It was the will of God that men should be made holy by the sacri ce of the body of Jesus Christ.
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