“…in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” – Revelation 13:8.

Why am I just seen this? That Jesus Christ the Lamb of God was slain, offered as sacrificial Lamb of God from the beginning (foundation) of the world? That mean as at the time the foundation of the world was being put in place, as the foundational blocks of the universe was set in their places, when there were no depths, when there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains and the hills were settled, ever before the earth was made, before the heavens were prepared and the clouds above were established, Jesus was offered prior to any of these – Proverbs 8:22-31, since He was slain from the foundation of the world. The Work (of redemption) were finished from the foundation of the world – Hebrews 4:3. The scriptures affirm it over and over again, that Calvary was not the beginning of redemption, it was the end, the physical manifestation of what was already was when He Who was slain from the foundation of the world ended all other sacrifices for sin with the sacrifice of Himself – Hebrews 9:26; Revelation 13:8. Calvary brought what has always been in the reality of God to the reality and understanding of man. If man must be the true and final beneficiary of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then it must come to his realm and reality.

God is spiritual, man is physical, for that which was in God reality, which is spiritual have to manifest in the physical to be of value to the physical man. What has been true from the foundation of the world in the reality of God must have a physical reality that pleased God, satisfied His redemptive requirements and permanently answer the question of sin for man. This spiritual reality of the slain Lamb of God are things that have been kept secret from the foundation of the world – Matthew 13:35 but are being revealed now by the Spirit of truth – 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. That Calvary was the end of the redemptive work but the beginning was way before Adam was, He was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested for man’s reality at Calvary – 1 Peter 1:18-20. In the mind of God, ever before Adam was created, at the very start of everything, in the beginning of eternity past God “foreordained” “the Lamb that was slain” ever before the mountains and the hills were made in timeless eternity past, right there in the mind of God Jesus was slain for the sin of the whole world. It was an accompanied Act ever before it physical manifestations thousands of thousands of years in Time. God knew and saw the Crucifixion and accepted same as the answer for sin ever before the Son of God bear His Cross on the street of Judea enroute Calvary.

At the Fall when Adam sinned, God knew what to do, the Lamb that was foreordained and slain and have satisfied the requirement of the Holy God and paid the penalty of sin and set Man free. That mean, at the Fall, God was seeing and prophesied it that the Seed of the Woman, Jesus Christ has been foreordained to kill sin in the flesh but for the physical manifestation Man must look forward to the Seed of the Woman since the Fall has weakened the nature of man and will now walk the earth in the weakness of his flesh, then he must wait till the physical manifestation of that which has been in the mind of God from the beginning, “the Lamb that was slain”, to share the physical nature of Man, the weakness of the flesh, yet without sin in order to pay the Price of sin at Calvary, thus merging God’s reality with man’s reality. It is the Cross that merged and equate God’s reality with Man’s reality.

Therefore, before the physical manifestation of Christ in the flesh in response to the groaning of all creations burdened by the weight of sin, God made a way out for the benefit of men who lived before the crucifixion of Christ in Time. He was slain in timeless reality but was manifested in time as Sacrifice for sin. However, beginning with Adam, God covered his nakedness with the fur of an animal He slain, since the God reality of the slain Lamb was not yet made manifest in Man’s reality, another animal took the place of Adam just like many more were slain in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Temples of Jerusalem to satisfied God’s requirement in those points in time. The animal was killed instead of Adam to die and he wore its clothing so he became new again as though he had not sinned. The Adam that fell was dead, for death is the wages of sin, and God will only see a man who had been covered by the fur (redeemed by the blood-life) of the animal whose life was taken in the stead of Adam, who sinned.

As long as Adam was covered with the fur, his sin was not remembered, though his corrupted nature remained unchanged and transferrable to his seeds. The life of the animal was given in ransomed for his, but the weakness of his flesh largely remained undisturbed. The blood took away his sin but was not enough to take the newly acquired sin nature away from him and so the need for continual offering for sin via the blood of another if he must keep the life he had in time and in eternity. Same for his seeds, after him. Now the blood of the animal used in sacrifice was alluding to the blood of Him that “was slain” from the “foundation of the world”. This translates to mean that when a sinner come to God to make an atonement for his sin under the old dispensation and sacrifice an animal, it wasn’t really the blood of the animal killed that God saw and turned the judgement on sin away; but in His Eternal Self He was seeing the Blood Jesus Christ Who already was “slain from the foundation of the world”. The comer was seeing the blood of the lamb or kid or pigeon he had provided sprinkled on the Great Altar because that’s all his eyes can see since Jesus Christ was not yet revealed in the flesh, so the need for a representative, till the time appointed of the Father.

This will sure be a high knowledge for many, how can God see Jesus Blood when in man’s reality He wasn’t even born, how much less being crucified in sacrifice for sin? This is where God’s reality and man’s reality differs, they are as different and far from each others as heaven from earth. We must understand that the sense of Time is not in heaven, the spiritual has no day nor night, it is either a long perpetual day or a long perpetual darkness, no counting of days. An already established event in the spirit might take months, years and even generations apart before finding physical fulfillment in man’s realm. So the event of Crucifixion was a physical fulfillment of an event that has taken place and satisfied wholly acceptable to God in full before the Son of God got hanged on the tree. It is the cross of Jesus Christ that bridged the world of God with the world of man. The old testament saints may not have been washed clean by the Blood of Jesus Christ, since He was not physically manifested yet. Yet, the Blood of all the many animals sacrificed would have been of no used, had Christ not died before the foundation of the world.

Now, after the resurrection, the church multiplied and so are the blessings that the Blood brings. No one, human or spirit, can approach unto God without an in-between that already bear the burden of sin, and that’s Jesus Christ. Christ was not just slain on the morning at Calvary, that was not just the physical representative that put an end to continual killing of lambs and kids for sin, it was the fulfillment of spiritual reality that had taken place from the foundation of the World. The old saints killed their animals sacrifices but God in Heaven sees the Blood of Jesus Christ those sacrifices were alluding to and thus accepted the comer and his sins were covered. When God sees the man and the blood sacrifices he offered under the Old Testament, He sees the spiritual reality of the Blood of the Lamb that slain, though the worshiper can only relate with the blood of the animal he brought but much more, God sees the Blood that was offered before the world began, a spiritual reality that was and is and He was APPEASED; just as He’s today for as many who will come believing in the physical reality of the Blood of Jesus Christ for the remission and cancelation of sins.

Olumofin Kehinde Benjamin writes for Praying Parents Prayer Group Christian Ministry (3pG).