Read Revelation 13:8, Acts 2:23, and 1 Peter 1:19-20. How could Christ be considered as “slain from the foundation of the world” (NKJV)?

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8, NKJV). What’s crucial here for us is the idea of Christ’s being “slain from the foundation of the world.” Obviously, we must understand this in a symbolic sense (the book of Revelation is full of symbols), because Christ wasn’t crucified until thousands of years after the earth’s Creation. What this text is saying is that the plan of salvation had been put in place before the creation of the world. And central to that plan would be the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God, on the cross.

Read Titus 1:2. What does this verse teach us about how long ago the plan of salvation, which centered on Christ’s death, had been in place?

Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com

“The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. … It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 22.

That plan was revealed first to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15, Genesis 3:21), and it was typified by every blood sacrifice throughout the Old Testament. For instance, while testing Abraham’s faith, God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead of Isaac (Genesis 22:11-13). This replacement typified even more clearly the substitutionary nature of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross.

Thus, central to the whole plan of salvation is the substitutionary death of Jesus, symbolized for centuries by animal sacrifices, each one a symbol of Jesus’ death on the cross as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 13:8; Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32; John 19:1-30; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 1:18-24.

Memory Text: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15, , NKJV).

It has been said that we cannot avoid death and taxes. That’s not entirely true. People can avoid taxes, but not death. They might be able to put death off a few years, but sooner or later, death always comes. And because we know that the dead, both the righteous and the wicked, end up at first in the same place, our hope of the resurrection means everything to us. As Paul had said, without this hope, even “also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:18, NKJV), which is a rather strange thing to say if those who “have fallen asleep in Christ” are buzzing about heaven in the presence of God.

Thus, Christ’s resurrection is central to our faith, because in His resurrection we have the surety of our own. But before Christ was resurrected from the dead, He, of course, had to die. This is why, amid the agony of Gethsemane, in anticipation of His death, He prayed: “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27, NKJV). And that purpose was to die.

This week we will focus on Christ’s death and what it means for the promise of eternal life.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 5.

Sunday–>

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