Looking Unto Jesus

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 45:22

Behold, the Lamb of God

Behold, The Lamb

My main object throughout this post is to entreat you to look unto Jesus. I  especially have in mind those of you who have never looked to Jesus as  “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” You have looked elsewhere for hope and happiness. At the name of Jesus you turn away indifferently.

The name Jesus holds in it the thought of salvation. Jesus saves. His arm, unaided, brought salvation. To save is the prerogative of Jesus. The condition required of us is looking away from everything else and from ourselves to Jesus alone. Look to Jesus and be saved. Look and live.

See that meek and gentle One coming unto John the Baptist! Who is he? Listen to the answer: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” Yes, it is the Lamb of Calvary, slain from the foundation of the world. The Messiah, the Prince of glory, the King of kings. He comes from the throne of eternal honors. He comes a paschal Lamb, an offering for sin, to suffer and die for a race of rebels. He knows he will be despised and rejected, and be made a curse for his heartless enemies: still he comes, the patient sufferer, waiting for that hour of amazing sacrifice. He was wounded and scourged that you and I might be healed. He was arrayed with scorn in the purple robe that he might procure for us sinners the robe of righteousness and salvation. He stood speechless that we might have an all-prevailing plea; he thirsted that we might drink of the water of life; he bore the wrath of the Father that we might enjoy his favor; he was numbered with the transgressors that we might be ‘equal with angels;’ he died that we might live for ever. Edward Norris Kirk

Do not turn your eyes away from the eternal Son of God. He stepped down        from heaven to walk on earth as a man of sorrows, that he might save you. He is beholding you at this moment. Your indifference, your unbelief, grieves him.

To what or whom will you go? He is now offered to save you from sin. He is calling you to commit your soul to his hand. He offers to take away your sin. And do you not wish it to be taken away? Can you carry the load any longer, and live and die under the dominion and defilement and curse of sin? Dare you turn in scorn and indifference from him? Remember that he is not only the Lamb of God, but also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is King of kings, and Lord of lords. He invites with gentle persuasion. But he also commands with divine authority. And the sin of sins is the rejection of Christ. Behold the Lamb of God! He stands before you, — spotless, gentle, patient, submissive to every blow your sins have deserved; for when they smote him “he opened not his mouth.” Have you looked into those eyes beaming with tenderness and compassion? Brother man, have you a heart to turn away in contempt or indifference? Pause and reflect what it means. He comes to “take away the sin of the world “— yours among others. And while he is offering to take yours away, he is listening to your heart that he may hear its response to his offer. And what is its answer? Edward Norris Kirk

The naysayers of these later days entirely fail to find a better way of peace than the old path of looking to the vicarious death of Christ. Millions are  vainly hoping that they will find some better way to heaven than the old-fashioned way of the cross. They will never find it. If they love life, they will have to turn at last to Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God.

“Jesus will always be the Lamb, even to the lost; it is ‘the wrath of the Lamb’ that they will dread. The Lamb is always conspicuous; He may be neglected, rejected, refused tonight, but He will be beheld in eternity, and beheld to your everlasting confusion and unutterable dismay if you refuse to behold Him now. Let it not be so with any of you.” Charles Spurgeon

Ye sinners, seek his face,
Whose wrath ye cannot bear;
Fly to the shelter of his cross,
And find salvation there.

Looking Unto Jesus

God does not require of us some great thing. He does not command us to inflict punishment upon ourselves. He suffered for us. He requires no price nor gift. He gave Himself for us and paid the debt. Only look. There is no act easier and more simple than turning around and looking. “Turn ye, turn ye, saith the Lord. Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else.”

There is life for a look at the Crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee;
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

Look! look! look and live!
There is life for a look at the Crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee.

Turning away from sin, and looking to Jesus brings salvation, with peace that passes knowledge and joy unutterable. This is the beginning. The “eyes of our hearts,” once turned toward Jesus and lightened with the light of His life, must never be turned away from Him. We are to continue, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:2

“In the phrase ‘looking unto Jesus,’ it is useful and interesting to remember that the Greek word which, in our English Bible, we render ‘looking,’ is only found here in the New Testament. Literally translated it means ‘looking off,’—looking away from other objects to one, only one, and looking on that one with a steady, fixed, intent gaze. And the object we are to look at, you will observe, is a PERSON… a living Person; and that Person is Jesus the Son of God.” J.C. Ryle

Beholding is a steady kind of looking. Believe then, in Christ with a solid, abiding confidence. Come, ye sinners, come, and trust your Saviour, not for tonight only, but forever. Believe that he is able and willing to save you, and trust Him to do so.

Take your eyes off everything else, and behold the Lamb of God! You need not see anything else, nothing else is worth seeing; but behold Him. See how He takes your guilt, see how he bears it, see how He sinks under it, and yet rises from it, crying, “It is finished.” He gives up the ghost, He is buried, He rises again from the dead because He is accepted of God, and His redeeming work is done. Trust Him, trust Him, trust Him. ..

I am not saved by what I can do, but by what He has done; not by what I have suffered, but by what He has endured. There hangs our everlasting hope; we trust to Christ in life and in death, and we are accepted for His sake…

Therefore say I to you, my hearers…fly to Jesus at once, Behold, not tomorrow, but tonight, behold the Lamb of God, each man for himself. Charles Spurgeon