Behold, the Lamb of God

Good morning brothers and sisters. As I stated before, you’re going to be seeing a lot of younger faces up here as we prepare for missions, no offense to those that are also on the stand with me today.

So my talk today is based on another talk given in this last general conference. It is “Behold, the Lamb of God” by Jeffery R. Holland. He starts with the following: “Looking up from the water’s edge, past the eager crowds seeking baptism at his hand, John, called the Baptist, saw in the distance his cousin, Jesus of Nazareth, striding resolutely toward him to make a request for that same ordinance. Reverently, but audible enough for those nearby to hear, John uttered the admiration that still moves us two millennia later: ‘Behold the Lamb of God.’” Now, at the time, a lamb was used as a figure in sacrificial ceremonies, a very common image among the religious. The sacrificial lamb was offered in atonement for the sins and sorrows of the fallen world. Elder Holland then goes into a short history lesson explaining why a lamb of all animals was used. Allow me to shorten this even further. After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they faced a devastatingly confusing future. They opened the doors to mortality and in turn, closed the doors to immortality and eternal life for their own selves. “Due to a transgression they had consciously chosen to make in our behalf, they now faced physical death and spiritual banishment, separation from the presence of God forever. … We are not certain just how much the two were allowed to remember of the instruction they received while still in the garden, but they did remember they were to regularly offer for a sacrifice unto God a pure, unblemished lamb, the first male born of their flock. An angel later came to explain that this sacrifice was a type, a prefiguration of the offering that would be made in their behalf by the Savior of the world who was to come.” In the premortal council, God promised Adam and Eve along with everyone else that help would come from his unblemished Firstborn Son, the Lamb of God.