The Lion and the Lamb Inside of Us

December 14, 2016

“The Lion and the Lamb Inside of Us”

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together;

    the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.

The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion,

    and a little child will lead them all.

Isaiah 11:6

The birth of Jesus is the ground of our hope in the return of Jesus, as He comes again in final victory over sin and death. The prophet Isaiah points to that hope when he sees a kingdom where the lion and lamb will lie down together. Too often Christians think of heaven as our ultimate destination. Isaiah reminds us the new heaven and the new earth, where Jesus will reign as our King and where the lion and the lamb lie down together, is our ultimate destination.

Can you suspend for a minute your vision of all the Christmas cards with images of a lion and lamb lying together? Instead, can you identify with me that sometimes we can be as cantankerous as a wounded lion, and sometimes we can be as gentle as a lamb? How do we reconcile these two realities within us? Can it be that the lion and lamb within us will lie down together in peace?

Actually, that is the whole point of the birth of Jesus – to bring the peace of God into our lives now as we build together for the coming Kingdom of God. The continuing invitation in the New Testament letters of the Apostle Paul is for the followers of Jesus to accept the truth that “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). As we embrace our new life in Christ, we willingly die to our old self interest: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Our sanctification into the reality of the life in Christ as our way of life is a lifelong calling. The seasons of Advent and Christmas are excellent times to renew our hope in Christ for peace within, where the lion and lamb within us are friends.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.