Jesus: The Slain Lamb, The Conquering Lion by Pastor Todd Lout

There are some seemingly contradictory themes in our beloved Bible.   For example, it tells us to seek God out:        *Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek Me and find Me when you see Me with all your heart.        *Isaiah 55:6 Seek the Lord while He may be found.   - But then it also tells us that God and HIs traits are unsearchable:       *Psalms 143:3 Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised!  His greatness is unsearchable.      *Job 5:9 God Who does unsearchable wonders.      *Eph 3:8 The unsearchable riches in Christ.        *Isa 40:28 His understanding / wisdom is unsearchable. These are mysteries that God actually invites us into, which requires intimacy with Him.  Lean into Him and come to know His heartbeat more and things will not only start making more sense, but the wonder of His depth and vastness will be revealed.  It also means that He is HUGE, TOTALLY OTHER THAN, so we are invited to just dive into Him and trust. Another such contrary concept is the Jesus is both the "Slain Lamb" and the "Conquering Lion".  In Revelation 5 we see an epic scene where God is holding a scroll with important revelations in it.  An angel announces a great search for anyone worthy to open this scroll and know it's contents.  The search explores all of Earth's history, all of Heaven and even Hell.  John is there, feeling stressed out that nobody worthy can be found.  Finally an Elder tells John, "Duuuuuuuude!  Stop cryin' dude.  Check out the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David.  He's the one we've been looking for!"  John turns to see this Lion, but rather, sees a Lamb that's been slain.   Right here in this scene Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy of Genesis 49:9 when Judah is referred to as a "lion's cub" and is the Messiah Who would come from the tribe of Judah.  As the Lamb of God He is the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for sin.   Why is Jesus the "worthy" one here?  Because He has conquered.  We know this because of the massive passion expressed on the cross, defeating your sin, my sin and the sin of everyone throughout history. But He continues to conquer as a lion in Revelation 19 where He returns to defeat all of God's enemies.  HE'S AMAZING!!  A lamb and a lion! Jesus is the Gentle Shepherd, Who takes care of us, fostering the tenderness of our hearts while also acting as our fierce bodyguard.  Oh yeah.  He's got our backs while nurturing us.  It's a beautiful, wonderful contradiction that we get to benefit from, because we are the darlings of creation.