On the front of a church in the north of England a lamb is carved, and there is a true story connected with it.
Many years ago when that church was being built, a workman stepped back on the scaffold to look at the effect of his work; unfortunately, he stepped back too far, and fell from a great height. His fellow workmen, at a little distance, saw him fall, and gave him up for dead, thinking he must have been killed on the spot. After a few minutes, however, to their great astonishment, they saw him rise and walk away, apparently unhurt. One of these workmen, who was a friend, went after him, and, putting his arm in his, led him home.
“Now, Tom,” he said, when they were inside the house, “tell me what it was that saved your life?”
“Why that lamb, to be sure,” he answered.
And this was true: just where the accident occurred some sheep were lying down, and lie had fallen upon a little lamb — the lamb was killed on the spot, but the man’s life was saved.
“Tom,” said his friend, “if you had not fallen on that lamb — if you had been killed — where would you have been now?”
“Ah,” said the man, “what has happened today has opened my eyes; I see that I deserve nothing but wrath!”
Then said his friend, “You may thank God there is another Lamb. All the wrath your sins deserved fell upon Christ, the Lamb of God, when He suffered death upon the cross; He has died that you may live.”
A lamb was carved in stone outside the church in remembrance of this circumstance, and for many years after, whenever the man looked at that lamb, it reminded him of the day on which he had been twice saved from death. By the mercy of God he was enabled to see that the way in which he had been saved from that accident was but a picture of the only way in which he could be saved from eternal death. From that day he trusted in Christ, the true Lamb of God, as his Saviour, and could say, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).
I wonder how many who read this story today can say that they too have had their eyes opened to see that they deserve nothing but wrath, and that there is only one way of escape from eternal death, that is, by the “Lamb slain.”
Himself He could not save;
For justice must be done
And sin’s full weight must fall
Upon a sinless One;
For nothing else could God accept
In payment for the fearful debt.
ML 05/31/1959