September
24, 2003
BEHOLD
THE LAMB OF GOD!
"The
next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!' "
(John 1:29, NKJV).
John's
announcement, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world," was a recognition that the man
coming toward him was in fact the fulfillment of the symbolic
sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament.
There
are many examples of sacrificial lambs in the old testament.
Abel brought a lamb, "the firstborn of his flock,"
to be an offering to the Lord (see Genesis 4:2-4). In the
story of God testing Abraham to take his son Isaac and offer
him as a burnt offering, when Isaac asked, "Where is
the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "My
son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering"
(Genesis 22:1-14).
During
the Passover, God instructed Moses and Moses instructed the
elders of Israel to "take lambs for yourselves according
to your families, and kill the Passover lamb... When your
children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' that
you shall say, 'It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord,
who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt
when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households'
" (see Exodus 12:1-27).
In the
temple service established after Israel left Egypt, lambs
were sacrificed as sin offerings before the Lord (see Leviticus
4:32-33). That tradition was carried forward in the temple
service on a daily basis until the temple was destroyed some
thirty years after the death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus
was the fulfillment of the sacrificial service instituted
after sin entered the Garden of Eden.
Revelation
13:8 refers to Jesus as "the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world." Jesus,
at the cross became the Lamb of God who paid the penalty for
our sins, and the sins of the world, to become our Saviour
and friend. "For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no
sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). What a transference!
What a Saviour!
Behold,
the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world!
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