"BEHOLD, THE LAMB OF GOD..."

John the baptist uttered these words long ago, but they are still as true today as they were then. Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The sacrifice of the Son of God for our sins is the center of our faith, and the source of our hope for eternal life. To better appreciate the meaning of John's statement, let us look at how the figure of the sacrificial lamb is developed in the scriptures, and how this figure is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus.

1. Genesis 4:4. After sin came into the world and men were alienated from God, it was God's will that men offer animal sacrifices to make amends for their sin. Abel offered a lamb to God and it was accepted. Hebrews 11:4 says that through this sacrifice Abel was considered righteous. But we know that it was not the blood of the animal which made Abel righteous before God, for Hebrews 10:4 tells us that the blood of animals can not take away sin. So, why did God have Abel to offer a lamb for his sin? The sacrifice of the animal was given as a symbol of the coming Son of God through whom Abel would truly find his forgiveness. We learn from passages such as Hebrews 9:8-15 and Hebrews 10:1 that God commanded men to offer animals as representative substitutes until the time should come when the true sacrifice for sin was made. Hebrews 12:24 tells us that the blood of Jesus now speaks better than the blood which Abel offered. This pattern of offering substitutionary sacrifices as a foreshadowing of Christ continues throughout the O.T. Let us look at other passages which use the figure of the sacrificial lamb to foreshadow Jesus.

2. Genesis 22:7-8,13. Isaac asks, "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham responds by saying, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And indeed, there is a substitution made at the last moment. God provides a ram to be killed in the place of Abraham's son. However, the animal was only a temporary substitute, for how can an animal truly take the place of a man in bearing the guilt of a man? Jesus is the real Lamb which God provides as a substitute for each one of us, Romans 5:8-10.

3. Exodus 12:1-8. When God sent the destroyer through Egypt to kill all the first-born, He commanded the Israelites to observe the Passover feast. They sacrificed a lamb and ate it during the night, taking some of the blood of the lamb and smearing it upon the door posts of their houses. This blood was a sign to the destroyer to pass over the houses of Israel and spare them. Let us look at some of the ways that the death of Christ corresponds to the figure of the Passover lamb.

a. Exodus 12:5. The lamb had to be unblemished. Just so, Christ was presented as a man without sin, perfect and acceptable to God as an unblemished sacrifice.

1. Luke 23:4, "I find no fault in the man."

2. Luke 23:41, "This man has done nothing wrong."

3. John 8:46, "Which of you convicts me of sin."

4. Hebrews 4:15, "tempted in all things,..without sin."

5. 2 Corinthians 5:21, "Him who knew no sin..."

b. Exodus 12:6. The passover lamb was to be slain on the 14th of Nisan at evening. Christ died on the cross, the evening of the 14th of Nisan, John 19:14, Luke 23:44-46.

c. Exodus 12:7. The blood was to be shed and then applied to the door posts of the house, and by this means the household was delivered from death. We are spared through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 1:18-19. The blood is applied to us when we are baptized into Christ, Hebrews 10:19-22.

d. Exodus 12:8. The Passover lamb was to be eaten. Christ himself instituted the Lord's supper during the Passover meal that He shared with His disciples. In the Lord's supper we partake of Christ, the Lamb of our deliverance, 1 Corinthians 10:16. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Christ is called our Passover which has been sacrificed.

4. Leviticus 4:32-35. Under the Law of Moses a lamb was the animal that the ordinary Israelite had to offer in sacrifice to atone for his sins. The sinner would bring the lamb, place his hands on the head of the animal to symbolize the transference of guilt, and then cut the animal's throat. The priest would catch the blood in a bowl and then smear some of it on the horns of the altar. The rest of the blood would be poured out at the base of the altar. This ritual did not remove sin, but it symbolized the sacrifice of the one whose death truly does take away sin, Hebrews 10:10-12.

5. Isaiah 53:5-7. The prophet Isaiah foresaw the coming of the Servant of the Lord who would be the sacrificial lamb that would take away the sins of Israel. This man would go to His death without speaking a word in His own defense, as a lamb led to slaughter. It is this passage that is read by the Eunuch in Acts 8:32-35, and Philip applies the prophecy to Jesus Christ. Jesus was silent before His accusers, Matthew 26:62-63, Matthew 27:12-14, and this very behavior is referred to by Peter in 1 Peter 2:21-24 who also quotes from Isaiah 53. In His death Jesus fulfilled every facet of Isaiah's portrayal of God's sacrificial lamb.

Conclusion: In all of these passages we learn what John means when he calls Jesus of Nazareth the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The sacrificing of innocent lambs before the coming of Christ pointed forward to the day when the Son of God would die for the sins of the world. It provided a substitutionary way for men who lived before Christ to participate in His sacrifice. It reminded men of their sins and the need for blood to be shed to pay for those sins. For us today, the figure of the sacrificial lamb helps us to understand and appreciate what we have in Jesus.

If you had been Abel, would you have sacrificed one of your lambs to make amends for your sin? If you had been Abraham, would you have taken the ram that God offered and offered it instead of your son? If you were an Israelite in Egypt, would you have eaten the passover lamb and smeared its blood on your door post? If you were an Israelite in the promised land, would you have been willing to bring a lamb and sacrifice it for your sins? Well, "Behold, the Lamb of God." Jesus is the lamb that God offers to you today. Now is your opportunity to participate in the sacrifice of the Lamb, for in Jesus Christ there is atonement for sin. In Revelation 7:14 we read about the saints in heaven. Of them it is said, "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

- D.R.-