The Lamb of God

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

When I read about John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus as the Lamb of God to the first-century Jews, I wonder what they were thinking. They had not read the back of the book, because the entire book hadn’t yet been written. They didn’t know Jesus would die as an atonement for their sin. They didn’t know that Peter would later write,

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)

They didn’t know that a disciple named John would be exiled to the Island of Patmos where he would write about Jesus as the Lamb who was slain and how He is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing (Rev. 5:12).

They just saw a guy in camel’s hair baptizing people.

But if they had been paying attention in Sunday school they would know about the first Passover in Exodus. They would know about how their ancestors had to choose a spotless male lamb who would be sacrificed, and whose blood applied to the doorposts would save those who dwelt inside (Ex. 12).

John sees Him coming. There He is! The spotless Lamb. The Lamb of God who would shed his own blood to save those who would apply His blood to the doorposts of their hearts. If they were paying attention, they would have embraced Him. Instead, they crucified Him.

And so the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.