THE LAMB OF GOD

THE LAMB OF GOD

“The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and said, 

‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'”

(John 1:29)

The portrait that John the Baptist gives us in this statement of Yeshua as the Lamb of God had its roots in the sacrificial system of the Jews.  Not all animals slain on Jewish altars would bring peace to the guilty conscience or wash away man’s stain of sin.  But Yeshua the Christ as the Heavenly Lamb was to be the noble sacrifice with divine blood.  His death cleanses the sinner and makes him whole.  Praise to the Holy One of God (Luke 4:34)!  

In the New Testament, Peter reminds us that we were not redeemed with corruptible things but rather “with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect” (1st Peter 1:19).  

Isaac Watts speaks of the Lamb of God in a hymn he penned entitled “Not all the Blood of Beasts”:

Not all the blood of beasts

On Jewish altars slain,

Could give the guilty conscience peace,

Or wash away our stains.

But Christ, the Heavenly Lamb,

Takes all our sins away,

A sacrifice of nobler name

and richer blood than they.

My faith would lay her hand

On that dear head of Thine,

While like a penitent I stand,

And there confess my sin.

My soul looks back to see

The burdens Thou didst bear

When hanging on the cursed tree,

And knows her guilt was there.

Believing, we rejoice

To see the curse removed.

We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,

And sing His bleeding love.

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth,

and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.”

(Revelation 5:12)

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God

is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

(Romans 6:23)

Selah.