Lamb of God still takes away sin
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Editor,
I once stood in Israel’s Jordan River to participate in a Christian baptism. Standing there waist deep in those historical waters I pondered the fact that I could possibly be standing where the river parted and Israel crossed on dry ground (Joshua 3) or where John the Baptist once stood with Jesus and shouted to the crowd, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 NLT). How instantly startling were John’s words that day to those Jewish professionals who regularly went to the synagogues every Sabbath to hear the reading of the Old Testament Scriptures. Hearing John’s declaration they were immediately reminded of Abel’s offered lamb (Genesis 4); of the patriarch Abraham’s words, “God will provide Himself a Lamb” (Genesis 22); of the Passover lamb whose blood was brushed on the door frames of the homes of the Egyptian slaves (Exodus 12); and of the prophetic words of Isaiah, “He was wounded for our transgressions … He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter … He bore the sins of many” (Isaiah 53).
The crowd that day was jarred awake with those startling words, “the Lamb of God.” These Jews were accustomed to providing their own sacrificial lambs as offerings for their sins, but here is the Lamb that their God is providing, not just for one person, or one family, or one nation, but for the entire world (John I:29 and 3:16).
Jesus is the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of all humankind. John emphatically emphasizes the purpose of the sacrificial death of Jesus with the words, “who takes away the sin of the world!” That is the supreme feature of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection, the expiation of man’s sins. His was no binding obligation or duty that he should do so. He did it out of purest love. Once for all, and One for all, with an eternal finality.
Harvey A. Town
Polson
