The Lamb of God

Jn 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
    
There are some people who say we don’t need the Old Testament. They obviously don’t understand large portions of the New Testament because much of the New only makes sense when you see it in the light of the Old. This applies to our understanding of John the Baptist declaring, Look the Lamb of God.
   
The pictures of a lamb start right back in Genesis 4:4 “But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering” The firstborn would have been a lamb. The first acceptable offering (gift) to God was a lamb. It really takes on significance when we come to Exodus 12 when prior to the Exodus the Israelites were each told to take a lamb, one per family (12:3), year old males without defect (12:5), slaughter them and put some of the blood on the doorposts of the house (12:7). Then the Lord declared, “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn–both men and animals–and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt . I am the LORD . The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” Thus the blood of a lamb, the sign of the lamb’s life being taken, meant that family was saved. In every house in Egypt that night there was a dead body – either the firstborn son, or a lamb.
    
When it later came to the offerings of the sacrificial system (Lev 1-) although the offerings could be from herd or flock, it was most common for it to be a lamb, for cattle tended to be with wealthier families. Thus an offering of the flock was to be a lamb. It could be a burnt offering – simple description of most offerings (Lev 1:10), a fellowship offering – a sign of friendship and love (Lev 3:6), or a sin offering – to appease for their sin (Lev 4:32). In each case it was to be a lamb without defect. For the common (ordinary) person, the lamb was thus a link between them and God, the lamb enabled them to come into God’s presence. There is more about lambs but space forbids consideration of it.
  
So now Jesus appears and God’s prophet, John, sees him and identifies him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. How does he do that? He stands in our place and he gives his life as a sin offering, he stands in as the Passover Lamb so that we are spared judgment, because he takes it instead (Heb 9:26-28).
   
When John the Gospel writer received the Revelation, he saw the plight of the world and wept and was told, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” A Lion has triumphed! But then he saw standing before the throne in heaven, “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” and as he took the scroll of the end time judgments, all those before the throne fell and worshipped him, singing, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
   
This is the picture of the Lamb of God who is Jesus, the Redeemer of the World, who stood in our place and took our sin upon himself (2 Cor 5:21), took our guilt and shame and our punishment, so that we could be set free. The Old Testament established the system that would portray what Jesus, in the New would do.   He has done it!