A Word in Season: The Lamb of God (John 1:29)

Media Gratiae

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom

00:05

I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.

00:11

I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.

00:18

Perhaps fewer nobler words escaped from the lips of that noble man John the Baptist than these.

00:25

He went on to witness of Jesus of Nazareth, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him.

00:34

I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the

00:40

Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and I have seen and testified that this is the

00:50

Son of God. The Baptist was a priest's son. He would have had much exposure to and perhaps experience of the sacrificial rituals of Old Covenant Israel in the temple.

01:04

John knew what lambs represented and what the sacrifice signified in that system.

01:12

And now he identifies this Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

01:19

He is set apart in John's eyes and needs to be set apart in ours.

01:25

He has been identified to John, and John now identifies him to us as the one who had the

01:31

Spirit without measure descending on him and remaining upon him, the one who would baptize with the

01:38

Holy Spirit, the one who is now clearly identified as the

01:44

Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Remember that the

01:50

Baptist had been preaching repentance. He had been calling men and women to turn from their sins and to turn back to God in order that they might receive forgiveness from him.

02:01

And now John points to that one in whom that forgiveness is accomplished, is fully and entirely realized.

02:10

No ordinary lamb this, not just another lamb in sequence, but that one final lamb,

02:19

God's own appointed sacrifice, the one who is going to accomplish everything that the figures, the types, the shadows of Old Testament sacrifice pointed toward.

02:32

He is the one who is going to take away the sin of the world. That is what he is here to do.

02:38

John says, see him, that man, that is God's lamb, and he is taking away the sin of the world.

02:48

He is going to take it to himself. He is going to suffer for it. He is going to carry it away from his people.

02:56

He is going to appease God. He is going to suffer the judgment that sin deserves.

03:02

He is going to break the power of cancelled sin, having cancelled it in his death.

03:09

He is going to do what no sacrifice of bulls and goats, of lambs or rams could ever accomplish.

03:17

He is going to take away the sin of the world. That's not just then the sin of the

03:24

Jewish nation. That's the sin of every person from every kingdom, tribe, and tongue and nation who trusts in the

03:32

Lamb of God. Now do you behold him? Do you see him as John sets him forth?

03:39

Do you understand his matchless goodness and his perfections for this task?

03:47

Do you understand that he has been not just identified, but formed and equipped for this task, that the spirit of God was upon him in order that these things might be carried out?

04:00

Are you following John the Baptist's finger as he points at Jesus of Nazareth?

04:06

And are you taking Jesus of Nazareth as God's Lamb? There is no other provision for sin.

04:14

There is no one else who can take away your transgressions, your iniquities and your sins.

04:21

Wherever else you look, whatever else you try, however hard you scrub, whatever you try and provide, there is no other way for a sinner like me and you to be clean in the eyes of God except through that Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

04:39

God has provided what you and I need in order that we might be made clean and whole in his sight.

04:47

If we are to be accepted, we must be accepted in his beloved Son, and we must be accepted through faith in him who suffered and died on the cross in order that our sins might be put away.

05:02

He bore them in his own body on the tree, and he is the Saviour that you need, that I need, and that is held out to every sinner.