Lamb of God
“Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
In today’s urban society, many people don’t often come into contact with farm animals. So when the Bible describes Jesus as “the Lamb of God,” it’s easy to miss the comfort in this unique name for our Savior.
When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” it would have immediately grabbed the Jews attention. God had commanded the sacrifice of lambs as part of their worship life to teach them that they needed the blood of a substitute to pay for their sins. They couldn’t just make that sacrifice once. They had to offer it again and again because it was imperfect blood offered by imperfect people. They sacrificed animals, lambs that could never really take away their sin.
Sometimes we don’t understand the full magnitude of our sin. Sin isn’t just what we read about in the newspapers. Sin is when parents want the best for their children, but allow other things to become more important. Sin is when spouses want to be loving, but instead put their own needs and desires first. Sin is when teenagers struggle for independence and step over the line of disrespecting their parents and others in authority. Sin is nothing more and nothing less than failing to be the perfect people our perfect God demands of us.
We need the perfect blood of a substitute to take away our sins. Jesus is the only Lamb who could do that because he’s the Lamb of God. He’s the perfect Lamb who never fell short of God’s expectations. He’s the Substitute offered on the altar of the cross. His blood fully pays for the sin of the world. And that means he paid for your sin too! He’s the Sacrifice that enables you to live life without fear of God’s punishment. Jesus is the Lamb who gave you what you could never earn—eternal life and a home with him in heaven.