“Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29b
Before Jesus’ coming, God had carefully set a redemptive balance wherein sin was carefully atoned by repentant sacrifice. Even the first sin in the Garden of Eden immediately found a blood sacrifice being made to cover Adam and Eve’s shame and bareness.
For years that ensued, there were offerings brought before God in this way: the fruit of the field, the fruit of the vine, the fragrance of incense, and, most crucially, sacrificial animals. These animals were bearing the weight of sin’s cost—for death was the price to be paid—as God mercifully tried to spare His children.
But each new sin commited, and a new sacrifice would have to be made; each passing year, a new atonement would be pled. Goats and sheep, bulls and doves… or a perfect, spotless lamb—all held their place in a worthy sacrificial system that held a tenuous truce awhile. God always knew though.
Eventually, a sacrifice would be required “once and for all,” an offering—perfect, holy, giving of itself willingly—only that kind of sacrifice which would pay sin’s debt for every soul, for all time.
The hints of this truth were scattered throughout the stories, as God’s people grew into a nation. There was the perfect lamb slaughtered before each Passover, its blood covering a doorpost, so that death would not enter the home of those sheltering there. There was Abraham nearly sacrificing his son, Isaac, only to hear a merciful reprieve from the heavens in final, fateful seconds—a fulfillment of Abraham’s assurance to Isaac that “God would provide, Himself, for the lamb” for sacrifice… and there they raised their eyes to find a ram caught fast in a thicket just by their altar. Again and again sacrifices made, again and again lambs and other innocent creatures bearing the cost.
We reach the Israelites’ time of the prophets and find remarkable words from Isaiah. God had begun to reveal the full measure of eventual sacrifice required, and Isaiah penned these profound prophecies regarding the Messiah Savior to come:
“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth… He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:4-7, 12b
This perfect, sacrificial Lamb had been long-foretold, and when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he cried out with a heart that had always known the truth: “Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29b
Jesus willingly took on this role and carried it through to completion at a cost beyond anything we could ever comprehend or imagine. All the weight of all the sin of all humanity for all time that had yet passed and would ever be… all of it cast upon the shoulders and soul of a perfect Son of God… this Lamb of God Whose love was enough to take the punishment and spare us.
“…You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a Lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you…” 1 Peter 1:18-20 God knew of this perfect Lamb all along, and when the time had come, made it known to us: Behold the Lamb of God!
A child lay there that Christmas night, wrapped in cloths to swab away bloodied hay, born in a forsaken stable, tucked for safety into a manger surrounded by animals, themselves, meant for eventual sacrifice… and this Child would grow to be the Lamb Who saved us all.
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“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” (excerpt)
Theodore Baker (1851-1934)
This Flower, Whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load.
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-Amy Rutherford, 2023-
