Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. — John 1:29-34
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”1
Seems a strange way for John the Baptist to introduce the King of all kings. The God of Angel Armies. The only begotten Son of God. Why a lamb? Why not a lion? Or a gorilla? Or Tyrannosaurus rex?
John continued, “This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who ranks before me, because He was before me.’ I myself did not know Him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to Israel.”2
“I came baptizing... that He might be revealed.” This is the point of John’s life in eight words. To reveal Jesus. Can I say the same? Can you? Can we reduce our raison d’etre, our reason for being, to something so simple? So selfless? So sacrificial? So other-focused?
If you feel small, don’t. Jesus said, “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.”3 Which means there’s hope for us.
“And John bore witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend from Heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.’”4
The Charles Martin paraphrase reads: “God told me to tell you that His Son is here. And that’s Him.”
Adam and Eve’s problem is that while their sin had been covered with fig leaves, it still exists. Beneath the covering. Which means it hasn’t been ultimately dealt with. So God in His mercy sheds the blood of an innocent animal, sews clothing, and covers Adam and Eve. A temporary solution that does not permanently deal with the ultimate problem.
Given their choice to sin, God escorts Adam and Eve out of the garden. This means every child born in the history of the world has been born outside of the Kingdom of God and into slavery. Slaves to sin. No longer perfect. Separated from God. Dead. Every sin and all the consequences due to it had to be paid for. In full. For all mankind. For all time.
We know God’s heart for us is to bring us back to Himself. He tells us: “I... brought you to Myself.”5
It is God’s heart for us that the love with which He, God the Father, loved Jesus may be in us and Jesus in us.6 We also know Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”7
Question: If the destination is the Father, how does God bring sinful man back? How does He deal with — atone for — all sin and not just cover it? How does He wipe the slate clean permanently? How does He snatch us back out of the hand of the devil?
We like to compare ourselves to others, noting how our sin is not as bad as this or that person’s. How we’re not on death row, not sentenced to life behind bars, not... you get the point. (For those of you who are, hang in there. And please revisit day 3. There’s more mercy in Jesus than sin in us. Because without Jesus, we’re all on death row.) This propensity is called the “sin of comparison.” But the comparison is flawed. The question is not one of degrees of sin or comparative “badness” — that I’m somehow better or worse than you because I’ve done more or less good or bad things — but one of percentage dead. Can you be 90 percent dead? No. That makes you 10 percent alive, which is alive. If you’re dead, you’re 100 percent dead. Not kind of dead. Not sort of dead. Not pretty much dead.
- And according to God, all of us are dead in our sin until He makes us alive in Christ.
So the question is not: How do bad people become good? There are no good people. The question is: How does God raise dead people to life?
The writer of Hebrews reminded us that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”8 How so? And why? “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”9 Okay, but what kind of blood? Will any blood do? No. For “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”10 So whose blood and what altar will satisfy the wrath of God? Whose blood will God accept as payment for sin?
The disciple John, late in his life, was exiled to the island of Patmos where God revealed to him what was to come. In that revelation, John recorded this very question: “Who is worthy?”11 But to his great dismay and sadness, no one in Heaven or on earth or under the earth was found worthy. So John wept loudly because all of mankind hung in the balance. Then an elder tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”12
Enter Jesus.
Walk with Me Back to the Cross
See that Man hanging there? That shredded, hamburger of a Man, drowning in His own lung fluid. Blood dripping from His toes, painting the earth below like the mercy seat of old. Here hangs the innocent Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. Yours and mine. Past tense. Paid in full.
“For freedom Christ has set us free.”13
The execution of the only innocent man to ever live, God’s only Son, is God’s permanent solution to the problem of your and my sin. Jesus Christ crucified is God’s answer to the how-much-does-He-love-me-and-how-far-will-He-go-to-rescue-me question. Paul explained to the Corinthians in twenty-one of the most powerful words ever strung together: “And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”14
Because of Him.
Okay, but why? What reason could He possibly have for willingly enduring the Cross?
This is Jesus again, in His last few words before His arrest, praying to the Father about us: “The glory that you have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.”15
The root of the word “perfectly one” is the same root word as tetelestai.
Pray with Me
Jesus, these are the words of Your servant John in his revelation. Please let me pray them as my declaration. My proclamation of what was true then is true now and will be true forever.
“Then I saw in the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ And no one in Heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And He went and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne. And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a Kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’
“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’ And I heard every creature in Heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”16
In the mighty, magnificent, undefeated, and matchless name of Jesus Christ.
1. John 1:29. 2. John 1:30–31. 3. Matthew 11:11. 4. John 1:32–34. 5. Exodus 19:4. 6. John 17:26. 7. John 14:6. 8. Hebrews 9:22. 9. Leviticus 17:11. 10. Hebrews 10:4. 11. Revelation 5:2. 12. Revelation 5:5. 13. Galatians 5:1. 14. 1 Corinthians 1:30. 15. John 17:22–23. 16. Revelation 5:1–14.
Excerpted with permission from It Is Finished by Charles Martin, copyright Charles Martin.
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Your Turn
God’s heart for us is to bring us back to Himself. That’s Jesus. He came so that we could be one with Him. What overwhelming love! ~ Devotionals Daily