The Christian Appeal (April 2000)
Issue Theme: Seeing Jesus

The Lamb of God
by John Comer

"Lamb of God." That’s what John the Baptist called Jesus of Nazareth. John was not using these words to create a lovely, pastoral scene. On the contrary, he painted his picture in blood. As he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” he articulated the unbelievably terrible responsibility that

Jesus would assume as God’s sacrificial Lamb offered to truly take away sin.

Sin is a word that is virtually nonexistent in most present-day vocabularies. We might hear people described as preferring an alternative lifestyle, choosing a non-faith-based philosophy, or opting out on traditional values. In extreme cases, some-one might be said to have aberrant behavioral patterns or to be violently anti-social. But we’re not likely to hear much about sin or sinners.

Do you suppose ignoring sin or calling it by other names is the same as removing it? Actually, sin has its own removal technique: it separates us from God. Ignore it, and it won’t go away. Rebellion against God is at its very heart. The Apostle John says, “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

The verse in the Bible that says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” lets us know what God thinks of sin: it is so offensive that it deserves death.  It calls for blood.

So many animals were sacrificed in Old Testament times that Jerusalem’s Temple worship is sometimes described as floating in a sea of blood. During Passover the drainage conduit from the Temple altar emptying into the Kedron turned that stream red. And even though these animal sacrifices could not remove sins, they still were a great testimony to God’s grace. These animal blood offerings were part of a system of “external regulations applying until the time of the new order.” They fit into God’s long-term plan for dealing with sin as they prefigured the sacrifice of Christ, God’s perfect Lamb.

By the grace of God, sin has been dealt with by “the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” His “once for all” sacrifice on the cross was reactive, reaching to those who lived in Old Testament times, setting them “free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” At the same time his blood was proactive, reaching to you and me and all generations yet unborn. Sin is a terrible thing, and we’re all involved in it. But God’s Lamb has been sacrificed, and we  praise him for it!