Jesus, The Lamb Of God (J5)

Jesus began His ministry next day
By asking John if he would baptize Him;
As He came forward, John had this to say:
“The Lamb of God, Who takes men’s sin from them!
I would not know Him, but God, Who sent me,
Told me this was His One and Only Son,
For perched on His shoulder the dove you see,
The Holy Spirit, marks Him as the One!
I baptize with water, and tell you all,
The Savior of men is about to call;
To those who respond, the Spirit will give
New life on earth, and with the Father live!”
Jesus is the Christ*, proclaimed John to men;
The Lamb of God, Who paid for the world’s sin!

*Messiah

Jesus is called the “Lamb” of God quite frequently in the New Testament. This is because His death on the cross was the climactic act of sacrifice that for all time satisfied His code of justice and permitted Him to accept justification for the sins of mankind. In Romans 4:23 we find that “the wages of sin is death”. That is a law of God, and to be just, He must enforce it. When Adam and Eve sinned, death was brought into the world; not only for Adam’s sin were men condemned, but also for their own sins. As a forerunner to God’s coming into the world, living as Jesus a sinless life, and shedding His blood on the cross, the Jews of Israel were required to sacrifice a perfect little lamb every year on the Day of Atonement; the High Priest would sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the Ark of the Covenant, and God’s law was temporarily set aside, looking forward to the super Day of Atonement when Jesus (Who was God Himself) gave His innocent blood on the cross. No more sacrifice is required; our sin-wage of death is paid by our acceptance of Jesus as Lord of our own lives and of the whole world. Those who do not accept or believe in Jesus remain condemned.

“The next day [after the Pharisees’ questions in John 1:24-28] John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! … I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.’ “ (John 1:29-31)

This incident in John 1:29-34 is the occasion when Jesus began His 3+ years of ministry on earth. He came to be baptized by John Baptist, not because He had sinned and was repenting, but so His act would be an example to His followers. John demurred when He asked to be baptized, saying, “I have need of being baptized by you!” Jesus said, “Let it be so now.” It was symbolic of His being lowered into the grave in death and arising from the water to show He would be resurrected. John’s baptism of men had no saving power, nor did it result in receiving the Holy Spirit, as we learn from apostle Paul in Acts 19:4.

The book of John is not synoptic (parallel) to the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The incidents from the life of Jesus will not be chronological as in the other gospels; also, the teachings of Jesus and miracles (called “signs”) will not be as numerous. The apostle John emphasized the theme of Christian love and proofs of the deity of Jesus. This book infuriated the Jewish leaders of Judaism more than any other, because they found it impossible or difficult to discredit the believers’ claims of Jesus’ being the Messiah. This book may have been the last straw for the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of Judaism), for soon after it appeared in about 90 A.D., Judaism officially detached itself from any Jewish groups that believed in Jesus’ Messiahship.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” (Romans 10:9)