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We are picking up from where we left off last week, in John 1:29-34.
Let’s begin by reading.
Let us pray.
This last verse in the section really defines what is going on here.
John says, I have seen and I testify.
That word testify is the word for giving witness.
The word from which we get our word Martyr.
John had seen.
John had a really important message.
A message so important that he gave up everything to relay it to as many as would hear it.
What is that message?
“Look, the Lamb of God...”
Last week, I asked the question, “Why did John call Jesus the Lamb of God?” It was not a commonly used term.
They typically were looking for the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Prophet who was to come.
The King who was to sit on David’s throne.
So, why did John use the title, “Lamb of God?”
We saw last week that from the beginning, when Adam and Eve first sinned, God used a lamb to show them that their sin required punishment.
Death.
Separation from God.
To help them see that, God used a visual.
He used a lamb that was slain, a lamb that had to die, separating that lamb from life, to show them how sin separates them from life, from their source of life, God.
God continued to use that imagery down through the ages with Job, Abraham, and eventually the nation of Israel as they performed sacrifices as a part of the Mosaic Covenant.
The agreement that God made with Israel through Moses whereby they saw God’s holiness and righteous standard through the law, and the provision God would make through a lamb that would die in their place.
Visuals are important in education.
That is how we learn.
For instance, this time of year reminds me of Pumpkin pie.
How many of us are waiting for Pumpkin pie?
I know I am!! How is pie used as a visual, a teaching tool?
Fractions.
Using a pie is a great way to teach fractions.
It is a visual that helps us learn an intangible concept.
God made us and knows us better than we know ourselves.
So, knowing how we learn, God uses visuals to help us learn and understand intangible concepts.
Hence, God uses an innocent lamb to help us learn the intangible concept of Death, Separation, being the punishment for sin, and that the punishment must be made.
That is why even in Isaiah, it was prophesied of the one who was to come, that...
Why did Jesus come as a lamb?
Because the lamb was the visual learning tool, to help us know that our sin requires punishment, the punishment of Death, being separated from God our source of life.
Well, if God already has a system in place with lambs, why did Jesus come as the lamb?
That leads to John’s continued statement.
He said, “Look, the Lamb of God...” and continued with...
“who takes away the sin of the world!”
You see, the lambs that were sacrificed never really took away the sin.
They were the learning tool.
They were the visual.
They were just lambs.
They could not take away our punishment.
Rather, as the author of Hebrews says:
God knew that no animal could take away our sin.
God alone can forgive sin when he has dealt with it properly.
And, God alone can truly deal with it properly.
The proper way is that the debt of sin must be paid.
A life must be taken.
A human life for human sin.
As God declared through Ezekiel,
And a very real problem is that we all sin.
Romans 3:23 tells us that.
And being sinners, we will all die.
Romans 6:23, for the wages we earn by our sin is death.
However, as God says,
God does not take pleasure in meting out justice.
So, he gave the visual of a lamb, an innocent one dying in our place so that we could be righteous if we receive what God is doing for us by faith, trusting Him to deal with the sin.
But remember, those lambs were visual aids.
They reminded us of sin, and the consequences death.
They also pointed ahead to the one that would come, as a lamb to the slaughter that Isaiah talked about.
That one, is Jesus.
the Lamb of God.
Not the lamb chosen by men to sacrifice.
No, the Lamb of God, the innocent one, who came to truly take our sins.
As we read in Isaiah 53, Jesus was equated to a lamb led to the slaughter.
Why?
Because as God prophesied through Isaiah,
Jesus came as a man to identify with us.
As prophesied in Psalm 40, and Isaiah.
Hebrews 10 quotes Psalm 40 in saying:
Jesus came as a man, a human so he could truly die in our place—a human life for a human life.
And, he was truly God, so he was able to take the sins of each and every one of us upon himself at one time.
And in one sacrifice,having taken our sins upon himself, he offered himself in our place to pay for all sin, for everyone, for all time, at one time!
Jesus is no ordinary lamb.
Those lambs never took away sin.
Those lambs reminded people of sin.
Jesus is no ordinary sacrifice.
Those sacrifices happened over and over and over.
Jesus sacrificed Himself one time and done!
He never has to die again!! His was the perfect sacrifice that truly takes away the sin of the world!!
His one sacrifice has made perfect forever… ‘Made perfect’ is written in the Greek language in which it was originally written in what is called the perfect tense.
In English we have Past tense, present tense and future tense.
Other languages have other tenses.
Greek has one called perfect tense.
What this tense conveys is that the action took place in the past, but its effect is on-going.
Jesus died one time in the past.
Never to die again.
And that one time, in the past sacrifice, has the ongoing effect of making us perfect.
And not only does the perfect tense tell us that, but God emphasizes it by using the word ‘forever’!
Which literally means as one lexicon, Louw-Nida, puts it, “unlimited duration of time, with particular focus upon the future—‘always, forever, forever and ever, eternally.’”
What a blessing!
What an accomplishment!
This is something only God could do!
And yes, as John has pointed out so well, Jesus is God!!
He has done it all!
By one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever, forever and ever, eternally, those who are being made perfect.
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