90 Days with Jesus, Day 4: John 1:29-34: Behold the Lamb

John 1:29-34

29The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' 31I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel." 32Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' 34I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God."

The word ‘behold’ is of singular importance in these verses. It is a word of urgency, importance, and direction. John saw Jesus coming towards him and he said, “Behold!” It is hard to mistake what was going on: He pointed to Jesus. But he did not leave his preaching (‘Look’) without interpretation. If he told the people around to ‘look’ he always told them what they were looking at: ‘The Lamb of God.’ However, that is still not enough. He did not leave ‘Lamb of God’ without interpretation either: ‘Who takes away the sin of the world!’ Now, if we misunderstood why we were looking at Jesus, and if we misunderstood what John meant when he referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God, there is no misunderstanding what John meant by ‘takes away the sin of the world.’ The only question we might be left with is: How will he do that? But even the word ‘lamb’ gives those baptized in scripture insight into his meaning.

This is also the first time Jesus has been publicly identified in John’s Gospel. We have heard other words about Him. He is the Word. He was with God and so on. But one day Jesus went for a walk and when John saw him he did not hold back his guns but fired the opening salvo to anyone listening: ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ Ironically, or perhaps not, Jesus does nothing to dissuade John from this idea. People came to John and plied him with many questions about his own identity; and he denied every title or identity people tried to label him with. John says this about Jesus and we hear not a word from Jesus in denial. So the first time anyone says anything publicly about Jesus in this Gospel we hear about who he is (Jesus), what he is (Lamb of God), and what He will do (take away the sins of the world). This is His primary objective, above and beyond anything else, before anything else, instead of anything else: He is the Lamb of God.

Well this certainly defines the problem of the world: Sin. He did not come down to solve the world’s economic crises, or to elect politicians, or to solve poverty, or sickness, or marital problems, or anything of the sort. Jesus, the Lamb of God, came to deal with sin. PT Forsyth brilliantly wrote, “He so spared not His Son as with Him to give us all things. The true theology of the Cross and its atonement is the solution of the world” (The Justification of God, 122). He came once as the Lamb to deal with sin. Will he be so meek and gentle the second time coming? Or will He come as the Lion? Jesus, the Lamb of God, came to deal with sin. John points that out when he makes his first public announcement about Jesus. The world should have known, but they were blind. They welcome John who baptized in water, but not Jesus who baptized in fire. Jesus, in my estimation, is used for too many things in this world and in His Church. I think when his prophets properly point out that Jesus came to deal with sin we will make great strides in this world and among the lost.

The reason we don’t point to this Jesus, the Lamb of God Jesus who deals with sin, is because in the church we have not sufficiently defined the terms. We have believed that sin can be dealt with therapeutically and not at the cross. David Wells has many important thoughts on this very issue. I’ll share but a couple. He criticizes those who hold the opinion that sin can be ‘domesticated’ and that this domesticated sin can be cleared up by showing more concern for ‘technique [as in marketing strategies] than with repentance, and that neighborhood surveys are more crucial than the Word of God for securing the church’s spiritual growth’ (God in the Wasteland, 81-82). He writes: “Christ’s gospel calls sinners to surrender their self-centeredness, to stop granting sovereignty to their own needs and recognize his claim of sovereignty over their lives. This is the reversal, the transposition of loyalties that is entailed in all genuine Christian believing” (God in the Wasteland, 82). Many times, nowadays, the church has surrendered moral authority because it will not peach the cross. The gospel preaching that takes place in many churches now is described by one as a gospel ‘consisting of a God without wrath bringing a people without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross.’ (H. Richard Niebuhr as quoted by Wells, God in the Wasteland, 82). This has to change or the church will die. Sin is not something we can fix by watching Dr. Phil, listening to stories about our purpose in life, or listening to motivational speakers who are disguised as Christian evangelists. Sin can only be dealt with in the cross. It is this cross we must preach.

Jesus came to earth willing, ready, able and only to deal with sin. It is the church that has changed this mission and this message. The church needs to get back into the business of preaching the Jesus who came to deal with sin. The church needs to get back to the business of preaching a cross centered Gospel. The church needs to properly expound on the doctrine of atonement—a doctrine seen fully alive in the Old Testament books and literally fleshed out in the New Testament books; in Christ. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is our message. He is the direction we point because there is no other direction we can point. Sin is taken away in no other place, in no other person. Jesus only is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus only is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.