BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD

(John 1: 28-34)

 « Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. » (v. 29)

Thus spoke John the Baptist, called the Precursor of the Messiah. As such, John the Baptist’s role was to herald the coming of the Messiah, the Promised One of which the paschal lamb was only a shadow.

John’s designation of Jesus as the Lamb of God must have brought to mind at least two passages of the Old Testament. The first is Isaiah 53: 7 where the prophet said: “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and, as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”

The other passage is Exodus 12 where the Israelites were instructed to slay a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year. They were then to take its blood and put it on the doorposts and on the lintel of the house where they ate it. The blood on the doorposts and on the lintel was a sign that would cause God to spare the firstborn inside the house thus marked.

What we know about Jesus Christ and what is said concerning the paschal lamb in Exodus 12 authorize us to say that the paschal lamb was a type of Jesus Christ. In other words, the paschal lamb prefigured something greater that would find its true meaning and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul said, in direct reference to Exodus 12, “Christ, our Passover [or our Paschal Lamb], was sacrificed for us.” (1 Cor. 5: 7b)

That invites naturally a comparison between the paschal lamb and Jesus, the Lamb of God. We will endeavor to consider only two of the major characteristics of the paschal lamb – namely, the absence of blemish in the lamb, and the redemptive value of its blood – and draw a parallel in each case with Jesus, the Lamb of God.

I. THE ABSENCE OF BLEMISH

In Exodus 12: 5, the Lord said to the Israelites through Moses that the paschal lamb was to be without blemish or defect: “Your lamb shall be without blemish.”  The blemish or defect here is only physical. The paschal lamb was to be free of all infirmity: it was not to be blind or lame; it was not to have spots or wounds. It ought to be physically perfect.

This physical perfection required for the paschal lamb was a prefiguration of the moral perfection that would characterize Jesus, the Lamb of God. Jesus was indeed without moral defect; he was the perfect man, the only one who never needed to confess the least sin, for he had none. He challenged his enemy in these terms: “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8: 46) Neither his foes nor his friends could find any thing blame-worthy in him. The apostle Peter who had shared his private life for three years called him “the lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Pet. 1: 18) – a direct reference to the paschal lamb.

He is truly “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” For somebody to take away the sin of the world, that person must have no sin of their own, inasmuch as only a free man can take the place of a convict. Christ lived an immaculate, spotless, and perfect life before God and men. Therefore, He was the only man who deserved the designation of “Lamb of God.” He alone could offer His life as an atonement for sin.

II. THE REDEMPTIVE VALUE OF ITS BLOOD

To understand this point, it’s necessary to remember the circumstances that led to the institution of the Passover, and consequently to the slaying of the paschal lamb.

The children of Israel have been groaning under the Egyptian oppression for four hundred thirty years. God sent them a liberator in Moses with this clear message to Pharaoh: “Let my people go!” Pharaoh resisted the Lord’s bidding. To break Pharaoh’s resistance, God unleashed His power over Egypt in the Ten Plagues. In spite of the havoc wreaked by the first nine, Pharaoh’s pride remained unabated. God had to use the ultimate weapon in His arsenal – His Atomic Bomb: the tenth plague, the destruction of all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 11:1-7) 

Strict instructions were given to the Israelites to protect the firstborn among them: they were to slay a young male lamb (not more than one year old), then they were to take “some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.” God said, “About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.”  (Exodus 11: 4, 5)

But God also promised to spare the firstborn in the houses of the Israelites if they obeyed the orders communicated to them. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn — both men and animals — and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12)

This time, the Israelites were not spared automatically as that was the case in some of the first nine plagues. They had to show their faith and obedience by following the instructions they were given in order to save their firstborn from destruction. The interesting statement that shows the value of the blood of the lamb is in chap. 12: 13: “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

The blood of the paschal lamb redeemed the firstborn in each house where that blood was on the doorposts and on the lintel. When God came in front of the house of an Israelite, He saw that death has already visited that house. So, He skipped such a house, He passed over it (that’s the meaning of the Hebrew word Pesach = pass over.) Now, the death that has visited the house is that of the lamb. The lamb was substituted to the firstborn. It died in his place. It died a substitutionary death; its blood had redemptive value. The firstborn could be spared, because the blood of the lamb was shed.   

It is the same for the blood of the Jesus, the Lamb of God. God’s judgment is upon all the earth, because “all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.” But God sent His Son who was sacrificed at Passover. His shed blood, when applied to a person by faith in His sacrifice, protects that person from the wrath of God. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)

When a sinner is covered by the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, God’s justice, the avenger of His holiness (for sin is always an offense committed against God’s holiness), sees the blood and understands that death has already visited that sinner. “…if one died for all, then all died.” (2 Corinthians 5:14) The blood of Jesus has an infinite redemptive value. Thus, all those who believe in Him are saved by the only sacrifice He offered at Calvary.

Let me finish by reiterating a very important truth I have already emphasized regarding the paschal lamb: the protection against eternal damnation is not automatic, as it was not in the case of the paschal lamb. The blood of the lamb was to be put on the door of each Israelite house. In the same way, each person must apply the blood of Jesus on the doorposts and the lintel of their heart to be saved from God’s wrath. It is true that the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, but that doesn’t mean the whole world is automatically saved. It takes a personal act of faith in the sacrifice of Christ to be saved from eternal damnation.

My question to you now: Are you covered by the blood of the Lamb? The only person to know the answer to that question is you. If you not sure, wouldn’t you like to open your heart to Jesus at this very moment and ask Him to take away all your sins? May God help you do it now!

Rev. Hubermann Larose

Associate Pastor