The first announcement John the Baptist made concerning his cousin, Jesus, was that he is the Lamb of God who takes away or forgives the sin of the world.
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 (NASB95)
Jesus came from the Jews, but his mission was to save the world.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (NKJV)
The New Covenant is superior to and grander than anything contained in the old. Not only did God enlarge the group who will be saved to include the nations, he also enlarged the promised land. God gave Abraham the area that came to be known as Israel, but Jesus promised that his disciples will inherit the earth.
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 (NKJV)
The New Covenant is better than the old in every way (Hebrews 8:6) because it is a covenant in his blood (Luke 22:20) between the Father and the Son (Isaiah 42:6) in which we participate by faith.
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. Hebrews 8:6 (NASB95) And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. Luke 22:20 (NASB95) I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, Isaiah 42:6 (NASB95)
The Law is the measure of holiness by which all people will be judged. Through Christ’s perfect life and his sacrifice on the cross, he fulfilled the Law on our behalf in addition to paying the penalty for our transgressions of that same Law. His perfect standing with God is the incomprehensible gift provided to his children.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 1 John 3:1 (NASB95)
Continual access to God’s presence is our amazing privilege.
for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:18 (NASB95)
The promise of ruling with Christ is our glorious future.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:29 (NASB95)
even when we were dead in our transgressions,[God] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:5–6 (NASB95)
Although John did not do any known miracles and only a few of his words are recorded in Scripture, Jesus declared that he was the greatest of the prophets (Matthew 11:11). John’s greatness is measured by the enormity of his calling, which was to identify and introduce Jesus to Israel and the world.
We too will be honored if we faithfully proclaim Jesus to the world
Our Lord promised:
And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man [who has authority to judge] will confess him also before the angels of God; Luke 12:8 (NASB95)
John announced four important aspects of Jesus’ person and work, all of which are integral to the gospel.
- Jesus is the Lamb of God – He is the Savior who has authority to forgive sins.
- Jesus is the Son of God – He is the risen Lord, the “last Adam, in whom God has placed all authority in heaven and on earth.
- Jesus is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit – He is Lord of the Harvest, and
- Jesus is the Son of Man – He has been given authority to judge the living and the dead.
Each of these titles or roles has tremendous significance and name an important aspect of our Lord’s person and work. God wants us to recognize each of these aspects of Christ’s ministry and authority and to personally experience him in each way, too – as Savior, Lord, Baptizer in the Spirit, and coming Judge.
When we proclaim the gospel, it includes the invitation for our hearers to know him in these same four ways.
The Lamb of God – Knowing Jesus as Savior
The next day he [John the Baptist] *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 (NASB)
I imagine that John shocked his followers by telling them that Jesus was a sacrificial lamb. Our impression of a lamb is probably a cute, gentle, and cuddly animal. But for the Israelites, this designation brought to mind the bloody sacrifice of these innocent animals as an offering for sin. Those familiar with the prophet Isaiah may have recalled these words from the 53rd chapter.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53:7 (NKJV)
Did any of those who heard John realize that Jesus would be a human sacrifice for sin?
Not since the day when God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice had such a thing been heard. Would God the Father actually go through with the sacrifice of his Son? Looking back from our present day, the answer, of course, is yes, but try to imagine yourself as one of those who heard John in that time before the crucifixion and resurrection. Would they have been able or even willing to grasp the import of John’s words? It is not likely.
Whereas God the Father relented and told Abraham to spare Isaac, Abba would require his own Son to die an excruciating death to expiate the sins of those who at that time were his enemies.
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 5:10–11 (NKJV)
Amazing grace! Jesus did not die for humble, penitent people who were pleading for mercy. He died for his enemies, and such were we all.
Only by the shedding of his only Son Jesus’ blood on the cross could God the Father forgive our sins.
The just penalty for our transgressions against God’s justice had to be paid for God to retain his justice while at the same time becoming the justifier of his New Covenant people.
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25–26 (NASB95)
Only by dying as God’s perfect Lamb would Jesus gain the authority to forgive sins. The perfect Lamb made the perfect sacrifice that inaugurated the perfect covenant.
Even though John prophesied these words about Jesus’ being the Lamb of God, he may not have fully understood them either. The disciples certainly did not before the resurrection. Jesus, however, completely grasped what being God’s Lamb would cost him. At the Last Supper, he made this announcement to his bewildered disciples. Taking the cup of wine, he told them:
“...This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Luke 22:20 (ESV)
Even before his crucifixion, Jesus told his followers that God had given him authority to forgive sins.
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” 25 Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. Luke 5:23–25 (NASB95)
Where did Jesus get this authority? Did God always have this ability to forgive our sins? If so, why would Jesus have to die for our sins? To properly answer this question, it is important for us to understand that God is not limited by time as we are. He created time but exists outside of it. He sees all time at once. He knows the end from the beginning. He can declare as done those things that have yet to happen in time. For him all things are in the present.
The benefits of Christ’s death as God’s Lamb were able to be applied backward and forward through time.
Every time Jesus forgave someone before his death on the cross he made, so to speak, a draw against a future “paycheck,” his death as God’s Lamb.
By forgiving people before the crucifixion, God guaranteed that his only begotten Son would have to die as the only possible sacrifice for our sins.
When Jesus asked the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane if there were not some other way, he knew the answer was a “no.”
There was only one way for Jesus to have authority to forgive sins. He had to die in our place as God’s lamb and rise again. And that sacrifice reverberates through eternity providing forgiveness once and for all time.
Revelation 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the word.” God saw it done and considered it to be already accomplished before it ever happened in time.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 (NASB95)
Ephesians tells us that God chose us to participate in the blessings won by Christ before he ever created the world.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love Ephesians 1:3–4 (NASB95)
God the Father could not have done this had not the benefits of his Son’s death on the cross already been reckoned as completed! How amazing is God’s grace!
Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; Isaiah 46:10 (NASB95)
Knowing Jesus as the Lamb of God
Probably most people who call themselves Christians know Jesus primarily as the Lamb of God, the One who died for our sins. Another way of describing this role is to call him Savior.
Those of us who become followers of Christ must first know Jesus as Savior before we can go forward on our discipleship journey.
We must first of all be forgiven, which is called propitiation, the expiation of our sins and the satisfying of God’s just wrath.
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 (NASB95)
Once we are forgiven, it opens the door for God to declare us to be “not guilty,” which is justification.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Romans 3:28 (NASB95)
This means that we are provided with our Lord Jesus’ perfect right standing with God, just as if we had never sinned and had been perfectly obedient to God all our lives. In addition, what Jesus accomplished as God’s Lamb opened the door to our being reconciled to God or given an intimate relationship with Abba Father.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:18 (NASB95)
Reconciliation includes becoming a child of God and heir through Christ. Instead of being imprisoned in the kingdom of darkness, when we place our faith and allegiance in God’s Lamb, our Savior, opens the door wide for us to become one of God’s born-again children, part of his eternal family.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12–13 (NASB95)
All of this is so magnificently wonderful that, unfortunately, many of those who experience Jesus as Savior may go little further in their understanding of who Jesus is.
The Spirit of God wants us to know Jesus in each way John identified him – Lamb, Lord, Baptizer in the Spirit, and the coming glorious Son of Man who will judge the living and the dead.
In our consumer culture, it is only natural that Jesus would be presented and received in terms of what he can do for us, but the full gospel is not consumer oriented.
Whenever the complete gospel is presented, the benefit of experiencing forgiveness through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is always in the context of radical surrender to his Lordship.
Presenting forgiveness without the call to surrender all we are and have to God is a distortion that can influence people away from following the Lord in joyful obedience as a way of life. Jesus said that his disciples must enter through a narrow gate and walk a narrow path in order to follow him.
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13–14 (NASB95)
Coming to God through the Lamb of God’s perfect sacrifice is the narrow gate. The narrow path is discipleship – knowing Jesus as Lord.
Preaching only forgiveness without Lordship, is much too wide a path and can hinder our development as disciples. The Lordship of Christ will be the subject of the next message.
Our Authority to Proclaim the Forgiveness of Sins
It is absolutely proper and necessary for us to proclaim the forgiveness of sins through in Christ.
Jesus gave us the authority to announce that God forgives the sins of those who believe in the Lamb of God who rose from the dead.
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Luke 24:45-47 (NASB)
What a tremendous privilege and responsibility we have been given! We are ambassadors of Christ proclaiming that men and women can be reconciled to God!
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:18–21 (NASB95)
Prayer
Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins as the perfect Lamb of God. I receive from you, my Savior, the forgiveness that I could never earn. Thank you, Father God, that you have declared me to be “not guilty” in your sight because of what your Son did on the cross by taking my sins upon himself. Thank you for raising him from the dead to be my Lord, too. Thank you for making me part of your forever family. Come, Holy Spirit, fill me to overflowing. Reveal more and more about what the Bible says about Jesus to me. Help me to live for Jesus from now on and tell others about him. Amen.
