Study 9 ("Reach out to people")

“Christ, the Sin-Bearer”

John 1:29

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

I wish to thank the pastors for this opportunity to preach a sermon in this advent season as we anticipate and long for the coming of Christ. Two weeks ago, we began our sermon series on Christ, with Rev. Dr. Andrew Peh preaching about how Christ is creator. Christ is the Logos, or the eternal word made flesh as he dwelled among us. As the Nicene Creed reminds us, Christ is of the same being or substance of the Father, and through him all things were made. Christ is the hope for the season because his coming means two things: firstly, the fulfillment of prophecy, for the Jew, the coming of a Messiah and saviour, yet not one that they would expect; and for the Gentiles, salvation and redemption for all who believe. The common thread is the nature of this salvation and redemption - what did Jesus come to save us from? Sin.

Why is this so important? Sin pervades our lives. Ever since the Fall, where Adam and Eve were tempted to take a bite from the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin has tainted humanity. Think about the last time someone did something to hurt you. Or the last time you quarrelled with someone over a petty matter. Maybe there is a sin that you are struggling with. The Bible has something to say to all of those scenarios. 

I would like to read John 1:19-34 for us. Although our text for today only focuses on one verse, these surrounding verses will give us a little more context and will help us to understand what is going on in verse 29.

Read John 1:19-34

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight[a] the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son[a] of God.”

The main character in the verses I have just read is John the Baptist. As he quotes Scripture from Isaiah upon questioning, he is somewhat of a herald, someone who prepares the way of someone greater than himself. Verses 19-28 tell us a little bit about John’s ministry and role, which precedes Jesus’ ministry. Then we come to our verse for today, and in John’s declaration, he points both to the identity of Jesus and the scope of his work here on earth. Jesus is identified as “the lamb of God”, and his work is “to take away the sins of the world”

Now, in unpacking what the lamb of God means, we have to first return to the Old Testament. What do we recall when we think of a lamb? 3 images would perhaps come to mind.

The first image is surely when God provided a lamb after testing Abraham’s obedience through the sacrifice of Isaac, his only son. In Genesis 22 God said to Abraham, “take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering.” To this command Abraham obeyed as he brought Isaac and made the journey to Mount Moriah. Remember Isaac asking his father, “behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Now to this Abraham’s reply says more than he thought he knew. He says this: “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” 

The rest of the story we know very well - the angel of the Lord stops Abraham just in time before he sacrifices his son, and there in the bushes God had indeed provided a ram for the sacrifice. 

There are two points to be made. Firstly, God provided the lamb, or in this case, the ram that is required for the sacrifice. Secondly, the parallel of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, his only son whom he loves, and God sacrificing Jesus, the only son whom he loves, should not be missed. 

The second image brings us back to Egypt, at the last plague before Pharaoh releases the Israelites. The Israelites were to take lambs a month old, kill them at twilight, and put some of the blood on the doorposts of their houses. They were to eat it in haste, and this was to be called the Lord’s Passover, where the blood would be a sign that the house will be passed over and not have the firstborn killed. The lamb was thus a Passover lamb, a sacrifice for salvation. The Israelites would go on to be saved from their bondage to Egypt.

The last image comes from the Mosaic law in Leviticus 16. One a year, there was the day of atonement where Aaron, Moses’ brother was supposed to make atonement for the Israelites before God for their sins. Although the animal is not specifically a lamb, in this case it is a bull and two goats, the process of atonement sheds light on our understanding of what the Lamb of God does.  

Leviticus 16:6-10

6 “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.

7 “He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

8 “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.

9 “Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, and make it a sin offering.

10 “But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.

Commentator Bruce Milne notes that the imagery of the ‘scapegoat’ (or sacrificial animal) stands out. The priest laid his hands on the head of the hapless victim transferring the guilt of the people to the animal, and then the creature was released in the wilderness to proclaim the removal of guilt. However, this is done yearly - as the people sin, they need the work of the priest to remove their sin through the release of one goat into the wilderness (taking the sin of the people) and one goat to be sacrificed to God for the sin offering.

With reference to these 3 images, the lamb then points clearly to the idea of sacrifice, but more than that, it is a sacrifice that takes away guilt, a sacrifice necessary for salvation. The Israelites needed to do this again and again, requiring an animal to be slain. But Jesus as the Lamb of God comes to overturn and expand this concept of a sin offering, by becoming THE sin offering, which I will explore further later.

It is with the ideas of sacrifice and salvation in mind that we move to our 3 points today.

1. The Lamb is a prophetic fulfillment of Scripture - He fulfills God’s plan for Israel and beyond

Isaiah contains 4 songs about the servant of the Lord whom he has chosen, describing the service, suffering and exaltation of this servant. In chapters 41 and 44 Isaiah initially identifies this servant to be Israel, but we know that Israel failed to fulfill God’s mission. These descriptions are then the characteristics of the Messiah, God’s chosen servant, who faithfully completes all that God has appointed him to do. This is in stark contrast to Israel. 

This link between the servant of God and Jesus can be found in both Acts and John

In Acts 3:13, Peter calls Jesus the servant of God and rightly so, because:

1. Jesus always did the will of the Father (John 4:34; 6:38)
2. Jesus always sought not his own pleasure but to please his Father (John 5:30)
3. Jesus finished the work here on earth he was sent by the Father to do (John 17:4)

 

In Isaiah 53, a passage many of us may be familiar with, this servant of the Lord is described to first suffer, then triumph. In verse 7, this servant of the Lord was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. The following verse recalls the image of a lamb, talking about how he was like a lamb led to the slaughter, like how a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth - yet this is not where the link is. This segment emphasises Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die as the servant of the Lord obeying the will of God. Rather, it is in the preceding verses that we notice the key to how John’s declaration of who Jesus is makes sense.

Isaiah 53:4-6

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

“He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities… and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

The words ‘transgressions’ and ‘iniquities’ point to our sin. It is for all these sins that he suffered and died. God had laid this burden of sin on him. Herein lies the link to the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Our Lord suffered because he was bearing the weight of our sin. And this suffering servant is Jesus. He is the one who takes on all of our sin. He is at once the high priest and the lamb, the one mediating our reconciliation with God and the necessary sacrifice for our salvation.

But how can he do so? 

1. The Lamb is a perfect sacrifice - He bears the consequences of our sins

Romans 3:23 reminds us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” In Psalm 14 as echoed in Romans by Paul, King David notes that “there is none who does good, not even one”. All of us have sinned (with the exception of Jesus Christ) and need salvation. 

In Leviticus, there is an emphasis on purity for the Israelites, and being set apart as God’s covenant people. [When I was younger as I tried to read through the Bible, I always remember being stuck in Leviticus because it was so tedious to read through. But I only later learned that these laws were for the holiness and purity of the people that reflected the holiness and purity of God.] The animals specified for offering to the Lord always had to be without blemish. It is only with an unblemished animal that the priest can make atonement for sin.

Jesus, as the Lamb of God, was the faultless, perfect, unblemished sacrifice that is worthy to be atonement for sin. Our sin. 

How do we know that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice? Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5:21, that “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Consider the phrase “he knew no sin”. This tells us about the nature of Jesus’ sacrifice - he lived a sinless life. This is echoed in Isaiah 53:9, where “he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”

Matthew 20:28 ties 2 ideas together: 1) Jesus being the servant of God, and 2) Jesus being the sacrifice for us. Listen to this:

“...the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Jesus is the fulfillment of the suffering servant, and being the perfect sacrifice, was the only one who could bear the consequences of our sin. He takes away our sins and makes us righteous before God. How?

1. The Lamb is propitiation for our sins - He makes us righteous now and forever

We return to John 1:29. John’s declaration of Jesus’ identity was tied to him being the lamb of God, which we have explored. How then does the lamb take away sin? The significance of the lamb is that the lamb takes away our sin by taking it upon himself. Propitiation is a big word, but this is what it means. There are two parts to this process of us sinners becoming righteous, sometimes called the ‘great exchange’. Firstly, Jesus suffered condemnation and died in our place. Secondly, Jesus’ perfect righteousness is given to us.

The opening verse to the hymn “His Robes For Mine”, performed by our very own choir last month, beautifully captures how this works:

His robes for mine: O wonderful exchange!

Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage.

Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified.

In Christ I live, for in my place He died.

[By the way, this hymn is also one of the only few hymns that I know that includes the word ‘propitiation’.] Jesus was clothed in our sin, and we are draped in his righteousness.

Before God, in Christ, we are made righteous. 

John’s declaration also includes the scale of its effect - it covers “the sin of the world”. There is no sin too great or evil that cannot be included in Christ’s sacrifice. Bible commentator Bruce Milne has this to say: “There is no sin too heinous, no wickedness too terrible, no habitual failure too often repeated, that it cannot be ‘taken away’ by Christ, our heavenly Lamb.” This is a beautiful truth to behold. Let us take a moment for it to sink in. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God takes away every sin. Every sin. 

As a young parent one of the things I struggled with, and am still learning, is how to love my child. Perhaps for those of us who have children, you may agree with me when I say that the depth of my sinfulness was revealed when I need to take care of a baby. I was even surprised at myself. I was not as ‘nice’ as I had expected or imagined. I was impatient, I was easily frustrated, I got angry, I was selfish and wanted to fulfill my own needs. But God in his grace uses the experience to shape us into his likeness. Each time we sin we know that when we confess, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the promise of God’s word in 1 John 1:9. 

Lastly, we also need to understand the scope and efficacy of what the Lamb of God has done. Jesus, the Lamb of God brings a whole new way of salvation. It outstrips the Old Testament ways of atoning for sin in a radical manner.  No longer do people have to keep offering sacrifices for sins that they commit - all your sins now and in the future is covered by Christ’s sacrifice. We know this from Scripture in Hebrews 10:10-14.

10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Every sin is covered, for all time. That is the magnitude, wonder, and power, of Christ, the Lamb of God, and his atoning sacrifice.

I want to speak to those of us who may be struggling with habitual sin. We must acknowledge that when we yield to temptation over and over again, there may be a stronghold in our lives. There is a sense of fear and hopelessness. Even after you have confessed and prayed, you may still feel unworthy or unclean. Sin can have power over us. But Christ, the Lamb of God, has power over sin. And we have Christ. Listen to these words from Scripture.

1 John 1:5-10

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all ^[2] sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Brothers and sisters, if we are continually sinning, we are walking in darkness. God calls us to walk in the light. He has enabled us to do so, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ does not just take away sin, but He has sent the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the temptation to sin. 

The words of Paul in Galatians 5 tell us to

16...walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,^d drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do^e such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

To sum up:

The Lamb of God fulfills Scripture. The Lamb of God is the perfect sacrifice. The Lamb of God, him alone, who has lived the blameless life, can be the unblemished sacrifice for all of humanity’s sins, yours, and mine, for all time. 

This Advent, let us reflect on the power of Christ over sin. Let us marvel again at his wondrous work. Let us quieten ourselves and prepare our hearts to encounter him afresh. Will you now join me in prayer?