Most people have heard Jesus being called “the Lamb of God” before, but few know exactly what it means. Today I will explain the meaning and significance of Jesus as the Lamb of God.
First, what does this terminology mean? What is the lamb of God? Well it simply refers to the innocence that Jesus had. He never committed sin, and he was perfect in God’s eyes. It also refers to the fact that in the Old Testament, in many cases a lamb was sacrificed to pay some debt, to cover our sin, and to give us Atonement. This was testimony to what Jesus would do, as well as a prediction of Jesus coming in the future.
There are many places where a messiah is predicted as the lamb of God. One of these places is in Exodus 12, that is, the Passover. In Exodus 12, The Pharaoh of Egypt would not let the Israelites leave. They were his slaves. So God brought about plagues on the people, sending Moses to tell the Pharaoh that they would stop when he let the people go. The last one was when the Angel of Death would come and kill the first-born of every family in Egypt. But God provided rescue for his people. If the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and put it’s blood over their door, the Angel of Death would pass over them. This may appear a harsh and rather odd way for God to release his people, but it was effective, and it was also an example of the Messiah to come. Here, the lamb’s death covered each family’s sin, just like how Jesus would cover our sin.
We also see a messiah foreshadowed as a lamb in Isaiah 53:3-7. This passage clearly predicts who Jesus would be, how he would be treated, and what he would do. It refers to Jesus as a “lamb led to the slaughter”. This brings me to the point that a lamb is constantly being sacrificed in the O.T., which represents Jesus. Let’s look at this first passage, Genesis 22. Here Abraham’s faith in God is tested.
“1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.””
Few! That’s a big chunk of reading, but it’s amazingly powerful. Here God provides a ram, a type of lamb, to take the place of Abraham’s son. God tells Abraham that he must sacrifice his own son. This shows us that because of sin there must be a punishment: death. You can imagine the pain, the confusion, the sorrow and anger Abraham must have been feeling in this passage. He didn’t understand how this could be part of God’s perfect plan, but he was willing to do it anyway. But God provided a lamb to die in the place of Issac. This is a great reflection of God’s gift to us. We deserve death but Jesus took our place and died so we didn’t have to die ourselves. That feeling of pain and sorrow that Abraham felt was the same pain that God felt when he gave his only son as a sacrifice for our sin. What an amazing gift indeed. It shows how strong God’s love for us is.
Another important sacrifice involving lambs was the daily sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem. Twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, a lamb was sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people. This can be found in Exodus 29. These daily sacrifices, like all others in the Old Testament, were simply to point people towards the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The animals themselves did not save them, but the people’s faith that God had provided a way for them to be forgiven them did. Interestingly the time of Jesus’ death on the cross corresponded to the time the evening sacrifice was being made in the temple. The Jews at that time would have also been familiar with the verse we spoke of earlier, Isaiah 53:7 which foretold the coming of one who would be brought “like a lamb to the slaughter” and whose sufferings and sacrifice would provide redemption for Israel. Of course, that person was none other than Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
So in review, Jesus as the lamb of God refers to the fact that Jesus was a perfect, innocent sacrifice for our sins, and it refers to all the Old Testament foreshadows of a sacrificial lamb.
Now, why is this significant to us? Well, it is one more thing that can reassure us that Jesus Christ is the messiah promised in the Old Testament. Jesus is the one who God meant for us to trust and believe in. Jesus is the one God meant to give us the gift of eternal life. It also shows us just what Jesus did for us. He covered over our sin, he gave us freedom in life in his death.
The fact that God himself gave us this propitiation for our sin, is part of the amazing testimony the New Testament provides. I would like to close with a fantastic verse that really sums up the genius plan God designed for us. First Peter Chapter 1, verses 18-21 read this:
“18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
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