RESPONSE TO QUESTION #33

Thanks for your question.

John the Baptist said of Jesus, "Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" in John 1:29,36). The imagery intended to be created in the minds of those who heard him and those of us who read it today was that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb to be offered for our sins of which every lamb ever offered on the altar was a symbol. Jesus was the fulfillment of what God had been telling the people would come all along. In Isaiah 53 the prophet said the Messiah would come to be slaughtered like a lamb. He was coming to take our place in dying for us for our sins.

Jesus is our "Propitiation" (Romans 3:21-26) or substitute. Our sins are so great we deserve the punishment of hell. God wanted to save us. As a just and merciful God for Him to save fallen man required the price of sin to be paid. Christ the innocent one, came into this world, was tempted just like we are then was carried as the lamb of God to the cross to die on our behalf.

None of us could pay the price of our own sins, since we are guilty. But God had the price paid by His Son so we could be redeemed from all our sins. He is our lamb when we have the faith in Him to be washed in the blood of the lamb for our sins to be forgiven and live in a relationship with Him to be cleansed all along by His blood (I John 1:5-10).

The result should be that we live in constant appreciation and amazement of what God has done. We should willingly devote our lives to His service since He gave His life for us to be saved.

Those who make it to heaven will be the one who have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb." (Revelation 7:14).

I hope this is helpful.

Leon Barnes