Lamb of God
Posted by Karah
Pause
Change the location of your quiet time today. Sit silently before God for a few minutes before beginning, focusing your heart and mind on Him alone.
Apart from Luke’s recounting of Jesus’ experience in the temple when He was 12 years old, the Gospels are silent about Jesus’ childhood and teen years. The Gospel writers simply pick up with Jesus’ life when He was about 30 years old and getting ready to begin His ministry.
Read John 1:29-34 to learn about an important moment in Jesus’ life as He was preparing for His public ministry. As you read, underline the names with which John identifies Jesus.
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the One I told you about: ‘After me comes a man who has surpassed me, because He existed before me.’” —John 1:29-30
Answer these questions:
At Passover, the priests would sacrifice a lamb to atone for the peoples’ sin. Knowing this, what was John saying about Jesus when He identified Him as the Lamb of God?
Reread verse 30. How did John point to Jesus’ eternal nature? To His superiority? Explain.
John also identified Jesus as the Son of God (v. 34), referencing Jesus’ eternal nature, but also His ability to reveal the true nature and heart of God in a way the people had never experienced before.
How could Jesus—God in the flesh—give the people a clearer understanding of God’s character and purposes than God’s Old Testament interactions had?
Respond
John recognized that Jesus was God in the flesh. He understood that Jesus would be the One who would atone for our sin.
If you aren’t a Christian, sin separates you from God. Your good deeds and your effort cannot atone for that sin; only Jesus’ sacrifice on your behalf can do that.
If you are a believer, dwell on what Jesus has done for you. Like John, acknowledge His eternal nature and worship Him as He deserves. Thank Him for becoming the Passover Lamb and praise Him for revealing God’s heart to you.
For further study, read Isaiah 53:7; Revelation 5:6,12; and Revelation 7:17.
Behind the Story
In the Book of Exodus, when God’s people were captives in Egypt, God instructed them to slaughter a lamb without defect and put its blood on the tops and sides of the doorframes. That blood signified God’s people and saved those homes from death that night. After that, the Jewish people remembered the Passover festival each year with a feast where lamb was the main course. John’s listeners would have been familiar with the concept of the Passover lamb and the salvation its shed blood pointed toward. In referring to Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” John identified Jesus as the One who would be the ultimate sacrifice, whose blood applied to sinners’ hearts would cause God’s judgment to pass over them, giving life and providing escape from eternal death.
The Point
John identified Jesus as the One who will atone for sin and attests to His eternal nature.
Posted in Boys, Devotions | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest Alumni and Friends, Camp Ridgecrest for Boys, Reprinted from ec magazine. © 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Used by permission., Weekly Devotions