“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
TEXT — John 1: 29-34
Message
Several years ago, a Jewish lady narrated how she got converted to Jesus Christ by seeing a demonstration of sacrificial love. During World War II, she fled the Nazi German secret police in France and hid in the home of a French Protestant. A Christian widow came there to advise her to escape to safety while she would take her identity and face the consequences. In her response, the widow told her, “It’s the least I can do; Christ has already done that and more for me”. When the police came, the widow was caught and imprisoned instead of the Jewish lady. Within six months, she died in the concentration camp.
The greatest sacrificial love ever demonstrated was Christ’s death on the cross for our redemption. When John the Baptist referred to Him as the “Lamb of God”, he was alluding to this substitutionary death. The Jewish leaders sent delegates to John in Bethabara, to ascertain his true identity. He humbly acknowledged that he was not the Christ, the expected Messiah, nor was he Elijah or “the prophet” the Jews were expecting. He pointed their attention to the Son of God, whom he introduced the next day, as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”.
Truly, the Lord Jesus Christ took the form of man in order to fit the redemptive plan of God for mankind. It was such a redemption that was not possible without shedding of a spotless blood (Hebrews 9:12-14,22). He submitted Himself to die like a lamb for sin offering.
Christ is the Lamb of God whose blood saves and sanctifies. He takes away both the root and the fruit of sin. As the blood of the Paschal Lamb saved the Jews that applied it from the angel of death in Egypt, so will Christ’s blood that was shed on the cross save those that believe in Him. The vilest of sinners who believingly looks up to Him will receive pardon from, and power over sin.
Thought for the day
The Son of God became Son of Man to make the sons of men sons of God.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
