The first time recorded in Scripture that John the Baptist ever saw Jesus, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, CSB). The next day, he said the same thing to two of his disciples, Andrew and John, when Jesus passed by them. The two left him to follow Jesus.

The scene has become so familiar that it’s easy to fail to notice how little John’s society was prepared to hear it. Not to mention ours.

Meanings of lamb of God

That verb “look” means more than just to perceive. It has the added meanings of notice, examine, know, and pay attention to something’s significance. Andrew and John heard the Baptist say it and, without hesitation, decided to follow Jesus in order to obey him.

Of course, we can read what the Baptist had told them. Andrew and John could not have noticed the capital L in lamb. The lamb of God would instantly call to mind at least two stories from the Old Testament.

The Passover lamb

First, before the last plague on Egypt (Exodus 12:1-11), God commanded Moses and Aaron to tell each household in the community to select an unblemished lamb, a year-old male. They were to keep that lamb for fourteen days.

Then, on one designated evening, every household slaughtered its lamb at twilight. They put some of the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their houses before they roasted and ate the lamb.

That night, the angel of death slew the firstborn son of every household in Egypt but passed over the houses with the blood (which formed the shape of a cross) on the Israelites’ houses.

The lamb of sacrifice

Second, Numbers 28:1-5 commanded the offering of two lambs every day as a burnt offering, one in the morning and one at twilight. According to verse 9, every Sabbath required the sacrifice of two additional lambs.

In addition to these burnt offerings, individuals and households brought their own to the tabernacle. Besides burnt offerings, the opening chapters of Leviticus describe six other regular offerings of animals, grains, and wine. One of many reasons for these offerings was so God would accept the death of the animal as atonement for sin.

A prophecy of the Lamb of sacrifice

In the days of John the Baptist, any Jewish man serious enough to follow a Rabbi would have memorized much of Scripture. John and his disciples surely knew Isaiah 53:

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
and like a sheep silent before her shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
He was taken away because of oppression and judgment,
and who considered his fate?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. –– Isaiah 53:7-8

In calling Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Baptist declared two radical differences from this familiar imagery.

First, he applied the epithet to a man. That man would not just die but be slaughtered because of sin.

Second, all these familiar sacrifices at the temple availed only for the children of Israel. Outsiders could not offer them. But John declared that Jesus would take away the sin of the whole world, not just Israel. Scripture had long proclaimed that God intended to bless the entire world through Abraham, but his offspring often had trouble wrapping their mind around his concern for anyone but them.

The limitations of Old Testament sacrifices

From the time of Moses to the time of Jesus—more than 1,500 years—priests had offered two lambs every morning, two every evening, and an additional two every Sabbath. That amounts to 16 lambs every week or 832 every year just for the daily burnt offerings. That easily totals more than a million lambs over the sweep of Old Testament history, even deducting the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity. Plus all the other sacrifices, some of which involved slaughtering thousands of animals in a single day. Many more lambs died for a single family’s worship.

And the people still sinned.

Hebrews 9 describes temple ministry and comments that forgiveness is impossible without the shedding of blood. But Jesus was high priest under a new covenant and presented his own blood at the altar of which the one in the temple was only a type and shadow.

Hebrews 10 points out that if all those sacrifices in all the years since Moses could not possibly make worshipers perfect. Otherwise, there would have been no point in continuing to offer them. The blood of lambs and other sacrificial lambs cannot take away sin. The blood of Jesus can. And has.

The Lamb of God in Revelation

The two verses from John cited earlier are the only comparisons of Jesus to the sacrificial lamb in the gospels. Revelation contains numerous references.

In Revelation 5, only the Lion of Judah was found worthy to open the scrolls that began the final judgment. But when John turned his attention, what he saw was a slaughtered Lamb begin to break the seals. All heaven sang three hymns to him in that chapter.

After the breaking of the final seal, John sees a vast multitude of people in white robes. In Revelation 7:14, he learns that they are the ones who came out of the great tribulation.

Tribulation (thlipsis in Greek) means great hardship and distress. Literally, it refers to a crushing weight. Grapes undergo thlipsis in the process of making wine. Figuratively, it can mean intense persecution, but also any unbearable trouble, either physical or emotional. James 1:27, for example, defines pure and undefiled religion as visiting orphans and widows in their thlipsis.

We are used to thinking of the entire book of Revelation as if it happens at some time in an indefinite future. That’s a mistake.

The great tribulation began in Eden, when Adam acknowledged the serpent as the god he intended to obey. In Adam, all die. The great weight of sin has crushed the entire human race to death. In Christ, all are made alive—if they’re willing to accept his offer of grace. Not everyone will. In Revelation 6:16, the unrepentant prefer for the mountains to crush them some more to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.

Benefits of the Lamb of God in his blessings toward humanity

John the Baptist not only told his two disciples to look at the Lamb of God. He tells us, too. And not with the jaded eyes of one who has looked at all the scriptures many times. Let us look with the same wonderment and amazement that John felt when he recognized the man whom he was born to introduce.

How can a man take away the sin of the world? How can a man be God manifest in flesh? It’s not enough to have theories. We must never stop marveling at both the divine power and the divine humility the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus demonstrate.

And let’s look at some of the blessings he has left us:

• Deliverance and rescue The Lamb was “delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25) in order to “rescue us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).
• Acceptance At the Last Supper, Jesus declared an astounding love that surpassed anything anyone could have guessed from the Old Testament or even elsewhere in the gospels. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23).
• Food Just as the ancient Israelites feasted on their fellowship offerings, Jesus’ people feast on him. “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Manand drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (John 6:53-55).
• Guidance The Lamb of God is also the Good Shepherd. And when he ascended to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever” (John 14:16).
• Victory We all suffer defeats and losses. It looks like evil is overwhelming society, but it won’t always be that way. Remember, the Lamb is also the Lion of Judah. [The forces of evil] “will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those with him are called, chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:14).
• Joy and exultation Joy is always available to us, but many Christians have a hard time finding it. Again, it won’t always be that way. “Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, reigns! Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb, and his bride [the entire community of believers] has prepared herself” (Revelation 19:6-7).

Blessings abound for us now when we look at the Lamb of God. The best is yet to come. Oh Lord, come quickly!