Lamb of God

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

LAMB OF GOD

John 1:24-31

24 Now some Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" 26 "I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." 28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel."

NIV

It seems a little odd the Jews through someone had to be either the Christ, Elijah or the Prophet in order to baptize, although today we think only the pastors should be the one to baptize. Is that any different? Shouldn’t anyone be able to baptize someone? Phillip baptized the Ethiopian. Nevertheless John had many people come to him to be baptized and to repent and make their lives straight for the coming of the Lord. Yet John was certainly very careful not to claim any fame for himself. He wanted to make sure he was just a voice in the wilderness preparing people for the coming of the Lord. He knew full well that the Messiah was coming soon to Israel. All his life he was preparing for this moment. From before his birth, the Spirit moved upon him, when his mother, Elizabeth was in the presence of Mary, who had Jesus within her womb. John knew something special was going to happen. John and Jesus in the natural human ways were relatives, as Elizabeth and Mary were. We are not told if John and Jesus as young boys had times together, but what we do know is John said although the one to come was before him and he did not know him. Is it he did not know Jesus, or is it he did not know Jesus was the Messiah, the one to come that John was not worthy to untie his sandals? Yet here is the moment John had lived for, the moment he could introduce the world to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Have we become complacent to the fact Jesus takes away our sin? Do we try to replace him with trying to abide by rules and regulations which we think give us a form of righteousness? Sure, we should not just throw caution to the wind and just go about sinning however we please. However, the fact remains no amount of good deeds, or abiding to rules, or our lists of do’s and don’ts is going to take away our sin. We can act as holy as we want to and still our sin remains until we give it to Jesus, and then he takes it away. However we see that word, “Takes away” the Greek has exactly that meaning, to carry off, to raise up and carry it from its place. Jesus takes away our sin, we no longer have it. So then this is why we are declared by God as holy and blameless in his sight. Jesus took away our sin which would keep us from being holy and blameless in the sight of God. Does that mean we no longer sin? Doubtful. We still commit sin, we still disobey, and we still fail and fall short. The devil would want us to be filled with guilt and shame and believe we are not really saved because we have sinned. He wants us to feel shame because we failed God. But Jesus has taken, this is a presence tense taken, a constant taking away, not a one-time offer, then we are left on our own after that. If that were the case, we are doomed. But it is not, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes, present tense, away our sin. God it timeless, he is not restricted by time and so it is always the presence tense with God, with Jesus, with the carrying away of our sin. Praise be to God in the highest. His grace is awesome, Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for being the Lamb of God, who takes away our sin.