1:29 As Far as East from West
29 01 2008John 1:29
The next day [John] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
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It is strange that people should take joy in the murder of an innocent man, but that’s what Christ-followers do when we celebrate Communion.
On the night He was betrayed, our Lord handed off this ordinance to His closest friends, who then passed it down to us, His newer friends, who still observe it to remember His work on our behalf and await the day when He will break His wine-fast with us in His Father’s Kingdom (Matt. 26:29).
Whenever I lead our time of Communion, I almost always repeat John’s words in today’s verse.
Why?
Before Christ came, the best God’s People could expect was a covering for sin. That is why John’s claim is so significant—here was a Man would not sweep our sin under the rug, but completely remove it.
That is why Jesus altered the celebration of “Passover” that night.
The Passover Lamb would now be a person (1 Cor. 5:7), whose death would remedy our dilemma once and for all (Rom. 6:10; Heb. 7:27).
Paul uses this same term, “take away” (airo) in Colossians 2:14, where he claims that Christ “set aside” the debt we could not pay, “nailing it to the cross.”
The author of Hebrews uses a similar term saying:
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (10:1-4; cf. 9:11-14).
The Cross signaled the end and the fulfillment of an era, after which the Perfect Priest and Sacrifice “sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12).
There was no work left to be done.
There were no more sacrifices to be made.
The era of daily sacrifice had ended, so that the priestly time clock need never again be punched (Hebrews 10:11).
kkkkkkkk
“Tetelestai.”
The Worthy Lamb has taken our sins away.
Help me understand, how was true righteousness afforded to the Old Testament believer? What did the Old Testament believer’s confession look like? Since the covering was not completely removed, how was true repentance achieved? Was it the simple recognition that man can’t save himself?
“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
I’m thinking of Hebrews 11, as well, which gives us a long list of saints, whose faith pleased God.
I like to say that what has always saved people from God’s wrath is “faith in God, as He has revealed Himself.”
The One who PAID for our sins (yours, mine, Abraham’s, Moses’, etc.), though, was the Lamb of God.
To sound a bit unrefined, I think the idea is that the payment for sins of OT saints was on “credit,” until the One came, who would make the payment (Rom. 3:25). The OT sacrifices looked forward to the perfect Sacrifice. They temporarily covered sins (for believers) until the One came who could remove them.