Preached by the Rev. D. B. MacLeod at Ingwenya Communion 1987.
We would desire to notice in particular at this time the last part of this verse: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
These words were spoken by John the Baptist. John the Baptist was sent as the forerunner of Christ. This work was given to him and it was an honourable work indeed to be the forerunner of Christ, to prepare the hearts of a people for the coming of the Saviour. John did this when he preached the baptism of repentance and many were found to repent. For many came to John for baptism, confessing their sins and looking to the promised One whom John declared was to come. John did not hide who he himself was. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him saying, “Who art thou?” “He confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.” He declared of himself, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” and when they asked him, “Why baptizest thou then?”, he answered them: “I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” John had to say concerning Christ, of whom he was the forerunner, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That is what took place, for John pointed to the Saviour, then soon after he was taken away from the world through the wickedness of Herod. So that this was fulfilled “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This was the delight of John, to magnify the name of Christ, and the Saviour had to say of John that a greater prophet than John the Baptist had not arisen, for of those that were born of woman there had not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.
Here we have brought before us the message that John gave to those who were about him when he saw Jesus coming unto him. The message he had for his hearers was this: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In considering these words then let us notice first of all, the name that is here given to Christ — that is, the Lamb of God. Then secondly, what we have brought before us in the latter part of the verse where it says of the Lamb of God — “which taketh away the sin of the world.” Then thirdly and lastly, we may go on to consider what is before us in the first word of this sentence where John says ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ As John was directing his hearers to “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” so we are directed by the word of God today, in connection with the preaching of the Gospel, and in connection with the remembrance of the death of Christ in the ordinance of the Supper, to “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
First, the Name that is Here Given to Christ — He is Called the Lamb of God.
On Friday, we were considering Christ as He was spoken of as the Shepherd of the sheep, here we have Him brought before us as the Lamb of God. Many different representations are necessary to show forth the glory of this One and to show forth all the different aspects of His work, therefore He is called here the Lamb of God. When we go to the Old Testament scriptures and to the Old Testament types, a lamb for sacrifice featured very prominently in that Old Testament world. There was the daily sacrifice, or the continual sacrifice, which was offered morning and evening in Israel. The sacrifice that was offered morning and evening was a lamb. Besides that continual offering every day of the week, we have the offerings of the Sabbath Day — those offerings that were particular to that day. There again, we have two lambs offered for sacrifice — these lambs were to be of the first year and they were to be without spot. Again in the monthly sacrifice, in the new moons, we find there seven lambs offered along with other sacrifices. When we come to the stated feasts of Israel, such as the Passover and the offering of First Fruits, and again that special offering connected with the blowing of Trumpets, and the offering on the day of Atonement, and the offerings connected with the Ingathering, or the Feast of Weeks, — lambs for an offering were found in all these. These sacrifices of the Old Testament Church were types and shadows of more glorious things to come and in the offering of the lamb or of lambs in that Old Testament dispensation we have presented before us that one glorious sacrifice that was to be offered on Calvary’s accursed tree. These sacrifices pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who was to come in God’s great name to seek and to save that which was lost. This name then, the Lamb of God, is a name given to Him because He was to be the one sacrifice for sins.
We know in connection with a lamb, what is presented before us there is meekness, innocence and lowliness. So it is with the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. He declares of Himself, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” He is the One whom the word of God declares to be without sin, “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” We have the Lamb of God represented again in the Paschal lamb — the lamb of the Passover, that ordinance of the Old Testament Church that God gave to Israel when He delivered His Church out of the hand of the Egyptians. They were to kill a lamb and they were to sprinkle the blood of that lamb upon the doorposts and lintels of their houses, setting before them the efficacy of the blood, for that blood was to afford protection to them from the destroying angel. In that Passover, as we have in the Lord’s Supper — the sacrament of the New Testament Church, that has taken the place of the Passover — there was the eating of the sacrifice by the children of Israel. So now in a spiritual and a living way there is a partaking of Christ by faith in partaking of the symbols of broken body and of the shed blood of Emmanuel. For what was set forth in the Passover — The crucified Lamb of God — That is set before us on the table here today in the bread and in the wine which represent the broken body and the poured out blood of the Lamb of God. There was to be a lamb for each of the households of Israel, or, if there were not enough in the household for one lamb, then the lamb was for two households and the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is for the households of Israel that souls might be blessed through this glorious One who is set before us in the Gospel of God’s grace.
The Paschal Lamb was to be roasted, so that in that we have the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ which He was to endure — as the Paschal Lamb was roasted with fire so He was to suffer under the fire of the wrath of Jehovah. The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitter herbs and with unleavened bread. We have in this sacrament of the Supper — “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” We have the bitter herbs in connection with this sacrament. What are these bitter herbs? You who are to remember the death of the Redeemer this day, with what bitter herbs are you to eat that sacrament? Surely the bitter herbs of the remembrance of your sins — your sins which pierced the Lord of Glory, the Lamb of God, and brought Him to an open shame. The children of Israel were called to eat the Passover with unleavened bread, so we are to partake of this ordinance not with the “leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The lamb had to be slain, so it was in the case of this Lamb of God — He must be slain on Calvary’s tree. He is not only the Lamb slain on Calvary, He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world for such was the efficacy of His atonement — though offered in the fulness of time, when he came into this world and gave Himself a ransom for many, yet the efficacy of that death reached back to the time of Abel and the blood of this sacrifice was better than that of Abel, for the blood of this sacrifice cleanses from all sin.
Christ was to be led to the place of slaughter. We are told concerning that, that He was led “as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” What have we in that but the willingness of this One to go forth and to suffer and die: the One who could have scattered all His enemies with but one ray of His divine glory, He went forth to offer Himself as the Lamb of God and went forth to judgement and to death. He went forth unprotestingly to death. Why did He go unprotestingly to death, in whom there was no sin? It was because He went to death in the room and stead of His people. This is the divine Redeemer, this is the glorious Saviour, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
Secondly, What is Brought Before us in this Verse Concerning His Taking Away the Sin of the World — He is “the Lamb of God, Which Taketh Away the Sin of the World.”
That is why He came into the world, that is why He went forth to suffer. It was not for Himself, there was no ground in Himself why He should suffer and die. He could say of His enemies, “they hated me without a cause.” There was no cause of death in Him. Pilate had to acknowledge this when he said, “I find no fault in Him at all.” Yet against the witness of his conscience he condemned the Holy One of God to death. Why then should he suffer? It could not be for Himself. It must be in the room and stead of others. We have brought before us here that He was “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The world as it is brought before us here cannot mean everyone in the world at all times? All for whom Christ died are saved and saved eternally. He did not fail in that work with regard to anyone for whom He died and we know that not all in the world are saved by Him. He could not have died for Judas Iscariot. If He had died for him, then Judas would have been saved but it is written of Judas Iscariot He went to his own place, he went down to everlasting destruction. When it is said then that the Lamb of God is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” it must bring before us sinners of all kinds and classes and of all nations and kindreds and tongues. For such Christ laid down His life — a multitude whom no man can number out of this fallen race of ours, even the whole election of grace. Christ gave his life for them — there must be the transference of sin from those who are described here as “the world”, to the sin bearer. Christ as the Lamb of God is the sin-bearer. If the sins of sinners are to be put away, if your sin is to be put away, it can only be through the transference of your sin and guilt to the holy Lamb of God. That is what took place, that is what is said concerning the Father — He “hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” There was laid on Him the burden of the sin and guilt of all those given to Him by the Father that He might bear their sins, that He might take these sins upon His own person, near to Himself, be counted as the sin-bearer and go forth to suffer and to die in order that He might make an end of that sin forever, for this is what we have in the sufferings of Christ — “He suffered the just for the unjust.” He suffered in the room and place of His people. He died their death for them, the death that they deserved to die, that death is eternal death so far as they are concerned. It is a death that would have sunk them forever into the flames of a lost eternity, and from that death Christ came to deliver them and came to deliver them by taking their sin upon Himself, to make an end of sin forever by giving Himself over unto death to bear the wrath and curse of God against sin. That is what was in the cup that was given Him to drink, the cup that caused Him such astonishment in the garden of Gethsemane when His soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death, when “His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This was what was laid upon the sin-bearer — a load that the sinner could not bear, that was a load that would have sunk your soul eternally in Hell, yet Christ endured the cross, despised the shame, overcame death in His death, that He might take the sting out of death.
He rose again from the dead so that it can now be said: “O death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory?” Christ died for the sins of His people that their sins might be put away forever. He paid their redemption price — He paid it by the shedding of His precious blood. At what cost Christ wrought out redemption, at what cost Christ made an end of our sins — the sufferings that He endured in His body and in His soul, the deepest sorrows and sufferings that the world ever beheld, these were borne by Christ as the sin bearer. It pleased the Father “to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”
The offering for sin was burned without the camp, so Christ that he might sanctify His people with His own blood suffered without the gate. Christ, that He might redeem His people with His own blood, suffered outside the gates of Jerusalem. Sin separates from men, so Christ was separated from men — of the people there was none with Him. Sin separates from God, therefore it was given to Christ as the sin bearer to cry out on Calvary, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Who can enter in to the experience of the divine Redeemer when He gave expression to such a cry? Men cannot fathom it, only the God of Heaven can comprehend what He endured in taking away sin and making an end of that sin forever.
What a manifestation of divine love that Christ should bear the wrath and curse of God in the room and stead of the guilty. Have you entered in your own experience into what it is to taste of the love of God manifested in that great work of redemption? Have you come to taste the sweetness of it? Have you come to wonder with great wonder at Christ drinking that cup for you? How wonderful it should be to you today who are to remember the death of the divine Redeemer, that when you come to this ordinance this day it is not the cup of wrath that is being held out to you — that was held out to your surety substitute, that was held out to the One who stood in your law place, but the cup which we bless is it not the cup of the communion of the blood of Christ? This is held out to you — the cup of blessing. This glorious truth Christ brings before you “my flesh is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed.” If he loved His own, then how precious Christ must be to you whose hope and trust is in Him.
Lastly, What is Before Us in the First Word of this Sentence: “Behold the Lamb of God, Which Taketh Away the Sin of the World.”
Christ was to be raised from the earth, was a spectacle to men and angels, a spectacle to some, an object of derision to those who called out to Him on the cross. “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” O, what a spectacle to the eyes of men, whose eyes are opened to see the glory of the divine Redeemer raised up from the earth, raised between earth and heaven, separated from men, separated from His God, that He might deliver those who deserve to die eternal death. What a glorious spectacle for those who are brought to experience in their souls the drawing power of the cross of Christ, for if we are to be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, then it is by the drawing power of His cross. What is it in that cross that draws out the soul to Jesus Christ and unites the soul to Him? It is the love of God manifested in Him and through Him in His sufferings unto death. What a blessed day for a sinner in this world when they look to the Lamb of God. The Gospel of God’s grace invites sinners to behold — behold thy God, behold Him, let your eye be on the suffering Lamb of God. He is saying Himself in the very midst of His sufferings, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the end of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” What a manifestation of divine love — a suffering Saviour. It will not avail us any that Christ died and rose again except we look to Him, except we believe on His name for this is the call of God to us in His word, to believe on the name of His only begotten Son and to have life through His name. So long as we are held in the grip of unbelief, that unbelief will hold us bound: we must be set free from the unbelief and hardness of our hearts in order that we may look to this One, in order that we might behold “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Where then are you to behold Him, seeing that the One who is spoken of here is no longer in the world, no longer on the cross of Calvary but exalted to the right hand of the Father and is at God’s right hand today? How am I, a poor sinner to believe on His Name? How am I to behold Him? You are to behold Him as He is revealed in the Gospel. There He is made known in all the richness of His grace, of His mercy and of His love. It is not to any other source you must look but to the slain Lamb of God who is now the ever-living One at God’s right hand. Through faith in His name your soul shall be saved and saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. How often Christ has been presented to you, how often His sufferings have been set before you, yet are you blind to the glory of this One? O, seek that God would take the veil from off your eyes. Let this be your prayer, “open mine eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of thy law” because in the darkness of sin and unbelief, we have eyes for everything but Jesus Christ. But when the Lord visits a poor sinner, brings that sinner to see his or her sins and exposure to everlasting death and brings before that soul the way back to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, then the soul will see another sight — the soul will see the glory of this One, and the wonder of His finished work and the soul will be overwhelmed that Christ so willingly went forth to suffer and to die in the room and stead of the guilty. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down His life for his friends.” Surely that is what we have in the death of this One and has that death no meaning for your own soul? — for it is in Christ alone your soul can be saved — out of Christ there is no salvation. Have you no ear to hear what God is saying? Have you not an ear to hear what is said here to you today when this word is brought to your notice — “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” O, what a wonder it should be to us that the saviour of Christ’s death has so little attraction for us. It is true it has an attraction for the people of God. The saviour of Christ’s death is sweet to them, that saviour is what perfumes the air of Heaven for the redeemed on Mount Zion above and it is the saviour of Christ’s sacrifice that will perfume Heaven for the people of God throughout the endless ages of eternity. So does not the perfume of that death, the heavenly sweetness of that perfume, does it not come to you here today in the preaching of the Gospel: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” You who are to come to this table today, may this table be perfumed for you with the saviour of Christ’s death so that your soul may rejoice in God your Saviour, and that you will be able to say at His table today, “This is my beloved, this is my friend”, “He is altogether lovely”, “fairer than the children of men”, “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world”.
May the Lord add His blessing.