Lamb Of God

John 1:24-25,29,34-42 – Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”… The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!... I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

Genesis 32:28 – Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Application:

• ·         It may be that John chose Lamb of God as a unique way of referring to Jesus’ mission to point both to the sacrificial offering that Jesus would become and to His subsequent conquest of all evil powers—the two ways by which He “takes away the sin of the world”.
• ·         “The Messiah” means “the Anointed One”. People were looking for not just an anointed one but the Anointed One, the Messiah.
• ·         Jesus named Paul not for what he was but for what, by God’s grace, he would become.
• ·         In Jacob/Israel, the nation of Israel got its name and characterization: the people who struggle with God and with human beings and overcome.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV