Lamb of God: “And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God!” John 1:36. If you think about it, all the prophets under the old covenant were, in one way or another, pointing to Christ. They spoke beforehand of the suffering and the glory that should follow. I Peter 1:10-11. Yet all their testimony remained one of anticipation, pointing forward to what was yet to be revealed. And when the fulness of time was come the LORD raised up John, as it is written, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Isaiah 40:3. And when he saw Him he gathered up all that had been spoken before and declared it plainly: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. And to a people shaped by the law, those words would immediately call to mind the sacrifices they knew so well.
So, when the Lamb was mentioned, a Jew would naturally think of the continual sacrifice described in Numbers 28, the lamb offered every morning and every evening, day after day. Exodus 29:38-39. And on the Sabbath, additional sacrifices were added to it. Numbers 28:9-10. This constant offering kept before them an unbroken reminder of sin and the need for atonement, all of which pointed forward to Christ, the true Lamb. Hebrews 10:3.
It becomes clear, then, that God did not allow Israel to forget what sin required. From the first sacrifice of the morning to the last at evening, the testimony was steady and unchanging: “without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22. The priesthood lived in the presence of it. Lamb after lamb laid upon the altar. Blood caught, poured out, applied according to God’s command, upon the altar, before the veil, upon the horns of it. Leviticus 4. It was not occasional, but continual.
This was no empty ritual. Every sacrifice declared something: that sin is no light matter, that it brings death, and that acceptance with God requires a substitute. Approaching God was never without sacrifice. The message was inescapable – a life must be given. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood… it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11. And yet, for all its repetition, it was never enough. “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Hebrews 10:4. They could not take away sin but pointed beyond themselves to Christ – the true Lamb in whom sin is truly put away. Isaiah 53:6.
So, when John declares, “behold the Lamb of God,” John 1:29, he is not speaking in unfamiliar terms, but announcing that the long-awaited reality has come. Every morning sacrifice, every evening offering, every drop of blood shed upon the altar had been pointing here. All of it finds its meaning in Him. And now the ONE to whom they pointed stands revealed. II Corinthians 1:20. Not another lamb in an endless procession, but the Lamb who brings that procession to its end. Not a temporary provision, but the final one. He does not simply cover sin as those sacrifices did, but puts it away, Hebrews 9:26, accomplishing in truth what they could only portray in shadow. “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ.” Ephesians 1:10. MPJ
Postscript: In all of this, we must not think of God as acting under compulsion, as though the death of Christ were required by some law above Him. Though it is often spoken of this way, Scripture never speaks in such terms. God is under no obligation. Daniel 4:35. He is the One who determines and accomplishes all things, and it was His good pleasure to send His Son. Ephesians 1:9. The Lamb was not provided because God was constrained, but because He would make Himself known, in the glory of His grace, His justice, and His love, all revealed in Christ.