The perfect lamb

"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
John 1v29

As I read the first chapter of John yesterday, I was struck by the fact that those who heard John the Baptist say these words would have immediately visualised a blooded dead lamb. As Jesus walked onto the scene people were immediately pointed to his death. That must have been quite shocking.

The references to lambs in the Old Testament provide such a rich picture of what Jesus achieved as the Lamb of God:

In Genesis 22v8 Abraham tells his son that God would provide a lamb for a burnt offering. Indeed God did. A substitute was found for Isaac which was sacrificed instead of him.

In Exodus 12v5, 13 God promises Israel that the blood of a male lamb without blemish would ensure that he would pass over them and no destruction would befall them as he sent a plague to punish Pharoah.

In Exodus 13v13 and 34v20 God instructed Israel that all firstborn belonged to him, but to redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn donkey with a lamb.

In Leviticus and Numbers we see God instructing his people to use lambs for:
peace offerings
sin offerings
burnt offerings
guilt offerings

In Exodus and Numbers God instructed Israel to have lamb burnt offerings twice a day at the place where God met with his people: the Tent of Meeting. These sacrifices were to be accompanied by a sacrifice of wine and flour mixed with oil.

These burnt offerings were called olah which means ascending. They were seen to go up into the presence of God in the smoke and were a pleasing aroma to him. In the other offerings some of the meat was kept for eating, but a burnt offering represented an utter giving up of the offering to God.

Jesus offered his whole self as a sacrifice for us, after which he ascended into the presence of his Father. The permanent pleasing sacrifice before the Father on our behalf. He is our substitute; our protection from judgement; our redemption; our peace; our forgiveness; and our place of meeting with God.

Jesus perfectly fulfills the role of the Lamb of God.