Behold the Lamb of God

Behold the Lamb of God

We no longer need to live with shame and guilt.

Transcript:

Jesus is the greater and better passover lamb who carries the sin of God's people.

Welcome to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Light of Christ Anglican Church is located in Georgetown, Texas, at MLK and University Avenue. We are a modern expression of the ancient faith. You can learn more about us at lightofchristgeorgetown.org.

Our sermon soundbite today comes from the Gospel of John, chapter one. Where John the Baptist seeing Jesus says, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Jesus is the greater and better Passover lamb who carries the sins of God's people. Pay attention. He is the lamb of God, the Passover lamb. This is Passover language. John is absolutely clear. Who can carry your sin? Can you? Who will carry your sin? Jesus will carry your sin. He is the lamb. This refers to Jesus' humanity. Jesus is fully God and fully man, his humanity. He's the lamb. He's obedient. The perfect, spotless lamb without sin, and he is able as a human, fully as a human, to suffer and to die, to be sacrificed, to enter with his perfect humanity into the fray because he's one of us. He's able to experience death and sin and all of those consequences, all of those wages and weight of sin, he's able to experience on the cross. The full weight of it and through dying he's able to destroy the tyranny of death through his resurrection.

Hebrews 2 says this. Exactly. “Since therefore, we share in flesh and blood. He himself likewise partook of the same things so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” He took on humanity. He was the lamb, the lamb of God. Notice he's a lamb provided by God. This is Christ's divinity, fully God and fully man. No one takes Christ's life from him. He lays it down willingly and he is of the same heart and mind to the father. It's for God so loved, the Father so loved the world that he sent his Son. Notice what John 10:18 says. Jesus says, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

It is God who provides the lamb. No, it's not us. And this is what makes the sacrifice of Jesus absolutely opposite of the pagan sacrifices. What were the pagan sacrifices about? You want something from the deity who is selfish and you want something because you're selfish. And so what you do is you basically bribe the deity. I am going to give you something of worth and the deity will like it. And so he'll give you what you want. That's how pagan sacrifices work. But this is nothing like that at all. This is a sacrifice of pure love. It's provided by God for your benefit, for our benefit. What is love?

”Seeking the good of the other for their own sake.” Exactly, and that's what the sacrifice is. A sacrifice of pure love and what does this sacrifice do? Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and this word takes away. It doesn't quite capture the Greek here. It could be translated carries. It has the sense, behold the lamb of God who will lift up and carry away the sin of the world. You see that? By God becoming a human, right? He's able to, like in the days of the Passover, he's able to insert himself. God inserts himself into our humanity so that he can be our passover, our covering. He places himself on that cross between the wages of your sin, the weight of your sin, and it's eternal consequences and you. So that you are saved. So that you do not have to bear the shame and guilt anymore. You can't! But God could. No human alone could do it but God did.

Thank you for listening to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Let us end our time together with a prayer from The Book of Common Prayer. You can find the collect for the Second Sunday of Epiphany on page 602.

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.