LOC 015 Life of Christ:
The
Lamb of God
This morning in our study of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ we
come to the place immediately after his Baptism when John the Baptist makes a
pronouncement about the Lord. He calls
him by one of the most descriptive names we find in the Gospels. Yet, due to theological preconceptions, many
miss the profundity of what John is saying.
Let’s look at verses 19 to 34 to see the context of what John the
Baptist said.
Immediately after the prologue in John’s Gospel, he tells us about
another John, John the Baptist. Here is his discussion with the priests and
levites who come from Jerusalem to question him about his ministry.
The Jews send a query
John 1:19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent
priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
John’s reply
20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I
am not the Christ."
Their continued persistence
and John’s reply
21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He
said,
"I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And
he answered, "No."
Again they inquire
22 Then they said to him, "Who are you, that we may give
an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?"
John’s godly reply -- Isaiah
40:3
23 He said: "I am 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
"Make straight the way of the LORD,"' as the prophet Isaiah
said."
The Identity of the Inquirers
24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
We’ll learn more about them and their self-justifying motives as
we work through the Gospels. But, take
note, this is the first instance of them protecting their turf, they are
protective of their own little kingdom.
Another persistent question
25 And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if
you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
Another Direct Answer
26 John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water, but
there stands One among you whom you do not know.
27 "It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."
John is saying that there is one among them who is of so much
greater importance than whatever good John may be doing, he tasks are menial
and trivial when compared to the other.
John, the Evangelist, gives an
editorial comment
28 These things were
done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Scene shifts to the next
day--controversy with the religious bigots is over. John makes five declarations about the Lord
Jesus.
Here is John the Baptizer’s
five-fold Confession and testimony to those around:
A. The Lamb of God
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said,
"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
B. The Preferred One and the
priority of Jesus in importance and time.
30 "This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is
preferred before me, for He was before me.'
C. The Revealed One
31 "I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to
Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water."
D. The Approved One
32 And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit
descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.
E. The Sending One
33 "I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with
water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him,
this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 "And I have seen and
testified that this is the Son of God."
John saw his ministry as having a missionary emphasis as he sought
to turn the hearts of Israel back to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. What
had been a ministry of [reaching the law and repentance has now been changed as
he directs his own disciples to the true nature of the Lord Jesus. John was
sent by the one to whom he pointed men.
This other one will bring another baptism that is greater than the one
he practiced.
There are a few things in the background that we need to have
straight if we are to understand this section and the rest. The first is the meaning of the word WORLD in
verse 29.
What do you think of first when you hear the word world? What about this context? A lot of people think automatically that the
world means “each and every man.” Because of that they immediately assume that
John the Baptist is making a statement about the universality of grace. This is how the process of thought often
goes: P1. The Scriptures say, Behold the
lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. P2. The World contains each and every man. P3. In the context the lamb is Jesus.
Therefore, C. This statement means that Jesus is the one who will take away the
sin of each and every man. Did you
follow the flow of thought? That is how
most Evangelicals alive today would automatically interpret the statement. They would be wrong. They committ the fallacy of
equivocation. They define World in two
different ways. In P1, Behold the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world, world is defined as each and every
man without any warrant in the context to do so. In P2, where they make the connection between
world and each and every man, they use world as a synonym for the earth, where
each and every man lives. From this shift in meaning, they conclude, since
Jesus in the lamb of God, he is the one who has taken away the sin of each and
every man. This is shoddy thinking. It
is an example of undisciplined thinking.
It is even sinful thinking in that it is not loving God with all of our
mind. It is nothing but an example of
how a theological precommittment may compell one to misunderstand God’s
revelation. Thinking themselves to be
right, they will be ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the
truth.
The second problem is that it points to another fallacious use of
words in Bible study. Many think
definitions of words are interchangeable.
If word A means one thing in one context, it can be used to mean the
same thing in any context. The word
world is an example of this. People
assume world means each and every man.
From that they believe themselves justified to use the definition in
every place they find the word world.
This is a very ancient and a very modern fallacy leading to heresy. It is ancient because it is one thing
condemned by God in his Word rather clearly:
1 Timothy 6:3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to
wholesome words, even the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, 4
he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over
words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, 5 useless
wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that
godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
A man who wrangles over the meaning and use of words without
regard for the context of the thoughts is using the microscopic pieces of
language to justify himself. He is one
who is obsessed with disputes. The
Scriptures tell us the source of these disputes--envy, strife, reviling, evil
suspicions. They are called useless
wranglings of men of corrupted minds who, concerning the truth, are like they
are on a stranded Island of their own making--they are destitute, they have
nothing to sustain their life. They will
wither and die. Different people seek
to gain various things through these wranglings. They are dangerous men. Paul emphatically tells Timothy to withdraw
himself from these men. Even if they
have an outward appearance of humility, we can be assurred that inwardly they
are proud. This usually manifests itself
in an unteachable spirit. There is a
great difference between people who ask questions in order to learn and those
who ask questions attempting to make others think. The first brings instruction to the mind and
life to the soul, the second strife and contention. One of the things that Gods hates is one who
sows discord among the brethren. A man
who wrangles over words is proud, unwilling and unable to submit to wholesome
words of truth because they are arguing obsessively for an alternative.
This wrangling is contrasted in the context with these words, “6
Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Back to the meaning of world.
How is world in John 1:29 to be understood. Words have many meanings in English and in
Greek. In order to determine a meaning of a word, one must wrestle with the
entire context. Then the entire book,
then other books by the same author, then books oin the same testament, then
the entirety of Scripture.
To illustrate the complexity of a particular word and the need for
a context in which to understand it.
Let’s consider the English definition of the niun form of world. There are fifteen possible shaded of meaning
to our English world, world.
world n.
1. The earth.
2. The universe.
3. The earth with its inhabitants.
4. The inhabitants of the earth; the human race.
5.a. Humankind considered as social beings; human society. b.
People as a whole; the public.
6. Often World. A specified part of the earth.
7. A part of the earth and its inhabitants as known at a given
period in history.
8. A realm or domain.
9.a. A sphere of human activity or interest. b. A class or group
of people with common characteristics or pursuits.
10. A particular way of life.
11. All that relates to or affects the life of a person.
12. Secular life and its concerns.
13.a. Human existence; life. b. A state of existence.
14. Often worlds. A large amount; much.
15. A celestial body such as a planet.
Every time we use the word World, one of these definitions has to
fit the context. One of these fifteen
definitions comes into our mind.
However, We should not assume a particular meaning has a
one-size-fits-all use. The context of a
passage determines the use of the words, expecially disputed words. If we allow our own petty theological
precommittments to taint our understanding of a passage, we miss out on what
God has revealed and we turn his truth into a lie. That’s what men do when they wrangle over
words. Not every one has been given a
teaching ministry among God’s people. Be
leary of those who seek to usurp that role in any context.
Our problem with the word World is that we pack the Greek notion
of Cosmos with the baggage of English expression. In Greek the word means an identifiable
orderly arrangement of one sort or another, a system. The largest system understandable to a Greek
would have been that of the created world, meaning the entire universe. Although, cosmos is a term for any orderly
arrangement or system. It is the
opposite of Chaos--unordered apparent purposelessness and randomness. Although, a world of Chaos would certainly
fit the meaning of the word.
Cosmos of any kind is something according to order where chaos is
disorder. That is all cosmos can
mean. Now, there are many different
types of order and many different things that are ordered, yet in every case,
we seek for clues in the context, not in some other context that becomes a
pretext for poor theology.
Word cannot always mean each and every man in every place. If we examine just a few places where it is
found we see that the context has to rule the meaning.
Take 1 John 2:15ff.1 JO 2:15 Do not love the world
or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love
of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is
of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who
does the will of God abides forever.
Thee explicit command of God is to not love this thing called the
world, nor the things that are in the world.
Certainly this can’t mean each and every man because we are told to love
our neighbors and our enemies. The world here is defined by the content of its
system--the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
Those are the elements of the system we call the world. Worldliness is living like the world as
contrasted with living for God. Those
who do his will (not giving into the trio of basic worldy vices) will live
forever.
Or consider the meaning of world in John 15:17ff "These
things I command you, that you love one another. 18 "If the world
hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 "If you were
of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20
"Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his
master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My
word, they will keep yours also.
The system, the orderly arrangement of thought and action among
men hates disciples who are purposed to follow Christ. Our comfort is that Christ has chosen us out
of that ungodly system.
This is how the Apostle Paul uses the word in at least one place.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.2 And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God.
The implied question for Christians is this: Who are you going to
serve? Christ or the world’s system.
Earlier in John 1, John writes of Jesus: 1:9 That was the true
Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10 He was in
the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
Here the context requires us to see some subtle nuances of
meaning. What sort of orderly arrangements or systems are in
view? The passage is talking about Jesus
and how he was present from the beginning, yea intimately involved in the
creation and sustaining of all things.
Jesus is the one who illumines every man in the world in some sense.
Notice the language: “That was the true Light which gives light to every man
coming into the world.” Every man
coming into the world. The language of
John precludes world from meaning every man.
The world is something into which the every men come. It is not the same as every man. In the structure of the sentence the two
ideas serve differing purposes. Every
man is the object of the light. The
world is where the men are understood to be.
Whatever World means here it must be an orderly arrangement or
system consistent with the context. IN
the next verse it says, 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through
Him, and the world did not know Him.
The world was the place where Jesus came, it was made by him and
it did not recognize him. The first two
appear on the surface to be the place of orderly arranged creation which is
equal to the inhabitable world. However,
the third use appears to be personified.
The world has the capacity to not know Jesus. This is a system other than the creation. A system of fallen men consistent with that
of 1 John 2.
Do you see why it is important to not import the meaning of our
English word on top of the idea in the NT.
World in the statement of John the Baptist has to mean something
like this, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of something that has
an identifiable or orderly arrangement, a system. What is that identifiable or
orderly arrangement or system is the question?
The meaning is driven by the context. What can give us clues to the meaning of the
word world? The other words in the
context that may have a clearer meaning taken together.
Behold: Is used to get someone’s attention in order to make a
declaration. To whomever John is
speaking, he is imforming them of the importance of what he is about to
say. Listen, take this to heart.
The Lamb of God: How would this have been understood by first century Jews? There are two opinions given by scholars, yet
only one fits the overall context of John’s fivefold declaration. Some say, the Lamb of God, points only to the
character of the messiah--that is, that he would be gentle and meek like a
lamb. These are ideas that express something of the character of Christ. However, within this understanding He is one
who would never force himself on others, he would never demand obedience and
love of others. He is simply gentle and sheepish. This seems to me to weaken the force of the
fivefold declaration. Why would John go
on to speak of Jesus as the preferred one, revealed one, approvedone and the
sending one, if this is what is meant by the Lamb of God? The other four pictures show something of
great force of Character.
The other understaanding takes into account the social and
religious background of the Jewish audience.
John uses imagery of sacrifice to identify Jesus as the unblemished
lamb. It is the language of sacrifice
that is found in John’s pronouncement, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” We know this from the context. He continues,
Who takes away the sin of the
world.
This was a shocking statement.
It would have grated against the racial prejudices of the Jews at that
time. The Jews were to be a testimony
and light to the nations. Through
Abraham all nations were to be blessed. The Jews had turned that around. Instead of seeing themselves as a light of
salvation to the nations--plural--, they had restated it as a light of
salvation to the nation--singular--meaning Israel. John the Baptist, with a ministry primarily
to Jews would have shocked all who heard his words. He was saying that Jesus was not just the one
who had come to be the perfect sacrifice for Israel, but for all who were in
the system of the world. It was a
shock. Behold, the Lamb of God who has
relevance beyond Israel, to all the nations.
And, this is what he is and will do, he takes away sin.
This is a statement about the glorious ministry that this one is
to have. It was shocking that an
efficacious sacrifice would be for the goyim--the gentile dogs. The scope of the ministry of Jesus was
broader than that of John. It was to the
whole world. What a wonderful sentiment
to express...despite the sin and ruin found in the system of the world in which
all of its inhabitants willingly take part, there is hope, behold, God’s
sacrificial lamb that takes away this world’s sin. Jesus, the greatest thing was present and
ministering among men. What a glorious
pronouncement! What a personal
pronouncement!
What do you love and after what do you seek? To you live in line
with the orderly, yet corrupt arrangement of this world’s system? Do you seek to be like those around you in
the world, or do you have the desire to conform to the will of God? Do you find yourself doing things God’s way?
Or, do you find yourself doing things according to your lusts? Do you seek The Lord Jesus to rule over you
by his word? Or, do you just say that
because it’s what you want others to hear you say?
For those who love the Lord Jesus and seek to follow him in more
than just words, I point you to the text to consider the blessed hope he gives
once again. Behold, God’s Lamb who takes
away the world’s sin. Cling to him,
trust in him, will all of your heart and strength. He will satisfy your soul.
To those who love the world more than they love Christ, I point
you to the Lamb of God as well. He lived
a righteous life and died the death of a malefactor in order to save men out of
this world’s system and degradation.
Your only hope is to look to him.
Take no false comfort in a mistaken notion of a universal
salvation, behold the Lamb of God, the
only one who can take away sin. None
other will do. You can’t save yourself
because even your unbelief is a sin.
Let’s look at the proposition: As if world means each and every
man. We would interpret the words to mean, Jesus died for all of the sins of
all of the people.
Assume the statement to be true for a minute, If it can be shown
that one person for whom Christ died in this scenario did not receive all of
the benefits of salvation he promised to give, then even the universal
statement of the atonement cannot be universally true. Did you get that? Assumming a universal atonement for the sake
of arguement, we find the universal statement about universalism cannot be
universally true because ot can be shown easily within that scheme that some
for shom Christ died did not receive the benefits promised, namely remission of
sin. Therefore, the universal statement would need to be conditioned in one way
or another making that what was universal particular in some sense.
Consider just one of many examples that could be given:
With great certainty in the language, it says, Psalm 9:17 The
wicked shall be turned into hell, And
all the nations that forget God.
If this verse is true about the future destiny of some know at
that time as the wicked, and if they are no longer alive today, they must have
been turned into hell. Being turned into
hell is a manifest of the justice of God giving some men what they actually
deserve. They are not in heaven,
therefore it cannot be said that salvation is a universal phenonena. If Jesus was the Lamb of God who took away
the sin of each and every man it would be an injustice for any to suffer in
hell. The original statement must be qualified in some way. On it’s face it is not true. Stay with me in this theological
argument.........
As stated, 1. Jesus died
for all of the sins of all of the people.
There is no sin left for which the subject must reckon. Yet by qualification of the first argument
there is.
When the universalism of proposition one is pointed out to people
they qualify the statement in this way: 1.
Jesus died for all of the sins of all of the people yet the benefits are
conditioned on their actual belief or faith.
They place what is needed, belief or faith, into a special
category of non-sinful efficacious works.
But what are they really saying? By necessary inference they say, Is it
that Jesus died for all sin except for the sin of unblief? I ask you, Is unbelief a special category of
non-sin? No, this sort of expression is
shallow thinking. The lack of faith is
the very thing for which men and women in the world will be condemned will be
condemned.
JOH 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And,
JOH 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life. 17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 "He
who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God.
19 "And this is
the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 "For
everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest
his deeds should be exposed. 21 "But he who does the truth comes to the
light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in
God."
These statements are not about the quantity of men who will be
saved but about the quality of the love of God who loved the wicked mass of
humanity and sought to redeem the fallen system of this world so much, that he
sent his son, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of men, sin willingly
taken and practiced in line with the sytems of this fallen world. It is about the quality of the saviour’s
love. God soooo loved the world, the
sinful worldly prepetual manifestations of sin within his originally holy
creation. Gos loved that so much that he
made sure one powerful enough to redeem was sent. It is he who is the Lamb of God who redeems.
What is it that keeps men from this redemption? Their unbelief, PERIOD. It is not God who takes the blame, it is man
and his sin, especially that of prepetual unbelief. Unbelief is only a special category of sin
because ultimately it is the sin that damns.
Hebrews 3:18-19 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter
His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter
in because of unbelief.
Man gets no heavenly rest because of his unbelief. And,
Revelation 21:7-8 "He who overcomes shall inherit all things,
and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers,
sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death."
If Jesus died for all of the sins of all of the men, he died for
their unbelief which was a real sin.
Therefore they have nothing to worry about. They would have to admit that Jesus didn’t
die for all of the sins of all of the men and to be consistent with Scriptures
they should admit that unbelief is a sin.
This too points out the need for all men to believe. Therefore, we point them to the perfect,
unblemished sacrifice they truly need, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world. Who do you love? The Lamb who gives redemption or the World
that needs it?
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