The Lamb Of God

Matthew 3:13-17

Our Gospel passage for this week gives the narrative of the baptism of Jesus.  This is one of the few events in Jesus’ life that is told in all four Gospels. Our account today comes from the Gospel of Matthew.

John the Baptist had a ministry of baptism and a call to repentance for a short while before Jesus came on the scene.  The message that John preached, and the baptisms that he performed to the people who came to him, was to show repentance, to show that one had turned away from their sins and were turning to God.  Then one day Jesus shows up in the crowds that gathered around John, and He steps in line to be baptized. The Holy Spirit had revealed to John the Baptist that Jesus was the Messiah, and thus he felt completely unqualified to be baptizing Him (vs. 13-14).  He felt, rather, that Jesus should be baptizing him.

John’s baptism was one of repentance.  Jesus was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, and He would not need to partake of this ritual.  However, Jesus was identifying with sinners. He would bear mankind’s sin, and His own righteousness would be imputed to mankind.  This act of baptism was a necessary part of the righteousness that Jesus secured for sinners. John’s baptism of Jesus marked His first public identification with those whose sins He came to bear.

The Apostle John records in his Gospel that after Jesus’ baptism, John the Baptist pointed Him out to several of his own followers, calling Jesus the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36).  This is one of many titles that Jesus has, describing exactly who He is, and what He came to do. Ever since the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, mankind has been a sinful creature.  Back in the Garden, after man had eaten the forbidden fruit, they made a weak and ineffectual attempt to cover their sin by making garments of fig leaves (Genesis 3:7). Man’s own attempts to atone for his sins has never worked.  Scripture tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22).

Right there in the Garden, God Himself took an innocent lamb, sacrificing it to make clothes in order to cover Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21).  Innocent blood shed to atone for sins. That was the price, the only price, that had to be paid for forgiveness of sins. That innocent animal was a symbolic representation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  All of the animals that were sacrificed on the altar in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, were a picture of the future sacrifice Jesus made on the Cross of Calvary. Every animal that was sacrificed was innocent, including especially that first one in the Garden of Eden.  They had done nothing, yet their blood was shed to atone for sins. Yet, as Scripture says, the blood of animals could not truly take away sins for men (Hebrews 10:4). We needed a human sacrifice, yet where could we find someone who had never sinned? That was the dilemma.

Jesus is God incarnate, God becoming human flesh as a man, yet at the same time remaining God.  Jesus, as a human, never sinned. Thus He was able to become that perfect sacrifice in order to pay the price for man’s sins.  He became the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Several different denominations have a beautiful prayer, often set to music, called the Agnus Dei, which is Latin for “Lamb of God”, which goes “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.  Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.”

It was here at His baptism that Jesus first showed the world that He, though the sinless Son of God, had come to bear the sins of mankind.  He identified with mankind, was one of us in all things except sin. He was, and is, the Lamb of God.