Behold the Lamb of God

The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. ---John 1:29

When God gave the instructions for the Passover, He gave very specific instructions about the lamb:

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. ---Exodus 12:5,6

Jesus fit every one of these qualifications. He was a Lamb without blemish, for He had never sinned. He was the firstborn in his family, “a male of the first year.” There was even a particular time this Lamb had to die: “in the evening.” The very hour Jesus died on the Cross was the time when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed.

Who killed the Passover lamb? “The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.” In Acts 2:23, Peter preached to the Jewish multitude about who was responsible for Jesus’ death: “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it."

Jesus Christ was condemned by the Romans and crucified by Israel, but He laid down His life for you and me. He took our sin and our sickness on Himself. Just as the whole congregation of Israel had a part of the slaying of the lamb, we all had a part in the slaying of the Lamb of God. Yet Jesus laid His life down willingly. He knew it was the only way we could be delivered out of “Egypt”—the bondage of sin, sickness and disease.

Confession: I believe Jesus was the Lamb slain to take away the sin of the whole world. Jesus died for me. Through Him I receive all the benefits salvation includes. I am saved, healed and delivered!

from Prescription for a Miracle by Mark Brazee