GOD'S PROMISES # 3

"Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

Here in this promise Jesus Christ is called as 'the Lamb of God', identifying him as the one, final, ultimate sacrifice for sin.

All through the Old Testament animal sacrifices were offered to God to atone for sin. A lamb, or other animal, died as a substitute for the person offering the sacrifice. In God's justice the penalty for sin is death - separation from God and from life. In God's mercy an (animal) substitute died instead of the (human) sinner.

But these old sacrifices had to be offered over and over again, as people sinned over and over again. They could never gain permanent forgiveness or permanent acquittal. Nor were they meant to. They were prophetic, ritual symbols, mere shadows of the one, real sacrifice for sin - Jesus Christ.

They were only effective because of the eternal reality of his one, ultimate, once-for-all death.

On the cross of Calvary Jesus Christ died as our substitute, paying in full the death penalty for our sins, so that never again would sin stand as a barrier between us and God, between us and eternal life.

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God - the only real and final sacrifice for sin. For those who have received him, sin no longer has any power or authority to ever again separate them from God. They have already passed over from death to life. They have been set free from the law of sin and death. They already possess eternal life.

Scriptures: John 1:29; Leviticus 1-7; 16; Genesis 2:17; 3:21-24; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:1-10:18; Revelation 13:8; Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 8:3-5; 10:1; 9:12,26,27; 10:10,12,14; 4:14-16; 10:19-23; Romans 5:6,8,10; 6:5-8; 2 Corinthians 5:14; Galatians 2:20; John 5:24; Romans 8:2; 1 John 5:12.