DAILY SERVICE: Jesus is the Lamb of God

brucesbiblepage

May 29

Seventh in the series "Jesus is" – I will include scriptures, references, graphics, and songs.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, was our once and for all sacrifice that fulfilled God's need for a blood offering. He was the perfect sacrifice of love that brought the possibility of perpetual change to the world. The reference to Christ being the "Lamb" of God is because Jesus was a perfect offering of purity and cleanliness.

The names of God tell us important information about who God is. So do the names of Jesus, and we hear about Jesus being the Lamb of God a lot, especially at Easter. Keep reading to learn more about why Jesus is called that and the incredible implications it has for us even today.

Most of us picture lambs as downy white animals frolicking in rolling green meadows or carried tenderly in the arms of their shepherd. Lambs represent gentleness, purity, and innocence. Though it is one of the most tender images of Christ in the New Testament, the phrase "Lamb of God" would have conjured far more disturbing pictures to those who heard John the Baptist hail Jesus with these words. Hadn't many of them, at one time or another, carried one of their own lambs to the altar to be slaughtered as a sacrifice for their sins, a lamb that they had fed and bathed, the best animal in their small flock? Hadn't the bloody sacrifice of an innocent animal provided a vivid image of the consequences of transgressing the Mosaic law? Surely, John must have shocked his listeners by applying the phrase "Lamb of God" to a living man.

When we pray to Jesus as the Lamb of God, we are praying to the One who voluntarily laid down his life to take in his own body the punishment for our sins and for the sins of the entire world. (excerpt provided by Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God)

Key Scripture: John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29