The Lamb of God

After the inquisition with the Priests and Levites John identifies Jesus as LAMB of God, ”who takes away the sin of the world” and as ” the Son of God”. John is not the one they have been waiting for but Jesus is- now this is revealed to John by God himself- the whole point of John’s baptism was that Jesus might be revealed to all those watching and with the descending of the Holy Spirit in the shape of the dove it made quite an impact. We too are called to point to Jesus Christ in the way we live- that is our street level calling. John brings GOOD NEWS - he is not the good news himself but he is like the delivery man he brings it to your door. The good news is that Jesus Christ “TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD” Let’s take this a little further- let’s click on this computer icon to see more. The meaning of this life is that he came to do everything necessary for the whole world to be forgiven- in the first creation God made the world and said it was very good and here in the new creation he is saying that God sent Jesus to restore the whole world- that is the men and women, the animals, the eco-system to the way it was before the fall. John wants us to know that this forgiveness is not restricted to the few but for all- as Peter would say later- “God is not willing that ANY SHOULD PERISH BUT THAT all SHOULD COME TO ETERNAL LIFE” It is very important that Christians recognise this UNIVERSAL HOPE which lies in the very heart of God- when Presbyterians baptise a child they do so with this is view- we are saying that this child, because of the faith of their parents is part of the family of God- just as Abraham was, just as Isaac and Jacob was- that does not mean that they cannot walk away from that relationship for they can and often do but God has done all that is necessary for us to be part of this new creation. Through the work of Jesus Christ our sins have been thrown into the recycling bin and then destroyed completely- on the computer it is as easy as pressing a button. Now the way Jesus has done that is by using the sacrificial system which stands at very heart of the Jewish faith was the sacrificial system whereby men and women, through the agency of a priest in the temple, brought various types of animals to die in their place. The New Bible Dictionary tells us that in each home there were <>