Christ, the Lamb

Although the metaphor of a lamb certainly suggests the gentleness and meekness of Christ’s demeanor, this is not its primary significance.

In light of the historical background, the picture of Christ as the “Lamb” points primarily to Him as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of His people.

OLD TESTAMENT SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM: Exodus 29:38-39 offered in the daily morning and evening sacrifices. Numbers 28:9-10. On the Sabbath, the number of offerings was doubled. As we have pointed previously, such sacrifices were mere shadows and types that pointed to the one Lamb who would come to take away the sins of the world! That Lamb is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

CHRIST THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB

John 1:29 and 1:36, “takes away” = aíro, which carries the idea of lifting or taking up. John the Baptist saw Jesus not as a political deliverer or merely a role model, but as the sacrificial Lamb appointed by God to take away the sins of the world.

With reference to Christ, it means that He took up our sins and bore them away. The power or efficacy of Christ’s death continues to the end of the world.

I Peter 1:18-20, “redeemed” = lutróo, which means, “to buy back someone or something from slavery or captivity.” 

• Negation v.18: not with perishable things like silver or gold. The requirement: Leviticus 22:20-24. The impossibility: Psalm 49:8, The Impossibility: The way into heaven could not thus be bought
• Assertion v.19: But with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ 

No payment that a man could make would be enough to redeem his soul. Only the blood shed by Christ on Calvary was sufficient because it was of infinite value.

CHRIST THE PASSOVER LAMB

Exodus 12:1-28, When the death angel passed through Egypt in judgment, it would “pass over” the people of God when it saw the blood of the lamb that was slain. Christ stood in the place of His condemned people and died on their behalf. Like the Passover lamb of the Old Testament, His blood was shed to deliver His people from death.

Exodus 12:5, 21, The lamb shall be unblemished v. 5, The lamb shall be killed v. 21. Shachat = “to slaughter.” Revelation 5:9

Revelation 13:8. The meaning here is, not that he was actually put to death “from the foundation of the world,” but that the intention to give him for a sacrifice was formed then, and that it was so certain that it might be spoken of as actually then occurring. – Barnes

The slaughtering of the Passover lamb prefigured the death of Christ for the redemption of His people (Exodus 12:15, I Corinthians 5:7).

The Israelites were commanded to eat only unleavened bread and to remove all leaven (a symbol for sin) from their homes during the Passover. In a similar fashion, the Christian is to seek to remove sin from his or her life as a correct response to Christ, our Passover sacrifice.

Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”  the Scriptures make a direct reference to the Passover lamb as a type or shadow of Jesus Christ and His atoning work on Calvary. 

For the individual Christian and the Church at large, Christ is “our” Passover, by whose blood we are justified and saved from the wrath to come. Exodus 12:22

The Israelites must believe God and trust in the means of salvation that He had prescribed. The Israelites must remain inside their homes under the protection of the blood.

In the same way, the believer has no salvation outside of Christ and His atoning work on Calvary. It is only “in Christ” that all the blessings of a renewed relationship with God come to man.

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• Exodus 12:23 The significance of the blood of the Passover lamb. The blood was the only difference between the Egyptians, who were destroyed by the wrath of God, and the Israelites, who were delivered from His judgment. It is not the believer’s character or deeds that save him from the judgment of God, but Christ and the blood that He shed on the believer’s behalf on Calvary.
• Exodus 12:27, “He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.” Without the blood of Christ, there is no shelter from the wrath to come (Romans 5:9).

You must believe God’s testimony concerning His Son (I John 5:9-12)—that His sacrifice for our sin, the blood of the Lamb of God is the only means of redemption and reconciliation with God.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

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Note: This lesson is from our weekly Youth Bible Study Based on Paul Washer’s Discovering the Glorious Gospel.