The Lamb of God

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” John 1:29
This title of Jesus, ‘the Lamb of God’, is only used by John: twice in his gospel, and thirty times in the book of Revelation. It causes us to look back to the first time the word ‘lamb’ appears in the Bible, in Genesis 22, where Abraham is told by God to take his son Isaac to the top of Mount Moriah and offer him. Isaac asks Abraham where the lamb is, and Abraham replies, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering” (Gen. 22:8). This statement, and the location of the event, are prophetic of Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross at that very same spot.
The sacrifice of a lamb also featured prominently at the first Passover in Egypt, where the Israelites were instructed to take a lamp, keep it with them as a pet for a period of time, then slaughter it and put its blood aroud the doorways of their houses. The death angel would pass over those houses with the blood. It doesn’t take much to see the symbolism that would become reality in Christ: inncoent blood being shed, no bones to be broken, etc. (see 1 Cor. 5:7, John 19:36).
The use of the title in the book of Revelation is telling. In the midst of the events of the Tribulation, and Christ’s triumphal return to earth as the reigning King of kings and Lord of lords, John does not use the title ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah’ (except by one of the 24 elders in Rev. 5:5). Instead, thirty times, we see the reference to the Lamb. Jesus still bears the marks of His sacrifice (Rev. 5:6). But they are not marks of shame and disgrace, but a trophy, because by those scars He provided salvation for all of us.