Lamb of God – for salvation

“Mary had a little lamb.” Most of us probably think of a little week-old lamb when we use the word lamb. Then they are so cute, soft, and adorable that we want to cuddle them in our arms. Why did God order to sacrifice such innocent beauty for our awful sins?

In most cases, a year-old lamb was specified for sacrifices. The lamb we buy in shops is year-old lamb, a young adult sheep. Except for burnt offerings, the person making the sacrifice ate part of the lamb. Fatty parts were burnt on the altar, and the blood was sprinkled against the altar.

Year-old lambs were used for the Passover, too. One or more families ate the meat, and all leftovers were incinerated. Some of the blood was put on the door frame so that death would pass over that house – saved by the blood of the lamb.

Abraham prophesied about Christ when he said to Isaac, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering (Gen. 22:8). So did the prophet Isaiah when he said that the Messiah would be led as a lamb to the slaughter (Is. 53:7).

Although the phrase “Lamb of God” was only used by the apostle John, he did not invent the idea. He referred to well-known Old Testament imagery.

John the Baptizer mentioned Lamb of God twice (John 1:29, 36). In the book of Revelation, John refers 32 times to the Lamb. For this Lent series, we study the various meanings of the Lamb in the Book of Revelation.

In the fifth chapter, John describes his vision of the praises in heaven for the Lamb that was slain and who redeemed people from all nations to reign with him. Innumerable angels and saved sinners praised God and the Lamb for their glory and salvation.

The Lamb took the scroll from God’s hand and broke the seven seals one by one, each leading to severe ordeals, the wrath of the Lamb on the unconverted. It is hard to reconcile the wrath of the Lamb with the popular view of sweet Jesus (Matt. 25:41).

All whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life, will worship the Antichrist (Rev. 13:8).

However, the sixth seal also shows God’s mercy on the 144,000 sealed people from Israel, and the countless number of Gentiles who were saved by the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7).

Because of its symbolic significance God forbade the eating of blood (Lev. 17:11). The apostle Peter also stressed the saving power of Christ’s blood: “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold…but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

Jacob Van Zyl of Lethbridge is a retired counsellor and the author of several faith-based books.