Know: Read John 1:19-42

Note: Mark keywords, including pronouns and phrases. ( Lamb of God, Jesus) Ask questions: (Use tools such as interlinear guides to search the original meaning of words- free tool here) For example:

• Who was John?

• What is the significance of baptism?

• When did John see Jesus?

• Where was Jesus?

• Why did John need to testify?

• How did John know Jesus was the Lamb of God?

Observation: Read Exodus Chapters 11-12

What: What does today’s study reveal to me about the nature of God? What truth do I need to apply to my life today? Where do you see Jesus in your reading?

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

John 1:6 Tells us that a man named John was sent from God to confirm that Christ was God. This man, John the Baptizer, was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He was the only Prophet to see God in the flesh. All the other Prophets of Old longed to see what John got to see. They could only know God partly; John saw Him, testified of Him, and then recognized that it was time for the Prophets of Old to take a step back so that Christ could take center stage.

As a prophet, John was instructed to baptize people to “prepare the way.” His method of baptizing was unusual and so drew the attention of the religious leaders. In those days, it was not uncommon to baptize. Typically, if a Gentile converted to Judaism, they would be baptized with total emersion in water. However, to baptize a Jew meant they were removing their Jewishness to become a Gentile. This was cause for much alarm to the leaders. Baptizing was also a common practice among a particular group in which part of their practice was to baptize themselves for religious purposes. Because John is the one who administered each baptism, they wanted to know why and by what authority.

John admitted that he did not have the ultimate authority but was a herald to declare the coming of the King and His Kingdom. In the days of old, a herald was sent out before a visiting king to declare that the king was coming and to clear the path of any weeds, thickets, and debris so that the king would travel without obstruction. John recognized that he was fulfilling the prophecy of scripture declaring the coming Messiah. When Jesus came to be baptized, John’s spiritual eyes recognized Him as the Passover Lamb who came to “lift up” and carry away the sin of the world. The word “sin” in John 1:29 (“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” ) is “hamartia.” It is a noun in Greek. Its primary meaning is “to be without a share in.” When sin entered the world through Adam, it removed the “share” of sonship mankind was created for. We were created to be in right relationship with God.

Jesus came to be the final down payment the law required to pay for transgression, abolish that system, but also to “lift up and take away” the thing (sin) that entered the world and establish a covenant of forgiveness. We will talk more about “sin” in a later post.

Exodus tells us the story of the salvation of the Hebrew nation from their Egyptian oppressors. God used Moses (raised as an Egyptian but Hebrew by birth) to deliver the people by making he and his brother the spokesmen to Pharaoh. Because Pharaoh was hardened to releasing his slaves, God sent ten plagues which were a form of de-creation and judgment against the Egyptian gods. They were no match for God.

The final plague, the death of all the firstborns, was the only plague in which the Hebrews were required to participate in an act of faith. All the other plagues did not require anything from them. Born Hebrew, they were automatically qualified for safety from the plagues; living in a land given to them four hundred years before, called Goshen (which means “draw near”), no plague touched their land. The final plague required that they do as God asked. They were to take a lamb's blood and spread it on the doorposts of their homes and eat its meat as a covenantal meal. The blood over their doorposts was a sign that they were in a relationship with God. The blood was a sign that death would not touch them and God would protect them. Thus, the Passover lamb; death “passed over” those who were in covenant with God.

The Passover is not about the punishment of sin but about God being faithful to His covenant with Abraham. “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Exodus 2:24

In the two months that the Hebrew nation wandered in the wilderness before the law of Moses was given, God was never once angry with them, no matter how they grumbled and complained. When they came to the foot of Mt. Sinai, God wanted to enact a Grant Covenant with them to go alongside the covenant He made with Abraham. (I covered covenants in a post called “Beholding Jesus in the Covenants”).

Unfortunately, they rejected God’s proposal out of fear, forfeiting relationship with God for rules. And so, the covenant was downgraded to one requiring their obedience to a set of rules (Ten Commandments). And later, after Moses’ death, the covenant was downgraded further; from a partnership to servants. The law held them to a standard of behavior that they were required to obey to stay in covenant. If they disobeyed, the law condemned them. This system was what Christ came to put an end to (among other things, such as Adam’s failure, which I will cover throughout the course of this study and studies to come.)

The Passover meal, to remember the day which enacted their liberation from slavery, was a constant reminder of the foreshadowing of what Christ would come to do because of the enslavement of the law. God provided a way for them to receive temporary relief from the burden of the law by enacting a sacrificial system in which an atoning lamb was sacrificed once a year to cover over their sin. Christ, the final Passover meal, would not die to merely cover over sin but remove it, bringing us back into the share of sonship lost in the Garden.

If you had not watched the in-depth teaching on the Mosaic Covenant, you can watch it here.