John 1:29
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Now, I want to talk to you a little about beholding this Lamb of God, taking a hasty run through various Scripture references to the Lamb…
How was the Lamb of God first seen in the world? It was the case of the lamb for one man, brought by one man for himself…You all know that I refer to Abel, who was a shepherd, and brought of the firstlings of his flock―that is, a lamb―and he brought this lamb for himself, and on his own account, that he might be accepted by God, and that he might present to God an offering well-pleasing in His sight. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground as an offering to God. I think that there was a difference in the sacrifice, as well as in the man bringing it, for the Holy Ghost says little about the difference of the man, but He says, “By faith Abel offered unto to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,” Hebrews 11:4, and he was accepted because he brought a more excellent sacrifice.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement, acknowledging himself to be a sinner who deserved to die, and only hoping for mercy through the great sacrifice.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Abel’s sacrifice was a lamb, a type of Christ, the Lamb of God. Abel looked through his sacrifice to the sacrifice of Christ; not so Cain.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Cain presented nothing but a gift of the fruits of the earth, disbelieving the great truth, that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, Hebrews 9:22; and showing that he did not regard himself as a sinner who needed an atonement. The consequences was such as might have been expected. The sacrifice of Abel, offered in faith and in obedience to the requisitions of God, was accepted; while the offering of the self-righteous Cain was rejected.
C. H. SPURGEON: Pass on to Abraham. What is one of the most memorable sayings of the father of the faithful? “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering,” Genesis 22:8. Did not Abraham then, by faith, see Christ’s day? Yea, he saw it afar off, and was glad; he knew that the great Jehovah-jireh would provide a wondrous Substitute, who would die in the place of his people, even as the ram took the place of Isaac…God provided a sacrifice which should be the representative of Christ, inasmuch as the sacrifice died instead of the sinner.
J. C. PHILPOT (1802-1869): In fact, all the various rites and ceremonies of the Levitical law, together with the sacrifices which were offered up, were all types of the Lord Jesus Christ.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Each, in their place, pointed to “the Lamb of God who was to take away the sins of the world;” they derived their efficacy from Him, and received their full accomplishment in Him.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Every sacrifice pointed forward to “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” and not one more strikingly than the passover. The paschal lamb, with all the attendant circumstances, forms one of the profoundly interesting and deeply instructive types of Scripture.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): That it was a type thereof is clear from I Corinthians 5:7, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”
EDWARD PAYSON: This atonement, which Christ, the Lamb of God, intended to make in the fullness of time, was typically represented by the sacrifice of a lamb without spot or blemish.
C. H. SPURGEON: And was not Jesus Christ even such from his birth? Unblemished, born of the pure virgin Mary, begotten of the Holy Ghost, without a taint of sin; his soul was pure, and spotless as the driven snow, white, clear, perfect; and His life was the same. In Him was no sin. He took our infirmities and bore our sorrows on the cross, Isaiah 53:4,5. He was in all points tempted as we are, but there was that sweet exception, “yet without sin.” A lamb without blemish…Thus the Paschal Lamb might well convey to the pious Hebrew the person of a suffering, silent, patient, harmless Messiah.
A. W. PINK: The Lamb of God is the one great object and subject of the Prophetic Word.
C. H. SPURGEON: Think of the prophet Isaiah, and as you remember him, and his prophecy, does not the thought of the Lamb of God rise up to your mind at once? “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth,” Isaiah 53:7…How fine a picture of Christ. No other creature could so well have typified him who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Being also the emblem of sacrifice, it most sweetly portrayed our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…Though you will find other emblems which set forth different characteristics of His nature, and admirably display Him to our souls, yet there is none which seems so appropriate to the person of our beloved Lord as that of the Lamb.
ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): Not all the blood of beasts, on Jewish alters slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace, or wash away the stain…
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name, and richer blood then they.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Thus look unto Jesus. There is the Lamb of God who taketh away thy sins.
C. H. SPURGEON: I pray you to behold Him tonight. It is but a little while, and the death-film will gather about your eyes; and if you have not seen the Lamb while yet you have mortal eyes, you will see Him―you will certainly see Him. But your vision will be like than of Balaam, “I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh,” Numbers 24:17. If it is with you “not now,” it may be “not nigh.” It will be an awful thing to see the Lamb with a gulf between yourself and Him, for there is a great impassable gulf fixed in the next world; and when you see Him across that gulf, how will you feel? Then shall you cry to the mountains and rocks, Revelation 6:16: “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!” Jesus will still be a Lamb, even to the lost; it is “the wrath of the Lamb” that they will dread. The Lamb is always conspicuous; He may be neglected, rejected, refused tonight, but He will be beheld in eternity, and beheld to your everlasting confusion and unutterable dismay if you refuse to behold Him now. Let it not be so with any of you.
A. W. PINK: There is only way of finding peace, and that is through faith in the shed blood of God’s Lamb.
