The
next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world!
John
1:29
…and
the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of
thousands, saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy
is the Lamb who was slain
To
receive power and riches and wisdom,
And
strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Revelation
5:11-12
Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding;
Christ is nigh, it seems to say,
Cast away the works of darkness,
O ye children of the day.
Wakened by the solemn warning
Let the earthbound soul arise;
Christ, her Sun, all ill dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.
Lo, the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from Heav’n;
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all to be forgiven.
Honor, glory, might, and blessing
Be to God: the Father, Son
And the everlasting Spirit,
While eternal ages run.
6th Century Hymn
“I determined,” says Paul, “not to know any thing among you, save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That is the substance of a Christian’s faith
and practice. In the Cross we learn all the power of sin, the intensity of our
weakness, the far greater intensity of God’s Mercy. It is the all-prevailing
witness of God’s Love, —the most powerful attraction to man’s heart. All graces
are to be found therein, and it is the perfection of the interior life. The Cross
is the substance of our faith, inasmuch as it sets before us the Only Son of
God, conceived by the Holy Spirit of Mary, and thus embodying the doctrines of
the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation….Every precept which our Dear Lord has
given us may be summed up in the doctrine of the Cross. It teaches us the power
of sin, inasmuch as nothing less than the death of God made Man could crush
that power, and atone for sin; —the intensity of our weakness, for what remedy
could we have brought had Christ not vouchsafed to be our Propitiation?—the
intensity of God’s Mercy—for “if He
spared not His Son, shall He not also freely give us all things?” Can we
meditate on these things and refuse the only return God asks of us—that we
should love, serve and obey Him?
H.L.
SIDNEY LEAR
The Hidden Life of the Soul
He
is the Lamb of God. For He is provided by God. The words have reference to an
abiding element in God Himself. The Lamb of God belongs as much to the eternal
essence of God as His glory, His righteousness, His truth, and His love. And
for us, and perhaps for all worlds, this is the most wonderful and entrancing
name of all. The highest praise we can offer to God is to sing, “Worthy is the Lamb!” Put emphasis on
the words, “of God.” There you strike the distinctive feature of this
sacrifice, and of the religion which it created. The difference between
Christianity and all other religions lies in these two words. In other
religions man provides his sacrifice for his god. In Christianity God provides
the sacrifice for man. Christ comes forth out of the heart of God.
JOSEPH PARKER
John
He
takes away the sin of the world; purchases pardon for all those that repent, and
believe the gospel, of what country, nation, or language, whosoever they be.
This is encouraging to our faith; if Christ takes away the sin of the world,
then why not my sin? Christ leveled His force at the main body of sin's army,
struck at the root, and aimed at the overthrow, of that wickedness which the whole
world lay in. God was in Him reconciling the world to Himself.
He does this by taking it
upon Himself. He is the Lamb of God, that bears the sin of the world. He bore
sin for us, and so bears it from us.
That it is our duty, with an eye of
faith, to behold the Lamb of God thus taking away the sin of the world. Let it
increase our love to Christ, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His
own blood, Rev. 1:5.
MATTHEW HENRY
Book
of John
Jesus
Christ is King forever! The throne of heaven is the throne of God and of the
Lamb! His dominion over nature always appears, to me, a delightful
contemplation. I like to think of the sea roaring and the floods clapping their
hands in His praise. He it is who makes the fields joyful and the trees of the
forest glad. His pencil paints the varied hues of the flowers and His breath
perfumes them. Every cloud floats over the sky blown by the breath of His
mouth. Lord of all the realms of life and death, His providence runs without
knot or break through all the tangled skeins of time. The Lord reigns and of
the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end!
Beloved, we see before us
the grandeur of God and the gentleness of a lamb! The infinite Creator and the
innocent creature are linked together in lovely union. You do not come to a
finite helper when you draw near to Christ. In trusting to the merit of His
blood, you have an all-prevalent plea and full security for pardon, peace and
acceptance. You come to the throne of the Lamb and that throne of the Lamb is
the throne of God! All the riches
of the glory of God are treasured up in Christ Jesus and Christ has all this
wealth to bestow upon His redeemed family.
SPURGEON
Sermons
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