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THE LAMB OF GOD

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 22, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 3.

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THE LAMB OF GOD.

By James White

BY ELDER JAMES WHITE.
TEXT : Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
THE circumstances which called forth these words mark an important era in the history of the ages. The world's Redeemer had appeared in humility, as predicted by the prophets, and had been baptized of John, when the heavens opened, the Spirit like a dove descended upon him, and there came a voice from Heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Mark 1:10, 11. Two persons of note are introduced in the text; one is John the Baptist, who is the speaker, the other is Christ, of whom he speaks.
The mission of John was to prepare the way for Jesus. His baptism was the great event of his time. "Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan," went out to be baptized of him. Matt. 3:5. John was not a settled pastor; but as the herald of Christ, to prepare the way for his mission, the field of John's labors and the range of his influence were extensive. "He came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Luke 3:3.
The life and habits of John were humble and simple, yet he was a mighty man of God. The prophetic description of his mission and of the greatness of his work is given thus: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 40:3-5.
John was a plain and practical preacher. He appealed to the multitude that came to be baptized of him in these cutting words: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." Matt. 3:7, 8. And while he boldly and faithfully rebuked the sins of the people, he pointed them to the great remedy as expressed in the words of the text: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
In the typical system the sacrificial lamb pointed to the great Sacrifice for the sins of the world. The people whom John addressed were familiar with this service. The time was at hand when the shadowy sacrifice was to be lost in the death of Christ. And as He who was soon to die for the sins of the world stood before the anxious multitudes, who were smarting under the lashes of truth by the unsparing hand of the Baptist, and were trembling on account of their sins, John raised his voice in that vast assembly, and pointing to Christ, said, "Behold the Lamb of God."
Christ is called the Lamb of God because the Father has given him as a sacrifice for the sins of a lost world, and because a lamb is an appropriate symbol of the meekness of our adorable Redeemer. The prophet speaks of him in these touching words: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Isa. 53:7.
When all was lost in Adam, the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ was immediately instituted; hence he is represented as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13:8. In the patriarchal and Jewish ages, Christ was slain in figure. In the Christian age he is slain in fact. The Scriptures reveal but one plan by which fallen men may be saved. It is true that in the development of the plan of grace through Christ there has been in each dispensation an increase of light. But there is no intimation in all the Bible of three plans, one for the patriarchal age, one for the Jewish, and one for the Christian age.
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of sinners in all the ages of human probation. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12. It was not possible for sinful man in the ages past to secure a fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light by the divine law alone. There is no ability in law to redeem the transgressor. It is not the province of law, human or divine, to pardon the transgressor of law. The moral law is a rule of right action, condemning the transgressor, and holding him as such until he shall suffer the penalty. The divine law can do no more for the sinner. It is the gospel alone that offers pardon and salvation. And without the gospel of the Son of God none of the men of the patriarchal and Jewish ages could be saved.
The gospel is the joyful message of redemption through Jesus Christ. We inquire, How early in the sad history of the fallen race was the gospel proclaimed? Was it first given in the days of Christ? of Moses? of Abraham? or of Adam? We distinctly trace the faith and hope of the gospel of the Son of God in that early denunciation of wrath upon Satan, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Gen. 3:15. In this decree against the author of sin and death, we hear the gospel of the Redeemer as verily as in the song of the angels over the plains of Bethlehem, to the shepherds as they watched their flocks by night, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:8-14.
And when the first sons of Adam brought their offerings to the Lord, Cain in unbelief brought of the first-fruits of the ground. But Abel, in faith of the great Sacrifice for sin to be manifested in the distant future, brought of the firstlings of his flock. Through that lamb, Abel saw the Lamb of God, the Redeemer of the world, and set his hope upon him. In the blood of that firstling, Abel saw the blood of Jesus Christ as truly as we see the dying Saviour in the broken bread and the fruit of the vine at the Lord's supper. In these emblems we see Christ shedding his blood on the cross for our sins. Abel saw the same in the bleeding, dying firstling which he offered.
"And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." Gen. 4:4, 5. The sacred narrative states that while Abel's act of faith in the Redeemer to come sealed his righteous character, cost him his life, and placed him at the head of the holy martyrs of Jesus, Cain's infidelity was regarded as sinful, and was the stepping-stone to the high crime of the murder of his brother, which sealed his character as a vagabond in the earth.
The apostle places Abel at the head of the faith-ful worthies. He speaks of his righteous act of faith in offering to the Lord in sacrifice the type of the Redeemer to come, in these emphatic words: "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Heb. 11:4. Abel laid hold of the hope that was set before him of the Redeemer to come, and in type embraced Christ. And as he set the seal to his faith in presenting before the Lord the most fitting emblem of the dying Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, high Heaven bestowed the signal witness that he was righteous. And for nearly six thousand years this eminent preacher of the gospel, though dead, has been speaking of his faith in Christ.
The beloved John, in contrasting the infidelity and murderous spirit of Cain with the confiding faith, pure love, and obedience, of those who revere the commandments of God and lay hold of the faith of Jesus Christ, says, "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." 1 John 3:12. Abel performed a righteous character, not only in laying hold of the Redeemer to come, by faith through the figure of the firstling of his flock, but by perfecting that saving faith in the act of presenting the sacrifice before the Lord God.
We pass down the sacred record of the fallen race to Abraham, and there we find the joyful news of redemption through Jesus Christ, to be extended to the nations of the earth, proclaimed to the trusting, obedient patriarch. Paul speaks of the gospel to the father of the faithful thus: "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Gal. 3:8. The apostle here quotes from the promise of God to Abraham, where the same promise is extended to his seed: "All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." Gen. 13:15.
The gospel of the Son of God was proclaimed to Abraham in this promise, in that it is really a promise of Christ, as argued by the apostle in Gal. 3:16: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." The promise to Abraham, that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed, embraces Jesus Christ as the only hope of salvation for men from all the nations, as stated by the apostle in verse 14: "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." The faith of Abraham embraced Christ as its glorious object. This is seen in Christ's reply to the Jews, who boasted in Abraham as their father: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad." John 8:56.
The gospel was preached to the children of Israel in the days of Moses as truly as in the days of the apostles of Christ. That the gospel of the Son of God has been preached since the days of John the Baptist is a settled fact in all Christian minds, while but few take in the idea that it was preached in the patriarchal and Jewish ages. But Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, treats the matter as settled beyond all doubt, that the gospel was preached to the Hebrews, and then states that it was preached to the Christians of his day, as well as unto them. He says: "Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them," Heb. 4:2, making it appear that the gospel of the Son of God was common to the Jewish and Christian ages.
Moses and the believing Jews had the faith and hope of the gospel. Through the blood of the sacrificial offerings, they saw Christ, and by faith embraced him. Their hopes of the future life were not in the law, but in Christ. The typical system was but the shadow of good things to come, of which Christ, as a sacrifice and mediator, is the center. These good things are the body that casts its shadow back into the Jewish age. The bleeding sacrifices of the former ages were but the shadow, while Christ bleeding on the cross was the great reality. The blood of beasts offered by the Jews, understandingly, and in faith, as clearly pointed forward to the blood of Christ as the Lord's supper and baptism point back to his sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection.
Christ was with Moses, in the wilderness, the invisible leader of the children of Israel. This appears evident from the remarkable statements of the apostle: "Brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. 10:1-4.
Notice these points:—
1. It was important that the matter of which the apostle speaks should be understood by the church at Corinth—"Brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant." The lesson taught is no less important to the Christian church of our time.
2. Christ is declared to be "that spiritual Rock" that followed the Hebrews. The marginal reading—"that went with them"—makes the point stronger.
3. The apostle did not regard the ministration of the visible leader of the children of Israel as void of the spiritual light and life of Christ, as popularly held in our day. He says that they "did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ."
4. Paul exhorts: "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." 1 Cor. 10:9.