A SERMON OF THIRTEEN WORDS.
By Uriah Smith
The first impression from this statement would be that this must be a very short sermon; and so it is, if we look only at the bulk and number of the words. But there are other and better standards by which to measure sermons. If we take into consideration the sentiments of these words, we find them as wide-sweeping as the universe; their results have no limit; their theme no understanding can fathom, and no study explain. This sermon consists of John's words concerning Jesus, when he saw him coming unto him. “Behold,” he said to those crowding around him, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. “What,” asks one writer, “is the most characteristic account of Christianity, by which its supporters may demand that its pretensions shall be tried? The evangelist supplies us with a sufficient answer, first, in John 1:29: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;’ and, secondly, in John 20:31: ‘But these things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.’ Christianity is a system that aims at the remission of sin, through faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as a preparation for the life of eternity. It is a method devised by the divine wisdom, and carried out through a supreme sacrifice, to bring all men back unto the moral standard of exalted purity, brightened by a heavenly hope, though its progress is retarded by the operation of a great antagonistic force that struggles to retain men under the bondage of its sensual power. “When Christianity was first proclaimed, the world was well-nigh lost in sin. The noblest cultivation, and the most perfect art, and a skill in law and government which has never been surpassed, were unhappily found to be compatible with a baseness of moral degradation, the very language of which, by God's mercy, has now become obsolete and unknown. Now the gospel revelation rests upon the principle that the removal of the weight and stain of moral evil was the first requisite to the restoration to a higher life, and that no cure could be found for the deeply seated mischief, except through the renewed contact of God himself with human nature, God himself condescending to assume that nature with the express purpose of winning the world to purity and holiness. Christ came, not only to take up man's nature, and to show forth the noblest example of its capacity, but more than this, by a still more marvelous condescension, he came to die for our sins, that thus the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, might purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This is the concise summary of the whole matter. And the Christian argument must always remain weak and defective, if it ever swerves aside from preaching its most important practical results, the remission of sin through faith in Christ. We must not rest satisfied, then, with the negative position that the power of sin has been destroyed. It was the further object of the work of Christ that a higher life might be created through faith in his name. We must pass on from the removal of the hindrances by which man was fettered, to recognize the large capabilities that were infused through the regenerate life.”—Archdeacon Hannah. When John exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God,” the image of the Holy One, suffering for his people, and bearing their sins (Isaiah 53), stood before his soul. The intuition to which he gave utterance was simultaneous with the appearance, upon his eyes, of Christ's person, so gentle, so calm, and so meek. If salvation for our race is through atoning blood, then these are, of all possible words, the most fitting to set forth a Saviour slain. If life for the saved comes through the death of their Saviour, he can have no fitter description than this: “The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” “That taketh up, and taketh away.” The word signifies both, as does the corresponding Hebrew word. Applied to sin, it means to be chargeable with the guilt of it, and to bear it away. In the Levitical victims, both ideas met, as they do in Christ, the people's guilt being viewed as transferred to these victims, avenged in their death, and borne away by them. John wishes to point out Jesus as the Messiah. He designates him as “the Lamb of God.” The most obvious reference is to the prophetic announcement of Isa. 53:7. We have there the servant of God, the Messiah, compared to a lamb brought to the slaughter; and it is said of him that he hath borne our griefs, was wounded for our transgressions; he bears the sin of many; so that here, and here only, we have the connection between the lamb and the bearing away of sin; that is, by expiation, by the offering of himself. With eyes enlightened by the Holy Spirit, John beholds the Lamb, which God himself had prepared (Heb. 10:5), and given to be a sin-offering.—Besser. “There are only two places,” says Luther, “where sin can be; either it is with thee, to lie upon thy neck, or it lies on Christ, the Lamb of God. If it lies on thy shoulders, thou art lost. But if it rests on Christ, thou art quit of it, and art saved.” This was John's first public, official testimony to Christ, and it is noticeable that it contains no reference whatever to that position and office of Jesus in which the mass of the Jewish people might have been willing, perhaps, to recognize him; that is, as a delivering king, a triumphant monarch, restoring to power and independence the Jewish race; but he confined his testimony to those two attributes of Christ's person and works—as a “lamb” and an “offering for sin”—which the Jews so resolutely rejected. There is no mention there of Jesus as the Messiah, the Prince, or the King of Israel. The record that John bears is that he is the Son of God, and the Lamb of God, that taketh away sin. In these two declarations,—“This is the Son of God,” and, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,”—we have the gospel of the kingdom, in a form as distinct, as short, and compendious as it is anywhere else to be found. Thus does John place his hand upon the world's great trouble and sorrow—sin. He reveals that which can alone bring deliverance, namely, the taking away of sin; and he names the only agent by which this can be done,—the Lamb of God. The words, “Behold the Lamb of God,” are words of power. Spurgeon relates that, in 1857, just before he was to preach in the Crystal Palace, in London, he went to decide where the platform should be placed. To test the acoustic properties of the building, he cried out in a loud voice, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was going on, heard the words; and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace in turning to Christ. Years afterward, he told this story to one who visited him on his deathbed. John, in this message, indulged in no vehement, sensational appeals, nor angry rebukes, but made a simple, earnest, plain declaration of God's truth. It is the truth that makes the only lasting impression that can be made. It is related of Wesley, that, preaching on one occasion to an audience of courtiers and noblemen, he used the “generation-of-vipers” text, and hurled denunciations right and left upon those worldlings in high places. The courtiers were, of course, very much displeased, and one of them angrily remarked to Mr. Wesley, in passing out: “This sermon should have been preached at Newgate.” “No,” said the fearless Reformer, “my text there would have been, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the10world.’” To those who felt their need of Christ, and were ready humbly to receive him, Mr. Wesley would have given a text of hope and comfort. But to those who felt so whole in their own self-righteousness, he would apply such texts as would lay bare their groundless pretensions. A young telegraph operator was anxious about his soul, and after a sleepless night went to his duties in the morning. While restless and absorbed in the thought of his being a sinner, he suddenly heard the click of his instrument, and with astonishment and emotion, spelled out this message: “From . . . , Windermere, to . . . , Warkworth. ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,’ ‘in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin.’” This was sent in answer to a message from a young man who also was seeking peace. It became a double blessing, showing to both operator and receiver the way of salvation. By the words of John, our Lord is placed in the very focus of that view which should attract the attention and study of all mankind. It is strange that all eyes are not turned to him, revealed as he is, as the sole source of help from the inevitable ruin to which the world is doomed by sin. But so great is the deadening power of sin that the mere revelation of the fact that a way of salvation has been provided is not enough to arouse the souls of men. Blind eyes must be startled by a vivid light, and dull ears pierced by a thrilling cry to behold and seize the opportunity of escape from death. Therefore that marvelous forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, was sent forth from God, to make the wilderness echo with the call to repentance. He came thus to prepare the way of the Lord; and when Christ appeared among men, John raised his appeal to all whose eyes might look upon him, and to all who might learn of him: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” By all the prophets his advent had long been foretold; but then he had appeared that men might behold him for themselves. Subsequent teachers in the divine school of truth have repeated and re-echoed the same call. “Looking unto Jesus,” exclaims the apostle Paul; and he enjoins upon us to “consider” him, lest we be weary, and faint in our minds. And our Lord himself invites us, in still stronger terms, to behold him as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.” John 3:36. The supreme denunciation of punishment is decreed against the sinner who treads underfoot the Son of God (Heb. 10:29), while to the overcomer it is affirmed that he shall sit with him upon his throne. Rev. 3:21. U. S.