On the morrow he sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and names Him the Lamb of God. Everything in the verse turns on three things: whose Lamb this is, what "takes away" means, and why it says sin and not sins.
Where does this name come from?
There is very little doubt that there is a quiet reference to Genesis 22. Abraham was on his way to Mount Moriah to offer up Isaac, obeying God's command. Isaac said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." And this is the point here. The Lamb of God is the Lamb of God's own providing, and now to deal once and for ever with the question of sin.
The stress falls on who supplies the sacrifice:
God has provided a lamb, a victim for sin — a lamb for our need, but it is God's Lamb for Himself. We do not have to find a lamb; God has found it and set it before us. We do not bring a lamb to God; He brings His to us. What grace!
A lamb was no strange image to John's hearers.
There was no image more familiar to a Jew's mind than that of the lamb. It was the daily sacrifice of Israel, morning and evening. Besides, the Passover lamb was the pledge of the basic peace of the year. It was first set up at the very time the sons of Israel left the house of bondage. We can understand, then, what thoughts and feelings must have crowded into the hearts of those who were looking for a Saviour. His forerunner had just pointed them to Jesus in this way.
Commentators press hard on one added letter, because adding it changes the gospel.
The first error consists in the simple addition of a letter, making it "sins" instead of sin... The question of a letter may seem small. But if Christ as the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world, universal salvation apart from faith would be the necessary consequence. That teaching undermines the foundations of Christianity. So we must insist on this: the verse speaks of the sin of the world, not the sins.
The distinction rests on two sides of the cross — Christ as propitiation, and Christ as Substitute:
Where Jesus is spoken of as the propitiation, there it is for the world. The blood is on the mercy seat, and so mercy and forgiveness are proclaimed to all. But where Jesus is spoken of as the Substitute, actually bearing and taking away sins, it is always limited to believers.
The verse holds together something already done and something still ahead.
This brings before us two parts of Christ's work. First, as the Lamb of God He dealt with sin as a sacrifice, being made sin at the cross. Second, He will take the principle of sin out of the world in a day to come.
The full sight of it belongs to the end:
Only the new heavens and new earth will see the final fulfilment. Then indeed it will be clear how truly Jesus was "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." For then, and not till then, sin will have disappeared completely, along with all its active consequences.
Between the cross and that day stands the message sent out everywhere.
The testimony looks onward to the effects of the death of Christ as a whole, but these were not to appear all at once. The first result was to be the gospel, the message of forgiveness of sins to every believer. Now the blood of the Lamb stands before God, and not the sin of the world alone. So God could meet the world in grace, not in judgment.
One writer tells how someone asked Martin Luther whose sins he believed were forgiven:
In a moment Luther saw the personal application implied in the question. The light broke into his soul. He replied, "I believe in this forgiveness of my sins." So if the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, He may well take away my sins.
- Provided — the Lamb is God's own, not ours; Isaac's question, "where is the lamb?", is answered here.
- Offered — one sacrifice at the cross, where He was made sin.
- Sin, not sins — adding one letter would teach salvation for everyone apart from faith; the verse speaks of sin as a principle, not of each person's guilt.
- Worldwide — because the blood is before God, He can now meet the world in grace and send out forgiveness to every believer.
- Beheld — every trace of sin goes only in the new heavens and new earth. Your own look of faith at Him need not wait.
He it is of whom I said, A man comes after me who takes a place before me, because he *was* before me;
John the Baptist has just pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Now he explains why this Man is greater than he is. His words sound like a riddle: someone arrives later, yet stands first, and existed before the man announcing Him.
The verse holds three things at once: time, rank and being.
Then John witnesses to the greatness of the One Who, as the Lamb of God, will do this work. He says, "This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who ranks before me, because He was before me.'" In time, Christ came after John. In position, He stands far above John, because He existed in eternity before John.
John was born before Jesus was. That fact settles what the last phrase must mean.
The words "because He was before me" could only be used of a Divine Person. In fact John the Baptist was a few months older than the Lord in human birth. So it is clear that when he said the Lord was before him, he meant His Deity. In short, Jesus was Jehovah.
He did not say "a spirit" or "an angel." He pointed to a Man — and said that this Man existed before him.
John the Baptist (who came on earth six months before Jesus) said again, "A MAN comes after me," but One who, in honour and dignity, "ranks before me," because, in His eternal existence, "He was before me." We can understand and rejoice in what is said about His exalted place. But who can explain how a "MAN" — the Word become flesh — who came "after" John was also "before" him? Yet we know this is a fact God has revealed.
John says this right after calling Jesus the Lamb. A sacrifice that size needs a Person of that size.
His divine glory was essential to make the work He undertook effective. He must really be before John, however much John came before Him in history. "I myself did not know Him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to Israel." There you have John's part. All he could do was baptize with water.
John says the same thing three times in one chapter. He is not defending his own standing. He is defending Christ's place above every servant God has sent.
The Baptist says that Jesus was truly before him, though He came after him. He repeats it as if guarding it jealously (vv. 15, 27, 30)… In this the Holy Spirit, who spoke through John, honours Jesus as the great Subject of all God's eternal purposes, God's own great appointed One, to whom all other appointed things pointed. So, though He came after them, He was before them… For it was the Son alone whom God had set up from everlasting, the great first Object of all His purposes. Every prophet and every appointed thing was only His servant, to bear witness to Him.
Earlier in the chapter John made the same point to the religious leaders, but left its reason out.
It is interesting and instructive to note that to the Pharisees John says nothing (verse 27) about Christ's eternal existence before him. Yet that is the ground of Christ taking first place over him, though He was born after him. Compare verses 15, 30.
This bold public cry is worth setting beside what John said later, in prison.
No one could have given a bolder witness than John the Baptist on the day at Bethabara. In front of the whole crowd he cries, "This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who ranks before me, because He was before me.'" But when John finds himself inside the prison walls, when the crowds have gone, when the witnessing time is over and the waiting time has come, then under the stress of this new trial he cries, "Are You the one who is to come?"
- After me — in plain history, Jesus began His public work later than John, and John never denies it.
- Before me — in rank He takes first place. John speaks for every prophet and every appointed thing God gave. All of them are servants pointing to the Son.
- Was before me — the cause of that rank is eternity. John was the older of the two by months, so the claim can only be a claim of deity.
- A Man — the One who existed before John is the Word become flesh; commentators state it as revealed fact rather than explain it.
- Therefore the Lamb — this glory is not decoration. It is what makes the work He came to do effective. John could only baptize with water.