what did john the baptist say about jesus

The Jews had sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask John, Who art thou? He told them that he was not the Christ, but the voice of one crying in the wilderness, etc. (vv. 19-27.) "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29.) The Jews had failed to understand the mission of John; their eyes could not discern in him the forerunner of the Messiah, and consequently John now proclaims the Messiah, in His suffering character, as the altar victim, God's Lamb.

The Jews had sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask John, Who art thou? He told them that he was not the Christ, but the voice of one crying in the wilderness, etc. (vv. 19-27.) "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29.) The Jews had failed to understand the mission of John; their eyes could not discern in him the forerunner of the Messiah, and consequently John now proclaims the Messiah, in His suffering character, as the altar victim, God's Lamb.

The question is often asked, What is the origin of this appellation? Of what especial lamb is Christ the antitype? There is very little doubt that there is a tacit reference to Genesis 22. When Abraham was on his way to mount Moriah to offer up Isaac, in obedience to the divine command, Isaac said, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." (vv. 7, 8.) 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, and the sin of the world. In Abraham's case it was for a burnt-offering, for the question of sin was not yet raised; but every Jew would be familiar with the thought of sacrificing for sin. The Passover lamb, while not exactly a sacrificial victim, told them of the need of blood to screen them from the judgment of a holy God, while the daily sacrifice of a lamb morning and evening would remind them of their need of atonement; for the burnt-offering was accepted for the offerer "to make atonement for him" (Lev. 1:4), and its blood was sprinkled "round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." There should therefore have been no difficulty in the mind of a Jew from this description of Christ; for it really embodied the essence of their own economy. The Lamb of God was the one sacrifice to which all their own directly pointed — the one sacrifice, provided for them in the grace of God, which, since provided by Himself, would meet His own mind, and abrogate the necessity of their continually offering those sacrifices which could never take away sin. What godly Jew, moreover, could have read: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 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. 53:5-7) — what godly Jew, I say, could have read this chapter without expecting Christ to suffer for sin? The announcement therefore that He was the Lamb of God should have filled their hearts with gratitude and joy.

The first entrance of our Lord into public service was apparently His journey from Nazareth to Jordan to be baptized of John. The day after the baptism, John seeing our Lord coming to him, exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Again, the day following, looking upon Jesus as He walked, John said, “Behold the Lamb of God” (v. 36).

Verse 29 brings us to the second thing John sets before us in his encounter with the Lord Jesus: His work. We are told that it was the next day and seeing the Lord Jesus as He walked, John declared to his audience, 'Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world'.[1]

John 1:29. John commences his witness on this day by saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world". This brings before us two parts of Christ's work: first, the dealing with sin sacrificially as the Lamb of God, by being made sin at the Cross; secondly, the taking away of the principle of sin from the world in a day to come.

Second Day. — The priests and the Levites would be well on their journey back to Jerusalem, when the Baptist's two announcements concerning the Lamb of God were being made. On the first of these occasions John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world" (1:29). An announcement this was never previously heard upon earth. Isaiah (53:7) had written of One, who would be "brought as a lamb to the slaughter." John spoke of a man present before him, and called Him the "Lamb of God." With sacrificial lambs all Jews were familiar. But for a man to be the sacrifice was little, if at all, then understood, though in Ps. 40 and in Isa. 53 it had been predicted. And this One, the Lamb of God, would do what no other sacrifice had attempted, or could accomplish. He would take away the sin of the world.

John the Baptist came as His forerunner, and bore witness to Him. When he saw Jesus coming to him his heart was full! His stupendous work rose before his mind, and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” The question in the 22nd of Genesis raised first by Isaac was, “Where is the Lamb?”; the answer given being “God will provide Himself a Lamb.” Here He is! the One who had come to take up the work for God’s satisfaction, and for God’s glory. You say, yes! and that is the One who came to do the work for me! to put my sins away! That is perfectly true, but mark, it does not say “sins” here, it speaks of something deeper, not simply the putting away of sins, the fruit, but of sin the root. He is not spoken of as the Lamb who takes away the sins (in the plural) but as the One who for God’s satisfaction and glory deals with the root matter of “SIN.” He deals with lawlessness sacrificially, judicially and governmentally, and so removes it that God—the blessed God—might rest in Divine satisfaction and joy undisturbed for ever. That is why He is called God’s Lamb, and as Jesus approached, John said, There He is!—“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!”

"On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." 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 paschal lamb was the pledge for the fundamental peace of the year; even as its first institution was coeval with the departure of the sons of Israel from the house of bondage. We can understand, therefore, what thoughts and feelings must have crowded on the heart of those who looked for a Saviour now, when Jesus was thus attested by His forerunner, "Behold the Lamb (ἀμνὸς) of God." In the Book of Revelation He is frequently viewed as the Lamb, but there with a pointedly different word (ὰρνίον), the holy earth-rejected Sufferer, in contrast with the ravening wild beasts, civil or religious instruments of Satan's power in the world (chapter 13). Here the idea seems to centre not so much in the slain One exalted on high as in the sacrifice: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

John does not say "that will take," still less "that has taken"; nor does the notion seem at all tenable that He was then taking sin away.33 It is, as frequently in John and elsewhere, the abstract form of speech; and the meaning should be understood in its fullest extent, irrespective of the time of its accomplishment. There was the Person, and this His work. Thus 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 remission of sins to every believer. Instead of the sin of the world only being before God, the blood of the Lamb is set; and God could therefore meet the world in grace, not in judgment. Not only was love come in Christ's Person as during His life, but now the blood also shed whereby God could cleanse the foulest; and the gospel is to every creature God's proclamation of His readiness to receive all, and of His perfectly cleansing all who do receive Christ. In fact, only those that are His now, the Church, receive Him; but the testimony is sent forth to all the creation.

John 1:30. Then John witnesses to the greatness of the One Who, as the Lamb of God, will do this work. He says, "He it is of Whom I said, A Man comes after me Who takes a place before me, because He was before me" (N. Tn. ). In time Christ came after John; in position He takes a place of pre-eminence far above John, for He existed in eternity before John.

But God never forgets the personal dignity of the Lord Jesus here. Hence John the Baptist adds, "This is He of Whom I said, After me cometh a Man who is become before (or, hath taken precedence of) me, for He was before me. And I knew Him not, but that He might be manifested to Israel, therefore came I baptizing with (ἐν) water" (John 1: 30-31). There is no reference here to His Messianic judgment, as in other Gospels, which, on the other hand, are silent as regards a testimony like this to His glory. Undoubtedly also John did call souls in Israel to repent in view of the kingdom as at hand; but here the one object is the manifestation of Jesus to Israel. It is an absorbing topic of this Gospel indeed. The previous unacquaintance of the Baptist34 with Jesus made his testimony so much the more solemn and emphatically of God; and whatever the inward conviction he had as the Lord came for baptism, it did not hinder the external sign nor the witness he bears to His Person and His work as he had borne before it. It is interesting and instructive to note that to the Pharisees John is silent (verse 27) as to Christ's pre-existent eternity as the ground of His taking precedence of himself, though born after him. Compare verses 15, 30.

Hence we read, "And John bore witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not; but He that sent me to baptize with (ἐν) water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, this is He that baptizeth with (ἐν, the) Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God."35