Some thoughts about the "Lamb of God"

John 1:29- The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

This verse got me thinking about just a few of the prophesies that Jesus fulfilled by coming to this Earth, living among us, and dying for us. When the Apostle John calls Jesus the "Lamb of God," he is referring to how Jesus will fulfill the prophecies and symbolism of the passover lamb.

Leviticus 1:3-4- "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish... and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him."
"Make atonement"- Hebrew form is "kipper." This is of fundamental importance for what the ritual of sacrifice achieves by the shedding of blood. The term means both the removal of sin and appeasement of wrath (expiation and propitiation). This is done so that the sacrificed animal dies instead of the offerer.

What's also really cool is in Leviticus 2:1, when the grain offering (offering of petition or praise) is being described, one of the necessary elements is frankincense, which was also one of the gifts presented to Jesus by the three Magi.

In Leviticus 3, the peace offering is described. This is really neat, because it was a time to remember and reaffirm the covenant relationship between the Lord and Israel. It was also a time of communion, such as the "Last Supper." Jesus shared with his disciples where he broke the bread as his body and drank the wine as his blood. It was the last time this offering needed to be done before the final offering of the Lamp of God. He broke his body and shed his blood so that we would no longer need to make burnt offerings nor grain offerings nor peace offerings.

This was also the start of the "New Covenant" between God and Israel (Christians). This covenant is summarized in Hebrews 8. It says that God will "be merciful toward their iniquities, and will remember their sins no more." Jesus's sacrifice made it possible for us to have a personal relationship with God that required no more sacrifices, just recognition, acceptance, and faith in the final sacrifice of the blemishes Lamb of God.