Behold the Lamb of God

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world1 -John 1:29

When God gave the instructions for the Passover, He gave very specific instructions about the lamb:

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.        Exodus 12:5,6

Jesus fit every one of these qualifications. He was a Lamb without blemish, for He had never sinned. He was the firstborn in his family, “a male of the first year.” There was even a particular time this Lamb had to die: “in the evening.” The very hour Jesus died on the Cross was the time when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed.

Who killed the Passover lamb? “The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.” In Acts 2:23, Peter preached to the Jewish multitude about who was responsible for Jesus’ death: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you  have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

Jesus Christ was condemned by the Romans and crucified by Israel, but He laid down His life for you and me. He took our sin and our sickness on Himself. Just as the whole congregation of Israel had a part in the slaying of the lamb, we all had a part in the slaying of the Lamb of God. Yet Jesus laid His life down willingly. He knew it was the only way we could be delivered out of “Egypt”—the bondage of sin, sickness and disease.

CONFESSION:

I believe Jesus was the Lamb slain to take away the sin of the whole world. Jesus died for me. Through Him I receive all the benefits salvation includes. I am saved, healed and delivered!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999