Q2. Lamb of God

[Bianca]

Jesus is the Lamb of God because he is the only one that is perfect to be that perfect sacrifice that God required of us. No human could do it. Only Jesus could. Animal sacrifices were not perfect though God used them temporary. A Holy And Perfect God requires a perfect sacrifice.

 

Jesus fully takes away our sins. We have been truly and fully forgiven and cleanse of unrighteous. Though we are still suppose to grow and become more like Jesus in our ways and actions.

 

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. He fully represents me. God has forgiven me because of Jesus. So when I mess up on something. Jesus is there standing with me as my atonement. I could never be good enough to be my own sacrifice. I could never approach God in that way.

[Krissi]

Jesus is described as a sacrificial lamb because it is a common and understandable image among the early Israelites and later Jews for whom the Bible was first written. At the time He was described as a lamb, actual sacrifices of lambs were taking place in the temple. The lambs were supposed to be perfect -- their blood was to atone for sins already committed. In Jesus, such perfection was real and atonement complete. 

There is a sense, however, that sin persists. The world is not sinless even though the sacrifice of Jesus as a lamb "takes away the sins of the world." Furthermore, though Jesus was sacrificed like a lamb, I myself still sin ... His sacrifice, then, has an evolving quality to it. My sins are forgiven as I sin, but my sinful character is not erased.

Jesus' willingness to sacrifice Himself as an offering is retrospective, then. It covers the sins that have happened but does not -- yet! -- change the fundamental way that the world, and the people in the world, are drenched in sin.

 

[Niyonka16]

Q2. (John 1:29) Why is Jesus referred to as the Lamb of God?

ANSWER: John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God because Jesus was too holy and wonderful for Him to even untie his shoes. To be called a Lamb of God means that God gave Jesus to be killed like a lamb for our sins so we could live forever. A sacrifice is made as an agent of God or servant of God for the sake of eventual victory. The majority of Old Testament passages that mention “lamb” refer to a sacrifice. The lamb represents Christ as both suffering and triumphant.

To what degree does He (Jesus) take away our sins?

ANSWER: Christ's death removes - expiates - our sin and guilt. The guilt of our sin was taken away from us and placed on Christ, who discharged it by his death. Thus, in John 1:29, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus takes away, that is, expiates, our sins. Jesus take away our sins because “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed.

How does He (Jesus) come to represent you – as your sacrifice for sin?

ANSWER: Jesus represents you, as your sacrifice for sin by propitiation which refers to the removal of God’s wrath. By dying in our place for our sins, Christ removed the wrath of God that we justly deserved. In fact, it goes even further: a propitiation is not simply a sacrifice that removes wrath, but a sacrifice that removes wrath and turns it into favor. (Note: a propitiation does not turn wrath into love — God already loved us fully, which is the reason he sent Christ to die; it turns his wrath into favor so that his love may realize its purpose of doing good to us every day, in all things, forever, without sacrificing his justice and holiness.)