The first question that we have to ask is; where did John get this message of “the Lamb of God.” This phrase is found nowhere in the OT and only in the writings of John in the NT. John’s message came, not from any one place, but from the general theme of the OT; He is the Lamb, prophesied in Genesis 4 with Abel, the Lamb promised that God would provide (Genesis 22), He is the Lamb of the Passover (Exodus 12) and so through the OT there are pointers to this Lamb who would substitute for the sin of the people.
It is also noteworthy when John proclaimed this message – it was not at the altar of Calvary when the Lamb would be slain. The reason for this is that the life of the Lamb was as important as the death of this Lamb – He must be a Lamb without blemish and be seen to be. As the lamb in the OT must be without blemish and not killed for any deficiency in itself; so our Saviour must also show himself to be the One who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
The scope of this message is also important – not just Israel’s Lamb, but the Lamb for the sin of the world.
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Aaron Dunlop, who is originally from Northern Ireland, graduated from the Geneva Reformed Seminary, SC. He pastored for ten years in Victoria, British Columbia and is currently preparing to move to Kenya with his family to work with the FAME Reformed Theological College.
