29The next
day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world! 30“This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After
me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’
31“I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to
Israel, I came baptizing in water.” 32John testified saying, “I have
seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.
33“I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water
said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him,
this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ 34“I myself have
seen, and have testified that this is the Son of
God.”
John 1:29-34
John, to my dear friends in Christ;
in John 1:29 we see John describing Jesus as the Lamb of God. Before this
time Jews offered lambs continually for their sins, but even they were not
good enough to remove sin. Remember the Old Testament is a shadow of what is
fulfilled in the New Testament. This is fulfilled by God offering a perfect
sacrifice. Look closely, this sacrifice was not offered up by Jews but by God.
If a sacrifice is being offered up by God, Who is perfect, we can only assume
that His sacrifice is perfect. Because God's sacrifice is perfect we must
assume where the Jewish sacrifice could not remove sin, God's
sacrifice must actually atone for and remove sin without having to be
repeated. Look even closer, this sacrifice offered up by God was for the
world not just for the Jews, awesome isn't it.
In Versus 30-33 we see God confirming Jesus' mission as His Lamb by telling John how he will recognize Him. God sent the Holy Spirit to come upon Jesus and remain upon Him, and God Himself confirms Jesus' mission in Matthew 3:17, and behold, a voice out of heavens said, "This is my Son, in whom I am well-pleased." John can only baptize with water, again John being the last of the Old Testament prophets is doing something that is only a shadow of something greater in the New Testament, a baptism with the Holy Spirit. This is another proof of Jesus' deity since Only God can send God the Holy Spirit to us.
Finally in Verse 34 John testifies what he says is true and Jesus is the Son of God.
Dear Heavenly Father, what awesome words we have in these few verses, help us to be encouraged that Jesus is God and tell those around us the Good News, in Jesus name I Pray, Amen.
God's Many Blessings to You,
john
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Scripture references (unless noted otherwise): New American
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copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975,
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