Jesus the Lamb, part 4

When John saw Jesus, he was led by the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus to be the “Lamb of God,” he must have remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah and fully understood them for the very first time. In Isaiah 53, Isaiah wrote this concerning Jesus the Lamb: 

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
 

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. 4 Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.
 

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
 

8 By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. And who can speak of His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
 

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the Will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. 11 After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge My righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” NIV. 

In these words spoken by the prophet Isaiah, God spoke the most incredible mystery about the coming of God’s Servant into the world. God gave Isaiah the fact that the Messiah would not physically arrive as a mighty king or a conquering general, but like a lamb, willing to be led to the slaughter to save His sheep.

I believe this is the most incredible news of the Advent Season that, Jesus, the very Son of God, was willing to come and die for you and me, so that we could live forever with Him. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, never protesting or using His great power to aid Himself. Though He was the Most Beautiful, He became a human, with nothing about Himself to make Himself stand out. Though the world owed its very existence to Him, He allowed Himself to be despised and rejected by men. Though He came to bring joy and peace, He was known as a man of sorrows. 

And finally, though He Himself was blameless, He took the sins of the entire world— your sins and mine — upon His back. He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. He died that sacrificial death so that our sins could be washed away through God’s love and forgiveness.

Continued tomorrow