THE SINS OF THE WORLD?

When John the Baptist points to Jesus and proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”, what exactly does that mean?

Here’s one possible meaning that you might not have considered before.

If we’re going to answer the question, we need to first understand and define our terms. If Jesus is going to “take away the sins of the world” then we need to agree on what “the sins of the world” are.

Sin is simply disobedience to God’s law. And according to Jesus, the greatest commandments in God’s Law are to "Love God and Love others". He actually says that the whole Law rests on these two commands. So, if loving God and loving others are the essential imperatives, what is the greatest sin? A lack of love.

So, to “take away the sins of the world”, Jesus would have to erase our inability to love God and love others.

If this is true, then Jesus died to show us what love really is. He died to teach us how to love God and how to love others, and he even empowers us to love our enemies.

This means that Jesus "took away the sins of the world” by showing us how to love the way He loves.

Rather than say that the wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus as he suffered on the cross, it might be more accurate to say that our wrath was poured out on Jesus.

We killed him. Those in power - the religious elite and the powers of the Empire - colluded together to put to death the Messiah who came to show us how to love and serve one another.

Through the cross, Jesus confounded those powers, and by rising from the dead and speaking the words "Peace" to them, and to us, after taking the worst we could throw at him, Jesus demonstrated the power of love over wrath. He took away the sins of the world and nailed them to the cross and triumphed over the power of hate by responding with love, and forgiveness and he made peace between God and men.

After giving us the power to abuse him, Jesus emerged victorious and said, “Peace be with you.” [John 20:19]

I’ve only recently noticed that the Passover lamb, to which Jesus is compared, never “took away the sins” of the people. The blood on the door post was a sign that God’s people were putting their trust in Him for protection from the Angel of Death, but that lamb’s blood didn’t wash away their sins. It only provided a sign of obedience that helped the righteous escape death.

However, there is another image in the Old Covenant whereby the sins of the people were taken away. That would be the scapegoat which God described to Moses in Leviticus:

"Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, and make it a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his household, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself." – [Lev. 16:9-11]

So the scapegoat which is left alive and released into the wilderness is the actual picture of how the sins of the people are taken away, not the Passover lamb.

Certainly, Jesus is both and his suffering on the cross fulfills all of these shadows for us.  But perhaps it’s worth exploring just how Jesus “takes away the sins of the world” and what that means for us who follow Him daily.

What are your thoughts?

-kg