If the Gospel of John is seen as a kind of “trial narrative,” then John the Baptist is the first witness who is called to testify on Christ’s behalf. And John’s declaration is perhaps a little different from what many today might expect. For example, he doesn’t point to Jesus saying, “Behold your best friend who will always be there for you,” nor does he call Jesus a life-coach or spiritual therapist. Rather, in John’s view, Christians should primarily see Jesus as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” On this program, the hosts will take a look at the Old Testament roots of this pronouncement and discuss its present-day implications.
SHOW QUOTE
“When John the Baptist says, ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,’ there’s a ton of freight packed into that little phrase.”
Caleb Bassett
“And it’s interesting—it says, “who takes away the sin of the world,”—not just who exposes the sin of the world or who can help us with it, it has to be taken away. We can’t take it away ourselves. There are times when I feel like I think my sin might be too much for Jesus. And actually, what a diminishment of Jesus that then becomes to think that. If he can take on the sins of the whole world, I’m just not that special.”
Sam Allberry
TERM TO LEARN
“Offices of Christ”
The fact that Christ was anointed to a threefold office finds its explanation in the fact that man was originally intended for this threefold office and work. As created by God, he was prophet, priest, and king, and as such was endowed with knowledge and understanding, with righteousness and holiness, and with dominion over the lower creation. Sin affected the entire life of man and manifested itself not only as ignorance, blindness, error, and untruthfulness; but also as unrighteousness, guilt, and moral pollution; and in addition to that as misery, death, and destruction. Hence it was necessary that Christ, as our Mediator, should be prophet, priest, and king. As Prophet He represents God with man; as Priest He represents man in the presence of God, and as King He exercises dominion and restores the original dominion of man.
(Taken from Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology [Eerdmans, 1996], p. 357)
