John 1:29

The very next day John saw Jesus approaching him-they had been together before (John 1:26; John 1:32-33)-and publicly identified Jesus as the Messiah. "Behold" or "Look" (Gr. ide) is a favorite expression of John’s. Of its 29 New Testament occurrences, John used it 15 times. Probably his questioners had returned to Jerusalem by this time. The title "Lamb of God" presented Jesus as the Lamb that God would provide as a substitute sacrifice for people’s sins (Isaiah 53:7; cf. Genesis 4:4; Genesis 8:20; Genesis 22:8; Genesis 22:13-14; Exodus 12:3-17; Isaiah 53:12; 1 Peter 1:19).

"It [the title "Lamb"] combines in one descriptive term the concepts of innocence, voluntary sacrifice, substitutionary atonement, effective obedience, and redemptive power like that of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:21-27)." [Note: Tenney, "John," p. 37.]

"The question in the Old Testament is, ’Where is the lamb?’ (Genesis 22:7) In the four Gospels, the emphasis is ’Behold the Lamb of God!’ Here He is! After you have trusted Him, you sing with the heavenly choir, "Worthy is the Lamb!’ (Revelation 5:12)" [Note: Wiersbe, 1:287.]

John spoke of ’sin,’ not sins (cf. 1 John 1:9), by which he meant the totality of the world’s sin rather than a number of individual acts. [Note: Morris, p. 130.] John seems to have had the common understanding of Messiah that his contemporaries did. This was that He would be a political liberator for Israel (cf. Matthew 11:2-3; Luke 7:19). However, he understood, as most of his contemporaries did not, that the scope of Jesus’ ministry would be spiritual and universal. He would take away the sin of the world, not just the Jews. [Note: See Christopher W. Skinner, "Another Look at ’the Lamb of God’," Bibliotheca Sacra 161:641 (January-March 2004):89-104, for a review of nine views of the referent behind the "Lamb."]