Lamb Of God!
Lamb of God!
Lamb of God! Our souls adore Thee,
While upon Thy face we gaze;
There the Father’s love and glory
Shine in all their brightest rays;
Thine Almighty pow’r and wisdom
All creation’s works proclaim;
Heav’n and earth alike confess Thee
As the ever great “I AM.”
Lamb of God! Thy Father’s bosom
Ever was Thy dwelling place;
His delight, in Him rejoicing,
One with Him in pow’r and grace;
Oh, what wondrous love and mercy!
Thou didst lay Thy glory by;
And for us didst come from heaven
As the Lamb of God to die.
Lamb of God! When we behold Thee
Lowly in the manger laid,
Wand’ring as a homeless stranger
In the world Thy hands had made;
When we see Thee in the garden
In Thine agony of blood
At Thy grace we are confounded,
Holy, spotless, Lamb of God!
Lamb of God! Thou soon in glory
Wilt to this sad earth return;
All Thy foes shall quake before Thee,
All that now despise Thee mourn;
Then Thy saints all gather’d to Thee,
With Thee in Thy kingdom reign;
Thine the praise and Thine the glory,
Lamb of God, for sinners slain!
IN Isaiah 53, the prophet compares the Messiah to a quiet lamb. He also reminds us that we have all gone astray “like sheep,” but that this lamblike Servant will bear the weight of our sins. That fits, of course, with the Jewish tradition of sacrifice. An animal was offered in place of the person; the animal died so the person could live. At the first Passover, it was the blood of a slain lamb, swabbed on the doorposts, that saved the Israelites from the angel of death.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he called him the Lamb of God. Already Jesus’ atoning death was on the horizon. It came soon enough, three Passovers later, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. The Lamb figures prominently in the book of Revelation. This Lamb is not a victim but a victor. The foes “will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them” (Revelation 17:14). The Lamb receives songs of praise and ends this book with an invitation to His wedding feast.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! . . . I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God.”
John 1:29, 34
From the book
