THE BOOK OF JOHN CHAPTER 1:29-34
VERSES: Hebrews 9:6-15; Isaiah 11:2, 42:1, 61:1; Leviticus 17:11
On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is become before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water. And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize in water, he said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
The interview by the Pharisees must have been after Christ’s water baptism by John, seeing before that he testified he knew Him not, having not yet met Christ, but in the interview he said to the Pharisees: “…whom you know not…” (verse 26) And now in verse 29, which is the very next day after that interview, John the Baptist along with presumably his own followers, sees the Lord approaching, which then had to be following Christ’s 40-day wilderness temptation, maybe that very day. And seeing Him, John declares, “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.” What a momentous statement! What an unimaginable but necessary revelation given to Christ’s appointed forerunner. He thereby knew that the Messiah of Israel had not come to raise up an army of Israelites to rid the Land of Roman occupation; but to prevail over sin in the World by shedding His Own Blood in sacrificial death. (Isaiah 53)
He is not the Lamb of man offered unto God BUT “the Lamb of God” offered for man. What is in view is that: what all the lambs of man could not affect, the One Lamb of God does. The ‘sacrificial lamb’ of man offered to God and giving up its life blood for him vicariously had critical significance seen in Biblical history going all the way back to Adam’s sin in the garden. By the blood of a lamb, Adam found remission atonement/covering for his sin, rebirth of his spirit; that assurance of deliverance from eternal death. But the lamb of man (see in Genesis 3:21 where an animal was sacrificed when God “made coats of skins and clothed them”) was not enough to restore the glorious intimacy and fellowship they once had with God in the Garden, seen in Adam’s continued being barred from it by the Cherubim who had flaming swords. This is because the blood of an animal is only able to affect a partial restoration, but the Lamb of God that will destroy the works of the devil (and allow, by His Blood, full restoration) was declared by God in the Garden to come. (Genesis 3:15)
It was the ram/‘lamb’ of man for God, caught in a thicket, that took the place of Abraham’s son being obediently offered to God as a blood sacrifice. His offering brought the blessing of God and the irrevocable promise that it would be his ‘Seed’ that The Lamb of God/The Son of God would come from. (Genesis 22:10-18) Also, the lamb of man to God is seen in the obtaining of the ‘saving’ forgiveness and protection afforded in the blood of the Passover lamb in Egypt, along with the countless lambs sacrificed each year at Passover in Israel for many centuries. The same is true for the daily lambs offered up to God for the sins of Israel. (Exodus 29:38-46) But John declares in contrast that this is the Lamb of God and the Son of God. How should we take this declaration of John the Baptist?
THE DUAL ASPECT OF THE LAMB OF GOD’S ATONEMENT…
The first aspect of the Lamb of God’s Blood Atonement being: the saving gift of grace unto restored eternal life into the spirit of man, who was created as a triad being. (1st Thessalonians 5:23) This first aspect (eternal life/saving of the spirit) was already realized in Israel through the appointed substitutionary Paschal lamb’s blood, thereby His coming to Israel was in the second aspect of the Lamb’s Atonement in God’s Salvation Plan. This had to do with ‘saving the soul’ in fullness of restoration purpose of the ‘saved’ of Israel. That is to say that they were to be enabled to be fully sanctified in developing holiness of character, bringing forth fruit of a nature worthy of a calling higher still than that of their Earthly calling of preeminence. Had the Jews accepted Him as the Lamb of God whose Blood would atone for them fully, they would have been enabled to be sanctified and rule and reign with Christ from the heavens. But this suffering Messiah became the stumbling block to the Jew, so then after Israel’s rejection of the Lamb of God, His Apostles were then sent to the Gentiles, now in both the first and second aspects of the Atonement of the Lamb of God (needing to be justified first, then sanctified). In the first aspect as their Paschal Lamb, Paul declares to the Gentile Corinthians that the unsaved be saved… and that being accomplished by their faith in the saving gift of grace unto eternal life of spirit. Then continuing on after their justification (which was by imputation) to the 2nd aspect of the Atonement offering found only in the Lamb of God, that of sanctification, in that it is the means unto developing holiness of character, and bringing forth the fruit of a new nature worthy of that high calling to rule with the Messiah, as the adopted seed of Abraham, in the heavens related to this Earth.
As John the Apostle reveals in the Book of Revelation that the Lamb of God is risen in unmatched worthiness and is to be made ruler over all and when He is Crowned King of Kings He raises out from among the dead in the center of the Earth His worthies in the exclusive First Resurrection to rule on thrones with Him in His Millennial Kingdom. (Chapters 4 & 20)
The Word foretells of John’s water baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” [Isaiah 1:16-17]
The Word foretelling Jesus Christ’s Baptism of man in the Holy Spirit;
“Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high…” [Isaiah 32:15] “And I will put — my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in — my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” [Ezekiel 36:27] & (Isaiah 44:3;59:21, Ezekiel 39:29, Joel Chapter 2)
“Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.” [Acts 19:4-6]
THE PROPHETS FORETOLD OF TWO BAPTISMS…
(Isaiah 1:16–17 in water; and Isaiah 32:15, Joel 2:28 in the Holy Spirit)
John’s continued testimony was that there is a much Superior One than me, that is among you now, yet unrevealed, and that the Superior One’s baptism (the Baptism of Fire) was greater than his water baptism. This speaks of that much greater work to be done in the believer than just remission of sins; that is to say that further work in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is revealing the Word and will of God more fully and transmitting power unto an attaining of a greater testimony with qualifying fruitful works, which holds forth the promise of the First Resurrection in His glory to those who walk/live their lives in willing conformity to Christ’s commands unto holiness.
Noteworthy is that the Gospels reveal the heavens opening up and the Holy Spirit descending like a Dove and “lighting upon Him” as opposed to “filling Him” which seems to indicate that the declared Son of God/Son of man with two natures united in one Person, is yet to walk in the anointing of the Holy Spirit of an outward kind common to the Old Testament declared walk, but without measure. (Isaiah 11:2; 42:1; 61:1, John 3:34) Thus, He filled with meaning the Law. It answers to that which was attainable in the Old Testament but it was through an ABIDING of the Holy Spirit. Christ then is led into the wilderness to be tempted on that same basis (as ‘Son of man’ under the law with the outward anointing of the Holy Spirit). Christ’s first immersion of believers by the infilling of the Holy Spirit was a resulting fruit of the Passover Atonement anointing to be realized on the believers on the first Pentecost after Christ’s Ascension and glorification. (John 7:39) A new Dispensation begins; it will only close after the long hot summer (type seen in the feasts)… and then comes the Age of Tabernacles in the Millennial Kingdom.
Until the Atonement Blood of the Highest order was offered, man in himself could not answer in commensurate character to the high calling. That is to say there was need of a greater propitiation than the lamb of man to God that could bring forth the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, in order that redeemed saved man, with justification through an imputed righteousness only, may answer the high calling through developing a righteous character in his ‘self’. Character is attained by selfless suffering in the World by faith in the promise of full restoration into union with his Creator with His eternal glory to forever dwell (shekinah) within him. You’ll never have character if you don’t suffer. Character is not imputed; it has to be developed. If you’re not resisting the things of this world, you’re not suffering. Character/Faith is refined by fire.
That ‘calling’ that causes us to examine ourselves far exceeds that call of… “Adam…where art thou?” which led to that merciful gracious extending of the gift eternal life. God’s Holiness in Justice had to be met. It had been propitiated to that certain extent by the loss of life of the soul of an animal through the shedding of its appointed blood in order to the raise up mercifully the fallen soul of man from His Just sentence of eternal death (again repeating that this gracious gift of eternal life is based solely on imputation, yet being but a partial restoration as seen in Adam’s continuing stain of ‘death’/separation from God, keeping him from the Garden intimacy, a state and standing in need of improvement).
It is the ‘calling’ to the ‘saved’ back unto restored glory through the gift of the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) unto the Father’s desired union in intimacy of first-born sons found worthy to rule over His Creation, the idea conceived in the Mind of God foreordained from before their creation. (Ephesians 1)
This elevation of a ‘being’/a living soul into a spiritual ‘new creation being’ in glorious Christ-like transfiguration (1st Corinthians 15:45) could have only been realized through the Greater Atonement offering of the The Lamb of God; His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. (2nd Corinthians 3:18) Nothing less than He that humbly condescended from the highest and holiest place, and took on the likeness of Man as a ‘living soul’ unto sacrificial offering of His Self as the Son of God/Son of a ‘living soul’, could propitiate or answer to God’s Holiness and Justice that had to be met to extend the Holy Spirit’s enabling power unto restoration and the realization of the fullness of man’s salvation potential of being a son of God after the order of the first-born, after having fallen.
Therefore, the life blood of the animal (being a ‘soul being’) could atone for another soul; that of a man (Leviticus 17:11), but only unto that partial restoration of that soul from ‘Death’s curse of being condemned unto eternal death with satan, who was destined to be cast in the Lake of Fire that was created for him and his angels. A great mercy was granted unto man… but ineffective in allowing for the justified living soul’s realization of glorious transfiguration into a ‘spiritual being’ to be in union with Him. (1st Corinthians 15 with John 17)
The demands of the Covenant of Law, has served its purpose of revealing to men saved by the Paschal lamb’s blood, their inability (through its efficacy) to obtain unto that certain state of a sanctified soul which God equates with a personal worthiness. That worthiness which leads unto the first of God’s two appointed resurrections, in a twinkling of an eye into an eternal glorified state and status that would allow us to go and enter into His very presence (that which is represented in fellowship, beyond the Holy place of the merely saved, into the Holy of Holies’ Glory).
This necessary worthiness is attained only by hearing and receiving God’s Word of Truth and exercising the ‘saved/born again’ enlightened will accordingly, unto the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. (It is not generally immediately perceived but through tests of loving faith, sufferings, and persistent wrestling against the flesh, the World’s enticements, and satan’s hosts, that character is surely obtained.) We are to take authority over that duality of enmity which was purposefully left in all saved persons. Dominion over that internal corrupted environment, unto the required overcoming of that continuing resident fallen nature of pride and selfishness; the contrary state of personality in and accompanying the ‘death’ nature common with every human coming into this Earth. That fallen nature being the condemning Curse of God as a result of Adam’s willingness to follow his wife in satan’s slanderous advice against God in the eating of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“…Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”
The Book of Hebrews shows the necessity of Christ’s Coming for the Greater Blood Atonement that afforded the opportunity for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the further Work of the ‘saved’/re-energized spirit of Man by the influence of the Holy Spirit in order to overcome the flesh FROM THE INSIDE OUT. Without which Work in character would otherwise disqualify the ‘living Soul’ (not from eternal life but) from eternal living in the glorious inheritance of God, ordained for man.
It’s the Selfless Sacrifice and deserving Resurrection up unto Glory in the Presence of the Father in the 3rd Heaven of the spotless “Man” that can only Atone and grant a further provision or means for the full Salvation inheritance unto glory of the worthy Soul far beyond the gracious saving from eternal death with satan. What Christ’s Soul and Blood Atonement only could do, and always had in view, is that the eternally saved soul would now, through obediently yielding his members in service to his Savior and Master unto the Work of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, purge his carnal soul. This would be through the renewed conscience to the Truth of Christ his Master’s Word and then obediently exercising his own will in action, even with much personal sacrifice and suffering, thereby drawing upon the greater grace provision of the New Testament Blood Atonement unto character change into Christ-likeness in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Read prayerfully Romans Chapters 6-8 with this fuller understanding of Truth in mind.)
LETS ALSO LOOK AT HEBREWS 9:6-15 regarding the contrast of the two Bloods (the blood of the lamb offered to God, and the Blood of the Lamb offered by God for man)…
“Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests (according to the Law of Moses) went always into the first (part of the tent of the) tabernacle (the Holy place), accomplishing the (typical ritual which is the shadow of Christ) service of God (as it related to the maintenance of oil and lighting the Menorah, along with maintenance of the table of shewbread, and altar of incense). But into the second (Holy of Holies) went the high priest alone (but only for a brief moment) once every year, not without (sanctifying blood as opposed to justifying) blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost (by) this (limited and brief entry under the threat of possible death) signifying, that the way into the holiest of all (that is to say; in intimacy with God of the glorious kind) was not yet made manifest (the Holy Spirit is declaring that the saving and setting apart atoning power of the blood of the animal had not the efficacy or enough satisfying merit before God to effectively enable the redeemed and eternally ‘saved’ man into His Holy presence, and must be opened by way of a better Atonement… thus the rending of the curtain into the Holiest Place in the Temple upon Christ’s Death) while as the first tabernacle was yet standing (a reference to the Law’s Tabernacle redundancy after the greater Atonement was realized): Which was a figure (emblematic of the Messiah’s filling up with meaning in Himself all its mediatory ritual significance) for the time then present (that time when those rituals and Tabernacle service was appointed by God to His ‘saved’ to accomplish His instructive purposes) in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him (even God’s anointed mediating high priest under the Law) that did the service perfect (perfect here means: “to reach the intended goal; unable to finish the work” which to the mind of the Author here is the restored abiding intimacy typed in the Holiest Place, which is to say back into the state of man in the Garden of Eden. Far beyond mercifully meeting the legal side of the Law of blood atonement, with its temporary cleansing of the “flesh/sensual body and carnal soul” in order to continue in obtaining of mercy and forgiveness for a continued limited approach unto His Holy Presence, all the while attempting to acquire holiness by obedience to the Law of Moses unto the calling of a theocratic government to be established in the Land of Israel), as pertaining to the conscience (which speaks to the continuing failure of Israel under the Law… a surface-only work without enough energy from the renewed spirit’s conscience over the carnal soul’s reasonings. A surface-only work that evolved into mere calloused religious behavior modification in self-righteousness without heartfelt reflection upon the condition of the soul which is lifted proudly up. That equates to God “…finding fault with them…” (not fault with the Law but with the people). That being said, the Law of Moses’ offerings were never designed to work effectively internally unto character change; that is to say progressively morally and spiritually holy, but to point to the need of the Messiah and sanctifying faith outside the Law of Moses. “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” [Habakkuk 2:4] That statement which John the Baptist came forth in full validation of and earning the title… “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”); Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. (All God-given rituals and carnal ordinances through Moses, in one way or another, together are representative of saved Israel’s higher calling; beyond mere redemption out of Egypt {satan’s kingdom}, being then led by the Pillar of cloud and fire and anointed Moses and instructed in the Law unto the establishing of a holy theocratic government in the Land promised. They represent typically to us: the New Man/Jew and Gentile, the hope of the time of a new and better dispensation acquired under the Messiah. –1st Corinthians 10)
But Christ (the Anointed One now filling with meaning all the blood offerings and rituals set forth in the types of Moses’ offerings that pointed towards all God’s Salvation purposes) being come (having become by incarnation as the Son of man, offered to God in Death, validated in resurrection as the LAMB OF GOD) an (appointed) high priest (over all ‘saved’, that is to say the New Man of Ephesians 2, the High Priest after the order Melchesedek) of good things to come (through His mediation unto the obtaining in the 7th Day Millennial Kingdom Rest and reformation promised to His obedient overcoming followers), by (way of His everlasting mediatory appointment and access into) a greater (Presence of God) and more perfect (all-encompassing and set in Heaven) tabernacle (for the purpose of greater intimacy with His sons), not made with (Earthly) hands, that is to say, not of this (present; then standing inferior and being only typical of the real) building (with its limited Presence and access to God; but an incorruptible structure set among the realities in the spiritual realm full of His Glorious Presence); Neither by the (inferior propitiatory) blood of goats and calves (did He as the Forerunner and High Priest enter into the Holies of Holies in Heaven), but by his own blood (as the Lamb of God) he entered in once (in contrast with the blood of animals continually being required in the High Priest’s offerings), into the holy place (in the 3rd Heaven where He anti-typically has now entered behind the veil as Mediator for the ‘saved’ of humanity, as typically seen in Israel’s High Priest’s brief entry on the Day of Atonement and), having obtained eternal redemption (that is to say, in accordance with His priceless Blood as the Son of Man in unlimited redemption of man unto the highest order, unto and beyond restoration of ‘Adam’s’ pre-fallen state and status in the Garden of Eve. This Blood Atonement with its accompanying power now answers unto the fullness of God’s Salvation Plan before the foundation of the world; that was conceived in the Mind of God of the bringing of glorified man into Union with the Godhead through the Son of God/Son of Man and appointing Him/him Ruler over all) for us (the One New Man; Jew or Gentile). For if the blood of bulls and of goats (a reference to Leviticus 16 – Yom Kippur), and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean (a reference to the Red Heifer cleansing of the body declared in Numbers 19… *Note: what is not alluded to is Passover, as the blood of Passover had always to do with the propitiation and corresponding gift of eternal life; the initial necessary redemptive gift of saving work of a man’s spirit; typically seen in the lamb’s blood applied to casings of the door in Egypt. This ‘saving’ work needs no contrasting as both the Blood of Christ and Passover blood hold this in common as the work that had already been filled with meaning and accomplished in those whom the Author is here addressing; saved Jews.
Whereas, these other two blood offerings and sprinklings set forth typically had/have not yet been accomplished or filled with meaning; which is to say that further completing Work which has the sanctifying of the sensual body and carnal mind of the soul in view. Typically seen as a Work beyond the Brazen Altar, reflected in the washing of the Water of the Laver, that is to say a Work that the BLOOD ALONE CANNOT DO, seen in the LAVER antitype; the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so these two Old Testament offerings only are set forth and applicable when drawing these Blood/blood efficacy comparisons), sanctifieth (to set apart the set apart people unto holiness) to the purifying of the flesh (*note then again these two blood references have to do with the further atonement and cleansing of the flesh; that being the body and carnal soul of the Israelite. The blood offerings for cleansing with the provision for approachability by the already saved to draw nearer (korban meaning) unto God (albeit yet far from the typical/shadowing ideal state} seen in its acceptance, resulting in a closer but yet restricted proximity to Him. So the Author asks in contrast… If the blood of an animal will accomplish this partial redemption and continued partial and limited dwelling Presence with continued blessing, then…) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through (BY THE MEANS OF) the eternal (Holy) Spirit (BAPTISM INTO ENERGY… BY WHICH CHRIST’S SPOTLESS HUMAN NATURE WAS THEN PERFECTED THROUGH WILLING OBEDIENCE UNTO UNIMAGINABLE INDESCRIBABLE SOUL SUFFERING… AND THEN) offered himself without spot to God, (FOR MAN’S SOUL’S REDEMPTION AND RESTORATION NOW ALSO THROUGH THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN POWER) purge (through) your conscience (by the renewed mind to the convicting Words of Christ) from (perfunctory religious) dead works (by the merely saved; one new man who refuses like the saved of Israel before him, the many are called but few choose as the path is difficult and narrow and few follow it) to serve the living God (in spirit/Spirit-led soul in Truth)? And for this cause (this further purging through the conscience accompanied by many tests and trials unto the realization of the reward of an overcomer in Christ; the ‘saving’ of the soul in the first resurrection unto restored glory) he is the mediator of the new testament, (and) that by means of (His Bloody) death, (Christ had the answer) for the (fullness of ) redemption of the transgressions were that (left outstanding) under the first testament, (that in the Power of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit) they which are called (in its gift of justification, might obtain unto the soul’s sanctification) might receive the (further) promise of eternal inheritance (the reward of eternal inheritance is not eternal life, but of glory restored eternally, in intimacy of union, and ruling from the heavens above the Earth in His Millennial Kingdom with Him).” [Hebrews 9:6-15]
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