NT Text: John 1:29
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology
Anchor Text: Exod 12 — The Passover
Significance: When John the Baptist cries, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29), he sets Jesus against the backdrop of the Passover lamb that "each man must select for his family" (Exod 12:3) — the unblemished animal whose blood, applied to the doorposts, turned away the destroyer and secured Israel's redemption from Egypt. The connection is typological: the historical Passover lamb is the type, and Christ the antitype who fulfills and surpasses it, accomplishing not a single night's deliverance for one nation but the removal of "the sin of the world." Escalation is plain — the lamb's blood spared firstborn from temporal death; the Lamb's blood delivers from sin and eternal death (cf. 1 Cor 5:7; 1 Pet 1:19). John's Gospel reinforces the link by placing the crucifixion at the hour the Passover lambs were slain and noting that no bone was broken (John 19:36, per Exod 12:46). The doctrine that the Lamb "takes away" sin grounds worship: the redeemed do not merely escape judgment but are freed to God, finding the slain-yet-living Lamb their everlasting song (Rev 5:9-12).