“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” John the Baptist exclaimed.

Why would John say such a thing? The answer is found way back in the book of Exodus.

After God delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery, He established Passover as a time for them to celebrate their deliverance. Every year, the Israelites would remember how the blood of a lamb caused the destroyer to pass over their home, sparing them and their families (Exodus 12).

Centuries later, the timing of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was not a coincidence. Even as He rode into the city on a donkey, on the day we now celebrate as Palm Sunday, the people were choosing the lambs to be sacrificed for the Passover.

In fact, all the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law pointed to the coming Messiah. Yes, all of them. The sacrifices that started in the Tabernacle during the wilderness wanderings and the ones that continued in the Temple built by King Solomon in Jerusalem.

For example, the Burnt Offering (Leviticus 1:4-9) was sacrificed to atone for (or pay for) an Israelite’s sin. The Sin Offering (Leviticus 4:1-4) was sacrificed to pay for an Israelite’s unintentional sin.

God established these sacrifices to teach the people that payment to cover their sin required the shedding of innocent blood. The writer of the book of Hebrews described it this way: “The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22 NIV).

But unlike the Passover lambs that needed to be sacrificed year after year for each family, Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all (Hebrews 7:27). The sacrifices associated with the Mosaic Law could not take away sin, they could only cover the sin temporarily.

That’s why John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus’s once-for-all sacrifice did what all the previous sacrifices for thousands of years could not do.

Jesus is indeed, the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. His sacrifice takes away your sin and mine, if we place our faith in Him as our Savior. That’s what Good Friday is all about. And we know God accepted Jesus’s sacrifice as full payment for our sin. Nothing more is necessary.

How do we know this? Because after we commemorate Good Friday, we celebrate Easter Sunday, sometimes referred to as Resurrection Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof that His sacrifice was complete on our behalf, and completely accepted by God.

So as we move into Easter weekend, would you thank God for His amazing plan of salvation? Would you thank Him for Jesus’s complete payment for the sin that separated you from your heavenly Father?

Then teach the children in your life so they might learn that, while they cannot earn God’s approval, they can receive it as a gift purchased for them by Jesus, the Lamb of God.