The Gospel of John uses three different symbols, or figures, to portray the Lord’s death. Each of these is very meaningful, and each portrays a different aspect of His death. Thus, to fully appreciate all Christ accomplished in His death on the cross, we should know what is meant by each of these figures.

The first is found at the beginning of the Gospel of John, when John the Baptist sees Jesus walking and declares,

“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
— John 1:29

And then in 1:36 he again says,

“Behold the Lamb of God!”
— John 1:29

Note that while John twice says, “Behold the Lamb of God!,” the second time he does not add, “who takes away the sin of the world!” This is to remind us that, while we need to “Behold the Lamb of God” continuously, the death of Christ for our sins was once-for-all; it does not need to be repeated a second time.

This aspect of the death of Christ is the one almost all genuine Christians are familiar with; many understand that here John the Baptist is referring back to the Passover lamb of the Old Testament, which was slaughtered so the children of Israel could be spared from God’s judgment and then rescued from the land of Egypt (Exo. 12:1-14). And at least in a basic sense, they understand that by His death on the cross as the “Lamb of God,” Christ fully dealt with the problem of our sins. Praise the Lord for that!

But later in John’s gospel we see two more figures related to the Lord’s death. When He is talking to Nicodemus about the new birth, Jesus says,

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
— John 3:14

While John the Baptist spoke of Jesus as something so lovable, a little lamb, here Jesus speaks of Himself as something not lovable at all: a “serpent.” This figure relates to how Jesus died, not for us, but with us, to deal with our sin nature (Rom. 6:1-5).

And finally, when the Greeks come to see Him, Jesus declares,

“Truly, truly, I say unto you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
— John 3:14

Here Jesus again refers to His death, this time speaking of Himself as a “grain of wheat” that had to fall into the earth and die in order to be reproduced. This figure shows us that Jesus was crucified so the divine life within Him could be released into His believers (John 3:16, 20:22).

As we have already indicated, for us as the believers in Christ to go on with Him in the best way, it is important to be clear about each of these three basic aspects of His death. So, because few believers today have an adequate grasp of the latter two, we will say more about these aspects of His death in the upcoming Notes in this series.

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—  3 September 2024 —