📖 Biblical Definition
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, He declared: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). This title gathers the entire sacrificial system into one Person. The Passover lamb's blood delivered Israel from the angel of death (Exodus 12:13). Isaiah prophesied a suffering servant "brought as a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7). Paul declared "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Peter wrote that we are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19). In Revelation, the Lamb who was slain now stands in the center of the throne, worthy to open the scroll of history (Revelation 5:6-12).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
LAMB: The young of the sheep kind. In scripture, the Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
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LAMB, n. [Sax. lamb.] 1. The young of the sheep kind. 2. The Savior Jesus Christ. Christ is called the Lamb of God, as being the antitype of all the lambs offered in sacrifice under the Mosaic economy. Webster recognized the typological significance — every lamb sacrificed in Israel's history pointed forward to the one Lamb whose blood would truly take away sin.
📖 Key Scripture
• John 1:29 — "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
• Isaiah 53:7 — "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter."
• Revelation 5:12 — "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
• 1 Peter 1:18-19 — "Redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish."
• 1 Corinthians 5:7 — "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The Lamb imagery has been sentimentalized into meekness while the sacrificial and victorious dimensions are ignored.
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Modern Christianity often reduces the Lamb of God to a symbol of gentle meekness — Jesus as a soft, harmless figure. But the Lamb of Revelation is also the Lion of Judah who opens the seals of judgment. The lamb imagery is primarily sacrificial, not sentimental — it speaks of blood, death, and the wrath of God satisfied through substitutionary atonement. Progressive theology, rejecting penal substitution, strips the Lamb of its atoning significance and treats the cross as merely an example of love or solidarity with suffering. But without the blood of the Lamb, there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22).
Usage
• "Every lamb slain from Abel's offering to the last Passover before the cross was a shadow — Christ is the substance, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
• "The Lamb who was slain is now the Lamb upon the throne — sacrificial meekness and sovereign power united in one Person."