IE. Waddell.
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III.
The Lamb and the Sin.
1. " Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ! " What precisely do these words mean ? In the margin of the ordinary version we read, "beareth away" the sin of the world; and in that of the Kevised Version it is given simply, " beareth the sin." But perhaps the full significance of the word is to be had by the union of both the textual and the marginal renderings, for the term in the original is the equivalent of a Hebrew word, which sometimes denotes the bearing of the punishment of sin, and sometimes the making of expiation for sin ; and so, as Alford remarks, " it will in our verse bear either of these meanings, or both conjoined, for if the Lamb is to suffer the burden of the sins of the world, and is to take away sin and its guilt by expiation, this result must be accomplished by the offering of himself."
(1) The simplest meaning of the word is to lift, and this is also the simplest consciousness of liberation from sin. Man, unable to free himself from the fatal burden, feels it lifted from heart and conscience by the redeeming hand of God. Trust in God is not the product of profound doctrinal understanding, but the expression of the felt need of casting our infirmity and sin on the strength and grace of God. The beginning of the soul's re- demption is the discovery that we ourselves cannot overcome sin, but that we can safely leave it all with the boundless love and mercy of God.
(2) The second phase in the meaning of the word is to hear. The Divine Saviour who " lifts " the sin from our aching hearts bears it on His own. This is the substance of the great act and process of atonement, which is the centre of the Christian faith, and in its inexhaustible import both the joy and the despair of the human understanding. It is related, on the one hand, to the inviolable righteousness and truth and love of God, and, on the other, to the vital union of the Divine life with the life of humanity. It is therefore at one and the same time the fulfil- ment of the Divine righteousness and the working of redemptive energy in the lives of men. The Cross is not an isolated thing.
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but the sacrificial life of the Son of God interwoven with the red fibres of the human spirit.
(3) The last phase of meaning in the word is to hear away. This ends the succession in the line of grace. The Saviour lifts the sin of the world ; He bears the sin of the world ; He bears away the sin of the world. The beginning of redemption is liberation from the weight of sin ; the completion of redemption is everlasting separation from the power of sin. The Sin-bearer bears away our sin, and we are thrall to it no longer. It can never return to condemn us. He has borne it past all the measureless abysses of death and Hades, and overwhelmed it in the glory of His resurrection. This is the salvation of our God. We are risen with the Eisen Christ. Old things have passed away ; behold, all things have become new.
2. The saving power of the Cross of Christ is no theory ; it is a fact. The sign of shame and guilt has become the sign of faith and hope. The instrument of torture and death, defiled and loathed and hated, has been lifted out of the gloom and horror of sin, transfigured, crowned with honour and victory, and planted for ever on the hill of salvation. The eyes of the world turn to the Cross of Christ. Fainting, despairing, dying, bound in the prison-houses of crime, crushed under the load of trans- gressions, parched and burning with the fever of life, from every place of sorrow and suffering and darkness, the lost children of men are looking to the Cross with speechless longing, and feeling its blessed power with unutterable joy.
^ Do you want to know how it is possible ? What if I could not tell ? You want to go by the cable cars. Can you explain the force that draws them ? Will you wait until you understand the nature of steam and the machinery it uses before you trust yourself to them ? You want to use the telegraph to send a message of sympathy or a sum of money to a relative who is in sorrow or want. Do you comprehend the nature of the electric fluid that is waiting to run with your message, and will you delay sending it until you do ? You are hungry or thirsty, dying for want of food or drink. Here are both. AVill you refuse them till you comprehend the chemical constituents of water, or the means by which the grain from the hillside is turned into the bread that delivers from starvation ? Is the experience of others, hundreds of thousands, not enough to assure you in venturing
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although you do not understand all ? " Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ! " That is the Gospel. That is the good news from heaven. It comes as an offer, as a gift. It is ours only to put aside prejudice, and unwillingness, and indifference, and embrace the offer and receive the gift. This is what amazed the Son of God, that men dying should refuse the means of life, that men under the guilt and bondage of sin should decline deliverance. Their unbelief filled Him with dismay. Let it not be said of any of us as of those of old, " He marvelled at their unbelief." For unbelief seals us up in sin, and delivers us to the death eternal, from wliich the Son of God came to set us free.^