6. John 1:29 – “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John the Baptist, the prophesied forerunner for the Messiah, made this proclamation upon seeing Jesus for the first time.
John 1:35 – “Behold the Lamb of God!” John the Baptist sees Jesus the next day and again announces to the world who Jesus is, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One of God. God always repeats what is important for us to know. The lamb metaphor maintains the progressive thread of revelation. These verses show us who is the typified Lamb.
7. Isaiah 53:7-8 – “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and judgement, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.” An angel of the Lord instructed the evangelist Phillip to go to an Ethiopian eunuch on the way home and help him interpret Scripture. When the official of Queen Candace asked the meaning of the above verses Phillip told him the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:35). This shows that Jesus the Lamb is the promised Christ.
8. 1 Peter 1:18-21 – “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
This pivotal passage is foundational for the progressive doctrine of the Lamb because it looks both backward and forward. Peter reaffirms the necessity, provision, character, and slaying of the lamb as previously mentioned. Peter then identifies the Lamb as Jesus. Peter goes on to give further revelation of the resurrection of Christ.
9. Revelation 5:6-8 – “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and the golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” This reveals the enthronement of the Lamb of God in heaven.
10. Revelation 22:3-5 – “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: they need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”
Chapters 21 and 22 are the last two chapters of Revelation and they reveal the climax of biblical salvation history. This shows Christ’s everlasting kingship. It also corresponds to the promise of everlasting kingship progressively revealed in each of the covenants God made with Israel from the Abrahamic through the Davidic and on to the New Covenant based on the blood of Christ.