John 1:29 NASB95
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The statement, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” is written in the present tense, which means that as Jesus was approaching, John was repeating the statement again and again. The word “Lamb” in the original language is the word for “little lamb.” God brought a Lamb to be sacrificed, and that Lamb was God Himself. That should give you a healthy perspective about how much God loves you. You and I were created to participate in all that God is and all that God has. We were created to co-mingle with His presence and to reveal His likeness. In New Testament terms, we were created to experience life and life more abundantly in Christ. For humanity to experience God’s original vision for us, the reign of sin in our lives had to be abolished. The only way for that to happen, the only way for the powers of darkness to be destroyed, was for God to become, in Christ, a little lamb and “take away the sin of the world.” That doesn’t just mean that the debt of our sin had to be paid for. It meant that the power of sin, not just the guilt of sin, had to be taken away. That’s exactly what the conquering little Lamb accomplished. In the sacrifice of His person, our sin was atoned for (He didn’t just die for us, vicariously He died as us), so that risen in Him – the Lion of Judah – a new creation (a new humanity free from the reign of sin) would emerge. He became sin (our sin, your sin, my sin) on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Being in union with His righteous life as our life, sins’ power to control us and condemn us has been taken away forever.