Self-Portraits of God

Studies in the Life and Work of Jesus

Lesson 3: Snap-shots in Titles

The Lamb

As this study on the meaning of some of the titles associated with the work and person of Jesus has progressed it has begun to become clear that all the titles that Jesus carried, or that were predicted about Him, are each proleptic portraits of a work, or facet of His mission, or a revelation of a character quality, that He would be found to have as the life He lived came to view before those who were observing Him.

No one of these titles is adequate to portray the entire story of Jesus, unless it is the title Lamb, as it appears in the Gospels, or the first four books of the New Testament, and in the last book of the New Testament, The Revelation.

This title sometimes seems to have gathered under itself the entirety of the person and work of Jesus. The significance of the title is twofold; one facet being the very obvious, and the other being one of the most surprising! You may be delighted, and surprised, when you see what is hiding in the shadows of this picture!

The Story

In the beginning of that story which reaches from the first chapter of the Bible to the last verse, we read of the creation of the earth, and the garden where the people lived, until they needed for Jesus to come and bail them out of trouble. One of the first details we learn about the way back to oneness with God, after the trouble in the garden, comes from the fact that the One coming to restore unity was to be represented by a Lamb. This vocabulary word, Lamb, is found through all the time-line of the Biblical story.

The concept lamb is central to all facets of the biblical story. Throughout the entirety of the Old Testament the worship of God, after the trouble in the garden, involves in one dimension, or another, the concept lamb, starting of course with the first book in the Bible, Genesis.

When we start to read the New Testament we do not read very many verses before we find John the Baptizer, at the very beginning of the New Testament portion of the Biblical story, preaching to the people, down by the river, about the Lamb of God.

The obvious question is, what is the significance of the title Lamb when it is applied to Jesus by John as he preaches by the river?

Lamb appears in the Old Testament about 81 times. About 75 of those times the context to sacrifice and suffering. The other references are to clothes, flocks, or people. This Greek word is Amnos.

This means that when John the Baptist called Jesus the amnos Lamb of God in John 1:29 and 36, his hearers learned that the future, for Jesus, would include suffering as part of His work. Throughout the Old Testament lambs were offered in sacrifice. By this title Jesus was designated to do the work symbolically accomplished by the sacrificial Lamb.

But this is only part of the story of the Lamb!

When we start to read in the book of Revelation, written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of John to which we have just been referring, we find that the book of Revelation also has a story about a lamb near it’s start; but the word for lamb in the Revelation is a different Greek word than the Greek word for lamb appearing in John’s Gospel. Here the Greek word for Lamb is arnion—not the word amnos which we saw earlier.

In the Story in the Revelation there is a problem about the opening of a sealed document, a scene which John is watching, when the solution to the issue is found to be a figure which appears to John as a lamb having been slain, only to have the figure be called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah! Now we have a surprising development! The lamb having been slain is now also the Lion.

The symbol of a lamb having been slain is of course a portrayal of the work Jesus has already accomplished thus far as the amnos Lamb, a concept that is not a surprise because of all the allusions to it in the Old Testament and in the early portions of the New Testament. But in all those appearances of the Lamb concept there was no indication that the suffering Lamb would become a Lion! There are a few allusions to a Lion work in the Old Testament, but they are not prominent.

With this portrayal of Jesus as the Arnion Lamb we have a new pattern of activity portrayed for the one carrying the lamb title. The future portrayed for Jesus by this now dual symbol will not only include a work associated with suffering, the Amnos side of the symbol, but it will also include those types of activities associated with a Lion!

Snapshots of the Work and Character of Jesus as the Lion-Lamb

In the Old Testament (the LXX) the word arnion for lamb occurs only four-times; none of those occurrences are references to a real lamb. Rather the word refers to a lamb-like quality.

The word-pictures for this title range from a description of the hills skipping like lambs, because of the presence of the Lord (Psalm. 114: 4, 6),
to a portrayal of God’s kindness toward His people, which is described is His gathering the lambs and carrying them gently (Isaiah 40: 11).

In the Revelation, where the lamb title appears 28 times, the variety of pictures is even wider; the Lion having now become an actor under this symbol, alongside the expected qualities, those associated with the Lamb.

In the Revelation Chapter 7, Jesus as the Lamb leads and provides, along with God, for the redeemed in heaven.

In Chapter 13, the Lamb is the Pattern.

While in Chapter 15 the Lamb shares the title Lord God Almighty. The message here is that the Lion that became a Lamb and was subsequently slain is not only the Redeemer of His people, but is worthy of the title Lord God Almighty.

Finally, in Chapter 19 the Lamb is shown to be the sum total of all the attributes we have discovered Him to be in our study. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb (Amnos) of God, the Lord God Almighty, drawn into one—because He has accepted the responsibilities of being a husband to the redeemed; that Provider of her home. The fulfillment of this responsibility is that which necessitated all the work He has done before. The figure of marriage in this chapter shows the intimate and indissoluble nature of His work.

The references to the Anion-Lamb acting as a Lion are of such a nature as to imply that the use of power in association with the working out of salvation for those who are to be living in the Lord’s house is reserved for the Lord alone (see Revelation 12). Those who are His do all their gaining of victories with only the Amnos-Lamb portion of the Arnion-Lamb symbol.

The significance of the Lamb title is that the influence and work of Jesus is never-ending, and without borders.

The result of the Arnion-Lamb’s work in the atmosphere of His people is such as to guarantee that their horizons are eternally being pushed out.

The Self-Portrait

Under the lamb title in the Scriptures, we find a collage; the pictures are of a very gentle Lamb, and of a powerful Lion.