Enlightenment:
Religion is Christ’s enemy. It frustrates Christ as life. Eventually, religion sentenced Christ to death. It was not Roman politics that sentenced the Lord Jesus to death, for the Roman politics under Pilate was too weak to do that. Christ was sentenced to death by the Jewish religion which utilized the weak Roman politics. Thus, in his gospel, John shows us that the strongest opposition to Christ as life comes from religion. Therefore, he found it necessary to use many verses in chapter one to describe the pitiful religious situation. John’s intention was to portray the pathetic condition of religion.
While the religionists were expecting a great leader, Jesus was recommended by John the Baptist as the little Lamb of God. Jesus did not come to be the great leader of a religious movement; He came to be the little Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It is not a matter of a movement; it is a matter of redemption, of solving the problem of the sin of mankind. For our sin to be taken away we do not need a doctor of theology or a religious leader—we need a little Lamb. We need Jesus as the Lamb of God to die for us and to shed His blood for our redemption. The situation today is the same as it was in the time of John the Baptist. Religion still awaits a great leader for a great movement. However, in God’s economy, Jesus is not such a leader. He is simply the Lamb of God. As you read this message you need to say, “Lord Jesus, to me You are not a great leader. You are the Lamb of God who died on the cross for my sins. Thank You for Your death, Lord. Thank You for Your blood. Thank You for Your redemption. I don’t care for a great leader. I only care for this little Lamb who has accomplished redemption for me.” The religious concept is that a great leader will come, but the divine economy is that a Lamb die to redeem man from sin. Since the problem of sin requires a solution, the need of redemption is imperative. We need the Lamb of God to take away our sins.
