January 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 1:29-42:

²⁹The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
³⁰This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
³¹And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
³²And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
³³And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
³⁴And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
³⁵Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;
³⁶And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
³⁷And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
³⁸Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?
³⁹He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.
⁴⁰One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
⁴¹He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
⁴²And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

Devotional

On this Lord's Day we offer our adoration and worship to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We cannot look to ourselves or to any other men for deliverance from our sin and guilt before God. No sacrifices that we could make, no offerings that we could bring, no works that we could perform could satisfy the justice of God for our sins. We must look to the Lamb whom God has provided to save His people from their sins: that Lamb without blemish and without spot, that One who knew no sin, became sin for His people, suffered and died in their place, and once for all satisfied the justice of God for them.

Our Redeemer was brought as a Iamb to the slaughter; He was cut off out of the land of the living: He was stricken for the transgression of God's people. Truly He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed (see Isaiah 53). We have been redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Iamb without blemish and without spot (see I Peter 1:18-19).

Yes, on this Lord's Day we magnify the name of the Lamb who was slain and who is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing (Revelation 5:12).

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)