The book of Revelation contains an intriguing fact about Jesus Christ: He is overwhelmingly called or described as “the Lamb.” In only one place in Revelation is He called “the Son of God” (Revelation 2:18), and only two verses describe Him as “One like the Son of Man” (Revelation 1:13; 14:14). John refers to Him as “Christ” or “Jesus Christ” ten times. But in twenty-eight places, the book identifies Him as “a Lamb” or “the Lamb.” Instead of “the Father and the Son,” we read “God and the Lamb.”

This manner of identification is curious, mainly because of what the book of Revelation contains. It overflows with captivating visions of beasts, plagues, massive destruction, and widespread death. This final book details the apocalypse, the unveiling of Jesus Christ as King of kings when men and demons resist Him with all their pitiful might. Yet, throughout all this devastation, when God turns the present order on its head, Jesus is resoundingly called “the Lamb.” Our understanding of this mysterious book will be patchy at best without grasping the meaning of this crucial title.

When thinking about lambs, the last thing we associate them with is thunderous judgment and ruin. Lambs are best known for their passive, uncomplaining submission, even in suffering. We see that aspect during Jesus’ first coming, when He fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 53:7, as restated in Acts 8:32: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth.” Jesus mounted no defense when put on trial, nor did He retaliate against the injustice He suffered, despite having the power to do so. As another prophecy foretold, “He [did] not quarrel nor cry out, nor [did] anyone hear His voice in the streets” (Matthew 12:19; see Isaiah 42:1-4).

But when reading in Revelation of the trumpet plagues, the bowls of God’s wrath, and men pleading with the mountains to hide them from “the wrath of the Lamb,” it stokes our curiosity. Why is the Lamb of Revelation so different from the Lamb of the Gospels?

The Bible and Lambs

The overarching emphasis within nominal Christianity is on Christ paying the penalty for sin, fulfilling the sin offering. Even among those who understand that God’s purpose involves far more than justification, it is easy to think of lambs only as a substitutionary sacrifice to pay for sin. However, the sin offering’s symbolism does not fit with the Lamb described in Revelation. A comparison of all twenty-eight instances where Revelation speaks of “the Lamb” with the sin offering reveals that it works occasionally but not in most.

So, we need to broaden our understanding of how Scripture uses the image of lambs to discern why Revelation so often refers to Jesus as “a Lamb” or “the Lamb.”

Besides the sin offering, the Israelites also used lambs for the morning and evening sacrifices (Exodus 29:38-41; Numbers 28:3-8); for the peace offering (Leviticus 3:7); for sanctifying the priesthood (Leviticus 9:3); for cleansing after childbirth (Leviticus 12:6-8) and from leprosy (Leviticus 14:10-13); for concluding a Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:14); for the beginning of each Sabbath (Numbers 28:9) and month (Numbers 28:11-14); and for each annual festival (Leviticus 23:12, 18-20; Numbers 28-29).

Exodus 13, though, contains another significant usage of lambs that better fits what Revelation depicts. Exodus 12 contains the original Passover instructions, a substantial part of which centers on the Passover lamb. It also records the deaths of the firstborn (verses 29-30) and the beginning of the Exodus from Egypt (verses 31-42).

However, the translators inserted a regrettable chapter break that interrupts the continuity of the instructions. Exodus 13:1 begins God’s declaration of His claim on all firstborns, both of man and beast. Then, beginning in verse 11, we have what the New King James labels “the law of the firstborn”:

And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the LORD all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the LORD’s. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ (Exodus 13:11-15)

God gave this command even before Israel reached the Red Sea. He proclaimed it well before the Holiness Code at the end of Leviticus, before the giving of the law (Exodus 20), and even before He reminded Israel about the Sabbath (Exodus 16). The law of the firstborn is among the very first instructions God gives to His newly purchased nation, giving it major significance. To God, redeeming the firstborn was no small matter.

For centuries before this, the Israelites had been subject to the Pharaohs. When Joseph held his high office, the Israelites lived in Egypt as resident aliens, though in a privileged position. But when he died, things hurtled downhill for them, and eventually, the Egyptians enslaved them. They came entirely under the power of the Pharaoh, just as God had foretold to Abraham.

When God determined the time had come to deliver Israel, the very first message He sent to Pharaoh was, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn” (Exodus 4:22-23). This death of the firstborn occurred in the devastating tenth plague on Egypt. Thus, the Passover included the redemption of Israel as God’s firstborn.

God claimed Israel as His firstborn and redeemed her from Pharaoh. God made an additional claim on all of Israel’s firstborn, whether human or animal. To reinforce His claim, He gave this law requiring the Israelites to redeem or buy back every firstborn male from God, and the price was a lamb.

We see that Israel used lambs for much more than just sin offerings. They used lambs for redemption, even as God redeemed His firstborn from Pharaoh. They sacrificed these lambs, not to make atonement for sin, but to symbolize exchanging one life for another because of a prior claim. While sin offerings address atonement or propitiation, redemptions deal with ownership. The references to this event clearly show that God was not atoning for Israel’s sins at this point (Exodus 6:6; 15:13, 16; Deuteronomy 7:7-8; 9:26-29; 13:5; 15:15; 21:8; 24:18; II Samuel 7:23-24; Psalm 74:2; 77:15; 78:42-43; Isaiah 43:3; 51:10; Ezekiel 20:7-9; Micah 6:4). Instead, He was buying back Abraham’s descendants (Psalm 105:42-43), redeeming them from Pharaoh to fulfill His promises to His friend.

We, Too, Need Redemption

Speaking of Abraham, we first see this pattern in his life when God required him to sacrifice his firstborn, Isaac. God’s command was not an arbitrary one. He claims the firstborn males as His own, His portion, and this law applied to Isaac. Fulfilling it became an enormous test for Abraham. Because of His willingness to obey it, God provided a ram so Isaac could be redeemed.

In Part Two, we will apply what we have learned about the lamb of redemption to the book of Revelation, but first, we must realize some things about our own redemption.

The New Testament speaks of redemption in different ways. One appears in Ephesians 1:7: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” This verse reveals that a redemption has already occurred: Christ’s blood pays the wages of our sins (Romans 6:23) and thus redeems us from the death penalty. It redeems—buys back or rescues—us from the one who had the power of death, the Devil (Hebrews 2:14), so he no longer owns us. Though we will still experience death (Hebrews 9:27), we are no longer strictly subject to it because of the promise of the resurrection.

However, God’s purpose for us goes far beyond atonement and forgiveness. Scripture also teaches about a future redemption of those who are in Christ, which is necessary because we can be rescued from the death penalty yet still not be worthy of life in His Kingdom. Without a complete replacement of our fundamental nature, we would not know how to live in a way befitting immortality. Living forever with an inferior quality of life, springing from a corrupt heart, would not be a gift but a curse!

God’s plan of salvation frees mankind entirely, not just from the penalty imposed because of sinful acts, but also from a sinful nature. Paul records his wrestling with his latent, though active, carnality as he awaited his final redemption:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. . . . But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. . . . For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. . . . But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:14-15, 17, 19-21, 23-25)

The once-saved Paul acknowledges he was still under the power of something that caused him to transgress, so he still needed deliverance. He needed to be rescued—redeemed, liberated—from the power of the flesh so another could wholly own him. We, too, must be redeemed from this flesh, this body of death, so we can manifest the complete image and likeness of our Creator.