Thank you, my dear friend, for your excellent question. In John 1:29 (KJV) we read: “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The phrase to which you refer tells us that the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary was valuable enough in God’s sight to pay the penalty for all the sins of all men in the world, for all time. So, I believe the phrase you cite is a reference to all the sins of all people in the world. But it goes further than that too.  I believe it is a reference to sin as a principle, which is the root cause of all sickness and death in the world, and the factor that separates all mankind from God. Given the verse as a whole, the verse explains that Christ Jesus, and He alone, has the power to condemn sin in the flesh (see Romans 8:3-4; see also Ephesians 2:15; Hebrews 9:26; and Hebrews 10:14). Christ Jesus did come into the world that through His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, He would break the power of sin, death and hell so that all who would place their trust and faith in Him might receive forgiveness for all their sins (Ephesians 1:7-10; Colossians 1:13-14. Now, the blood of Christ was precious enough to pay the cost for the redemption of all men, but only those who are true believers on the Lord Jesus Christ are saved, and that alone by the Grace of God through faith in Christ (see especially 1 John 2:2; John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:3; Titus 3:5, and there are many more verses that speak of salvation by faith alone in the finished work of Christ at the cross).

Now, to expand, I believe that in the first portion of the verse you are questioning, we see the Lord Jesus referred to as “the Lamb of God.” The metaphoric term “Lamb” refers to the OT animal sacrifice of a lamb without blemish to cover the sins of the people. In OT times, as I’m sure you know, sacrifices were made by the Levitical priests on behalf of the people to cover sins. These had no real power to remove sins, but they did make it possible for the worshippers to come before God and request forgiveness. And yet, as we read in Hebrews 10, all of these sacrifices could not truly remove sins, but only pointed to the Christ, who alone had the power, through the blood of His sacrifice, to truly take away our sins, and not just to cover them. Christ’s sacrifice needs only be offered once for sins, and was good for all time, whereas the OT sacrifices must be repeated again and again. We read in Hebrews 10:14: “For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”

And now, let me explain about the difference between the terms “sin” and “sins” as they are used in Scripture. Sin is the principle of lawlessness or rebellion against God’s will, and this sin principle (or disease if you will) entered the world through Adam, the first man, when he disobeyed God. In Romans 5:12, we see both “sin” and “sins” used: “…as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned….” This sin nature is the thing that we all have inherited from Adam, and it is what has led to all ruin and death, not only in mankind, but in the creation as well. In the J.N. Darby translation of the Bible we read in 1 John 3:4: “Every one that practices sin practices also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” Sin is the assertion of man’s own will over that of God. Sin, as a principle, is never forgiven, but rather destroyed. The Bible speaks of our being in bondage to sin, and the Lord Jesus came to break that bondage and to free us from the yoke of sin. “Sins”, on the other hand, are the individual acts of rebellion that arise from the sin nature. These sins can only be forgiven by the Grace of God through faith in the finished work of redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf at Calvary’s cross.  (SF)  (656.2)