God's Passover Lamb

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131al Re-Written 28MAR09

Save Me Today—Part Thirty Eight: God’s Passover Lamb

by rev dave c

...Now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Ro 3:21-26; NIV).

Approximately 2,000 years ago Jesus of Nazareth, the 100% Son of God and 100% Son of Man, allowed Himself to be betrayed with a kiss, arrested and illegally charged, stripped and humiliated, beaten and scourged, and then murdered publicly outside the walls of Jerusalem by being crucified with iron nails to a wooden cross. This was during what became for Christians the last Feast of the Passover and the first Easter weekend. For some 1,250 to 1,500 years before that moment, the Jews had been annually observing the springtime Holy Days of Passover as a celebration of their historic salvation from judgment, and their liberation from a cruel master. They had been obediently following Yahweh's directions as given to Moses on Israel’s last night as slaves in Egypt to bake bread without leaven, slaughter a lamb without blemish, place the blood on their door posts, and then consume the meat entirely in order to have the Destroying Angel “pass over” their houses.

On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD (Ex 12:12; NIV). To understand how God’s curse on the firstborn of Egypt applies to us in the Church Age, we need to read First Corinthians 15:45-47, So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven (NIV). Throughout the Bible Egypt is symbolic of the world system, and Satan, as the god of Egypt then, remains the god of this world today. All of the descendents of the first Adam, the first man, are the firstborn of Egypt and they are subject to the wrath of God’s judgment.

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Ex 12:13; NIV). As disciples of Christ we are God’s house, and we are saved from God’s wrath by the blood of Jesus on our “door posts”—we are passed over from destruction. We are of the last Adam, the second man, and Paul assures us, For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him (1Co 15:22&23; NIV). This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance (Ex 12:14; NIV). As Christians we celebrate the sacrifice of God’s Lamb Jesus each time we participate in the sacrament of Holy Communion. In the bread as His Body and the wine as His blood we continue to fulfill God’s command of the first Passover in the observation of Christ’s directive to continue in the fellowship of the Host as He taught His disciples during “the Last Supper.”

All the innocent lambs and all the blood on all the door posts were pointing to Christ’s atoning sacrifice as He was led to the slaughter without complaint, and to the flow of His precious blood upon those wooden beams. When the Lord of Creation and the Sustainer of all Existence assumed our sins and died in our stead, to be entombed and then raised alive in the power of the Holy Spirit, and as He ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father, His work was completed here on Earth. The Church, as His Bride and Body, was then instituted to be His helpmate until He returns to claim us at some undisclosed point in the future. As His disciples we are commanded to join in His sacrifice—to take up our cross and follow Him.

The key to “taking up our cross” is obedience to the written and living Word of God. [Christ] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him (1Jn 2:2-6; NIV). Even in the Old Testament we are asked, ..."Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams (1Sa 15:22; NIV). John the Beloved makes clear the nature of God’s command: Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us (1Jn 3:21-23; NIV). Amen.