The title of the Lord
Jesus given in 1 Corinthians 5:7 is "Christ our Passover." What does it
mean that Christ is our Passover? Maybe we should begin with the more
basic and foundational question, what is Passover? For anyone familiar
with their Old Testament, the word "Passover" will take you back in your
thinking to Exodus chapter 12. The Passover is a Jewish feast that the
Lord instituted back in Exodus chapter 12 that is still practiced by the
Jews to this day.
In the book of Exodus
the Lord came to Moses and told him that He was going to deliver His
people from their captivity in the land of Egypt, and in His deliverance
of His people God was going to demonstrate to the Egyptians His great
power through many signs and wonders. As Pharaoh refused to let Israel
go the Lord began to bring plagues on the land of Egypt, one after
another, showing Gods power over all creation. Exodus chapters 7 through
10 give us the details of nine plagues that the Lord brought upon
Egypt. From the water being turned to blood, to insect infestations, to
bodily disease, to hail, to complete darkness, the Lord demonstrated His
great power in the land of Egypt. But even after all of this Pharaoh
would not let the children of Israel go. So we read in Exodus 11:1 - "Now the Lord
said to Moses, "One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt;
after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will
surely drive you out from here completely."" And in chapter 12 the Lord
begins to introduce what He refers to as "the Lords Passover."
Exodus 12:3-13 - "Speak
to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month
they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their
fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. Now if the
household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to
his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them;
according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You
shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover,
they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and
on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do
not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted
with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now
you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals
on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in
haste—it is the Lord’s Passover."
This sacrificial lamb described in this passage is called "the Lords
Passover." The Lord goes on in verses 12-13 to give the reason why this
lamb is called, "the Passover." - "For I
will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you,
and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of
Egypt." So Moses instructed the children of Israel just as the Lord
commanded him. Exodus 12:21-23 - "Then Moses called for all
the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and take for yourselves
lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply
some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two
doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until
morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.""
Previously
we have looked at the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God and also as the
Door. In this title, our Passover, both of these titles of the Lord
Jesus are brought together. The Lord was passing through the land of
Egypt killing all the firstborn, but, as we often see, the Lord provided
a way of salvation. The Lord provided a substitutionary sacrifice that
through its death any who obeyed His instructions might be saved. They
were saved by the blood of the Lamb, but in order for that blood to save
they had to apply it to the door and then enter in. Christ is both the
Lamb, the substitutionary sacrifice by whose blood we are saved, and He
is the Door through whom we enter.
There
were several requirements that the Passover lamb had to meet. It had to
be a male of the first year, in the prime of its life. Christ was also
sacrificed in the prime of life. Not as a youth who had not yet come
into the height of manhood, nor yet as an aging man whose strength was
diminishing. Christ was scarified in the height of His human life.
The
Passover lamb had to be unblemished. No defects, no wounds, no spots,
no blemishes, the lamb had to be perfect. So Christ our Passover, 1
Peter 1 tells us, was "unblemished and spotless." This not referring to
His outward appearance necessarily, but rather to His person and
character. The Lord Jesus is perfect, holy, innocent, undefiled,
separate from sinners.
The
Passover lamb was not to have any of its bones broken. When the Lord
Jesus was on the cross in between two thieves, the Jews asked Pilate
that the legs of Jesus and the two thieves might be broken in order that
their bodies might not remain on the cross during the feast of
Passover. Because of the way that crucifixion works, having their legs
broken would cause them to die by suffocation. So the soldiers came and
broke the legs of the two thieves, but coming to Jesus they saw that He
was already dead. No one had taken His life from Him, He laid it down of
His own initiative. Having cried out in a loud voice He gave up His
spirit, and now, seeing that He was already dead, they didn't break His
legs, in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of Him shall be broken."
Even
in the timing of His death the Lord Jesus fulfilled the requirements of
the Passover. It was on the day of preparation for the Passover that
the Lord Jesus was crucified. We read in John 19:14-16 - "Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” So
they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate
said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered,
“We have no king but Caesar.” So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified." It was during the feast of Passover, when throughout the land of
Israel the Jews were killing the Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus was crucified.
It was at this very time that all these lambs were being killed that the Lord
Jesus, our Passover, was being put to death.
1 Corinthians 5:7 - "For Christ our Passover also has
been sacrificed."
All the Old Testament sacrifices were unable to
take away
sin. The book of Hebrews deals with this to a large extent. Since Christ
was sacrificed once for all He completed what
all those Old Testament sacrifices were pointing to. Does this mean that
everyone is saved because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed? Think
about
the first Passover back in Exodus 12. Just because the Passover was
killed was
everyone saved? No. They had to apply the blood to the door and enter
in. It wasn't enough to have one or the other, both were essential.
Seeing Christ as our Passover gives
us great insight into His sacrifice for us, but it also tells us that
there
must be a response from us. He isn't automatically "our Passover." He
is the Passover Lamb, but He must become my Passover.
The
Lord didn't want His people to forget the way that He had saved them in
the land of Egypt so He set up the feast of the Passover as a yearly
reminder. He says in Exodus 12:24 - "And you shall observe this event as
an ordinance for you and your children forever." So here's a question,
do we as Christians celebrate the Passover? The answer that we might
expect is no. And the thinking goes that the Lord Jesus has fulfilled
what all the Old Testament sacrifices and feasts point to, so we forsake
these Old Testament rites and cling to Christ. And that's true.
However, there is a sense in which we as believers are to celebrate the
Passover, and that is what the apostle Paul is talking about in the
immediate context of 1 Corinthians 5. The letter of First Corinthians is
largely a letter of correction, and in chapter 5 the apostle is
addressing the issue of sin in the local church. The Corinthian
believers were not only tolerating sin in the local body but, strange as
it may seem, they were actually boasting about it. And in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Paul writes - "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Clean
out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in
fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth." It's in this context of cleaning out sin, purging
evil in the body of Christ, that the Lord Jesus is introduced to us as
our "Passover." And we're exhorted here to "Celebrate the feast... with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." One of the things that the
Lord emphasized time and again when giving instructions concerning the
Passover was that leaven was not to have any part of it. Bread was a
part of the Passover, but it had to be unleavened bread. Bread was a
part of the instituted feast, but the Lord emphasized that it was to be
unleavened bread. And not only were they commanded not to eat anything
leavened during this time, but leaven was not even to be found in the
territory of Israel. We read in Exodus 13:6-7 - "For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.
Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing
leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you
in all your borders." And the consequences for the neglect of this
command were severe, Exodus 12:15 - "Seven days you shall eat
unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your
houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the
seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel."The Lord gives
no specific reason for this command, He simply says don't do it. There
is nothing inherently bad about leaven, however, in the Word of God
leaven often represents sin. That doesn't mean that every time we see
this word we should automatically associate it with sin, but in this
case we certainly should. Scripture interprets Scripture, and in 1
Corinthians chapter 5 the apostle Paul is pointing back to the Passover
in Exodus 12 and saying that just as leaven didn't have any place among
Israel after the Passover had been sacrificed, so sin doesn't have any
place among the church since Christ our Passover had been sacrificed.
"A
little leaven leavens the whole lump." Just as leaven works in a lump
of dough, sin works in the church. Sin in the body of Christ will spread
and defile every part. No believer sins in isolation. We are all
intimately connected to one another through Jesus Christ our head.
Therefore when sin is in one member all the other members are directly
affected. So we're told, "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a
new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened." We are to purge out sin
in the church in order that we might become in practice what we are in
reality. In reality we are unleavened, when God the Father looks at us
He considers us sinless, not because we are but because we have been
bought with the blood of Christ. Our sin has been applied to Christs
account and His righteousness has been applied to ours. So when God
looks at us He sees Christ. That is what is true of us. But the doctrine
of sanctification is becoming in practice what we are in reality. So
this passage says, since we are unleavened, let's get rid of any leaven
that might be among us. Let's become in practice what we are in
reality.
"For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Therefore
let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of
malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth." We are to follow the Biblical pattern. Before the Passover was
sacrificed the Jews were to get rid of any leaven. Christ our Passover
has already been sacrificed, therefore it is inconsistent that the
leaven of sin should remain among us. Get rid of any sin and celebrate
Christ our Passover by living lives of sincerity and truth. This is the
natural progression presented in the New Testament. You put off the old
and put on the new. Ephesians 4:22-23 says - "that,
in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self,
which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in
righteousness and holiness of the truth." Put off the old leaven of sin
and put on the new lump of sincerity and truth. Colossians 3:5-10 - "Therefore
consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him."
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