On the night of the original Passover, when the Israelites left Egypt after slaying the lamb and painting the doorposts with its blood, one thing was clear to all who were ‘exodus-ing’ – they were no longer under the PENALTY of Egypt! And rightly so – God, through the blood of the lamb, had freed them. Delivered them. And Egypt would no longer make them pay through their sweat and tears. They wouldn’t be punished any longer. No more bondage!
Ironically, what they thought was a death trap actually became for them the birthing room of new life. That’s why, in the Passover meal, we take things like salt water and green parsley and remember the toil associated with it, knowing that it was exactly in their salty tears that they were granted new – “green” – life! They were not penalized with death in Egypt under Pharaoh; they were granted new life through Yahweh! Deliverance! Freedom!
Fast forward more than 2000 years to the night Jesus was arrested in the garden. His sweat, blood and tears on that road to, and including, the cross – his death trap – became our birthing room! Supernaturally, we have new life through his death. The result? We don’t have to die! Oh, you may enter eternal life via the door way of physical death, but those in Christ will not die a forever death in hell because Jesus took our hell for us. He drank our salt water, and we burst forth with new "green" life!
This is exactly what he was telling Mary and Martha about their brother Lazarus in John 11 when he said, “He that believes in me shall never die!” Wonderfully, once you are in Christ, you are not under the penalty of sin, which is death (Eph. 2:8). God delivers you from it through Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb!
This is just one of the ways Christ fulfills in the New Testament the promises God gave in the Old Testament. Until Christ, God did this perpetually. He promised new life through the death of the lamb; they got initially at the Exodus, perpetually it at the Passover. He promised no penalty once the blood was applied; they got it initially at the Exodus, perpetually at the Passover. It was an annual thing, you see. No doubt a good thing, but still a perpetual thing.
But when Christ died at that final Passover as the Lamb of God, God fulfilled the promise of deliverance from sin’s penalty permanently. He was the final sacrifice who went through the agony of punishment and death so we could experience the thrill of freedom. This is what his death was all about – deliverance from the penalty of sin (1 John 3:8)
The author of Hebrews says it this way – “…as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (9:26)
Jesus went through sin’s penalty -- death -- so you wouldn’t have to. Jesus endured the cross so you wouldn't have to. Jesus paid the price so you wouldn’t have to. He is our Passover Lamb, and as a result, we have new life!
This is just one of the ways Christ fulfills in the New Testament the promises God gave in the Old Testament. Until Christ, God did this perpetually. He promised new life through the death of the lamb; they got initially at the Exodus, perpetually it at the Passover. He promised no penalty once the blood was applied; they got it initially at the Exodus, perpetually at the Passover. It was an annual thing, you see. No doubt a good thing, but still a perpetual thing.
But when Christ died at that final Passover as the Lamb of God, God fulfilled the promise of deliverance from sin’s penalty permanently. He was the final sacrifice who went through the agony of punishment and death so we could experience the thrill of freedom. This is what his death was all about – deliverance from the penalty of sin (1 John 3:8)
The author of Hebrews says it this way – “…as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (9:26)
Jesus went through sin’s penalty -- death -- so you wouldn’t have to. Jesus endured the cross so you wouldn't have to. Jesus paid the price so you wouldn’t have to. He is our Passover Lamb, and as a result, we have new life!
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