Christ, Our Passover

Writing to mostly gentile Christians in Corinth, the apostle Paul tied the quintessential Old Testament story with the essential New Testament event.

He showed how the deliverance remembered in the Passover was symbolic of the even greater salvation made available by the sacrifice of “Christ, our Passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

To understand the depth of this symbolism, consider the crucifixion of Christ in light of the story of the Exodus.

Slavery in Egypt

Genesis records how God brought Joseph into Egypt to preserve both his family and the Egyptians during a famine. God blessed the family there, and they grew into the 12 tribes of Israel.

But eventually, there was a new king in Egypt, who did not remember Joseph and what he had done for Egypt. This new king feared the Israelites and began to enslave and afflict them (Exodus 1:8-11).

The Egyptians “made their lives bitter with hard bondage” (verse 14). And when the Israelites continued to multiply, Pharaoh ordered that the boy babies be killed!

Jesus Christ was willing to pay our ransom, to redeem us from the penalty of eternal death. Decade after decade, the slavery continued. God then chose Moses and told him, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians” (Exodus 3:7-8).

God began to punish Pharaoh and the Egyptians for their murder and abuse and other sins.

Through 10 powerful plagues, God finally convinced the hard-hearted Pharaoh to let His people go. The 10th plague provides the background of both the Passover festival and its New Testament realization.

The threat of death

God warned the obstinate Pharaoh that at midnight all the firstborn of Egypt would die.

The children of Israel were told how to escape this plague. They were to choose a year-old lamb without blemish and keep it for four days. Then they were to kill the lamb at twilight and put some of its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their houses.

They were to roast the lamb and eat it, being sure not to break any of its bones.

If an Israelite family did not follow the instructions, their firstborn would also die.

The blood of the lamb

“Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).

The blood of the Passover lamb was instrumental in saving the lives of the firstborn and in freeing the people from hard slavery.

Imagine slaying the Passover lamb

You might think that in those days, killing a lamb wouldn’t have had a big emotional impact. For some, that might have been true.

But the Bible gives hints that for others, a lamb could be more than just another nameless animal.

Even for a battle-hardened soldier and a former shepherd like David.

Consider the story Nathan told David—and David’s response.

Nathan’s parable

“Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: ‘There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.

“‘The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds.

“‘But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him.

“‘And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him’” (2 Samuel 12:1-4).

King David, the hardened warrior—the man who had sent his loyal soldier Uriah to his death to cover up his sin with Uriah’s wife—was deeply touched by what happened to the little ewe lamb.

“So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!’” (verse 5).

Nathan’s reply was devastating: “You are the man!” (verse 7).

Through the lens of this parable, David was finally forced to confront the evil he had done.

As the injustice of the death of the lamb in Nathan’s parable helped David recognize the terrible impact of his own sin, the unfair death of “Christ, our Passover” should cut us to the heart about our sins.

New Testament parallels

From beginning to end, the New Testament identifies Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God.

Before Jesus began His ministry, John the Baptist saw Him and cried out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

The final book of the Bible also calls Him the Lamb 27 times. In God’s plan He is a Lamb who set His mind to be “slain from the foundation of the world,” making it possible for us to be written in His Book of Life (Revelation 13:8). In the end, He will rule from “the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:3).

In the context of our sin, the apostle Paul identified Jesus as “Christ, our Passover,” who was “sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

How does “Christ, our Passover” parallel the Passover lamb?

Slavery to sin

Like the ancient Israelites, who were trapped in hard bondage to their Egyptian taskmasters, we, too, have all been enslaved by sin. We have all sinned—broken God’s laws (Romans 3:23; 1 John 3:4; see “What Is Sin?”).

Sin is corrosive and destructive. It causes suffering and is the antithesis of God’s loving way of life.

As much as we might have wanted to be free from these wrong pulls and evil influences, Paul explained, we couldn’t free ourselves. We were “slaves of sin” (Romans 6:6). We were “carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14).

Like the ancient Israelites, without God’s intervention, we would continue in our slavery.

The sentence of eternal death

And like the ancient Israelites, our situation is a matter of life and death. If the Israelites hadn’t killed the Passover lamb and put its blood on their doorposts, their firstborn would have died.

Because of our sin, we also were facing death. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Christ, our Passover, the Lamb of God

Jesus Christ fulfilled the requirements and the role of the Passover lamb in every way. He was like a “lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). He fulfilled this by living a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15). Not one of His bones was broken (John 19:36).

And His shed blood made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins (1 John 1:7) and saved from the death penalty of those sins.

We are reminded of this deliverance in a vision John saw of powerful angels singing to the Lamb who had been slain:

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9, English Standard Version).

Jesus Christ was willing to pay our ransom, to redeem us from the penalty of eternal death. He was willing to pay the penalty in our stead.

Recognizing our role in the death of the Lamb of God

What incredible love! What a terrible injustice! The One who never sinned submitted to the penalty all the rest of us earned. Jesus Christ was willing to be beaten and to suffer an excruciating death for us—while we were still sinners. Understanding God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice should lead us to repentance—to change.

Seven weeks after the crucifixion and resurrection, a crowd that had gathered in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost confronted this truth.

When they realized they were responsible for the death of Christ—as we are—they “were cut to the heart.” They asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

The apostle Peter replied, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (verse 38; see “How to Repent”).

Remembering the Passover today

Paul’s comments to the Corinthians about “Christ, our Passover” help demonstrate that this mostly gentile congregation was well aware of the Passover and other “feasts of the LORD” (Leviticus 23:2, see “The Seven Feasts of the Lord”).

Later in his letter, Paul also repeated the words of Jesus Christ on the Passover before His crucifixion, introducing the New Covenant symbols of bread and wine to represent the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:23-25).

Back in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul continued with lessons from the related Feast of Unleavened Bread:

“Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8, emphasis added).

By observing the festivals of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the New Testament Church was obeying God’s commands and learning the spiritual lessons embedded in these meaningful festivals.

For further study, see “Should Christians Celebrate Passover?” and “Did Jesus Replace the Passover?”