1 Corinthians 5:7, 8 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened… What the Jews had, we have - only with fuller and richer significance. They had the foretastes, the shadows; we have the substance. The events in their history point forward to the greater events in ours. They had a Passover, and so have we; and theirs was a prefigurement of ours. I. CHRIST IS OUR PASSOVER. 1. He was typified by the Paschal lamb. Often called the "Lamb" (for example, John 1:29; Revelation 5:12). (1) Appointed by God Israel's Passover was "the Lord s Passover" (Exodus 12:27); "My sacrifice" (Exodus 23:18). Jesus is the "Christ," the Anointed of God. "It pleased the Lord to bruise him." Here is our confidence, that our Passover is the Lord's Passover, appointed and approved by the Eternal: "My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Salvation by the cross is God's plan of salvation; it must, therefore, fully commend itself to God. (2) Innocent. Here is the pathos of the cross. He died not for his sins, but for ours. He had not transgressed, but we had, and therefore he died. (3) Without blemish. "With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish" (1 Peter 1:19). Keen unfriendly eyes were upon Christ, but the reluctant verdict was "no fault." "Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). (4) Slain, Christ crucified. The converging point - "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." The Paschal lamb was slain by those for whose welfare and safety it was appointed; so Christ was crucified by men whom he came to redeem. No bone broken (comp. Exodus 12:46 with John 19:36). (5) The blood sprinkled. The blood shed is not enough, it must be applied. The blood of the Paschal lamb was applied with a bunch of hyssop, a type of "faith" which, though apparently small and insignificant, brings the blood of Christ into saving contact with the heart. (6) The flesh eaten. We have to feed upon Christ. "My flesh is meat indeed." The Passover was a feast; the idea of enjoyment is involved. So those who feast upon Christ obtain truest happiness. The Paschal lamb was eaten by the Israelites with loins girded, shoes on feet, staff in hand; so the followers of Christ, when they become such, confess themselves to be strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. The lamb was eaten in Egypt. So we are saved as sinners; we have not to come up out of the Egypt of corruption. We have not to get ourselves ready for Christ; we are ready when we are lost and desire to be found of him. Many are hindered by their "unworthiness;" they want to be holy before they seek salvation, which means that the patient desires to be cured before he sends for the doctor. And he comes to us; we do not come to him, - we are in Egypt when we first behold the Lamb of God. (7) The whole eaten. We have not to take a part of Christ. We have to accept the full terms of salvation, not those only that most please us. Christ and his cross as well as Christ and his crown. (8) Eaten with bitter herbs. So repentance should accompany faith. We should have bitter sorrow for bitter sins. Our sins were very bitter to him. We have never tasted sin fully - only a part of it, the sweeter part of it. He tasted the bitter part for us. 2. Identified with deliverance from wrath and bondage. (1) From wrath. The destroying angel was abroad, and smote every house unprotected by the sprinkled blood. So the wrath of God falls upon the rejecters of Christ, but those upon whose hearts and consciences the blood of Christ is sprinkled are preserved from the stroke of Divine justice. At the cross "righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10). The blood of the Paschal lamb made the Israelite perfectly safe; we are made so by the blood of Christ. (2) From bondage. The Passover and the Exodus are indissolubly united. So in our spiritual history. When God pardons, the bondage of Satan is destroyed. We are no longer slaves of the devil, but children of God. And this becomes manifested; justification and sanctification, joined by God, are not put asunder. We begin a new life; we depart from our old master; we "spoil the Egyptians," for we bring everything with us out of the old life that is worth bringing; and our faces are set towards the new Jerusalem, the everlasting home of the redeemed. II. THE INFLUENCE OF OUR PASSOVER ON OUR LIFE. At the Passover the Jews were exceedingly anxious to get rid of every particle of leaven (Deuteronomy 16:4); so all who can call Christ their Passover should search and purify their hearts. As the Feast of Unleavened Bread followed the slaying of the Paschal lamb, so the unleaven of righteousness, of godly life, should abide with all who have part in the great Passover. This is "keeping the feast." It is then a feast, a time of joy to the believer, when all leaven of "malice and wickedness" is excluded. The "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" is not only wholesome, it is surprisingly sweet. The influence of Christ's death is not only towards salvation, but towards holiness. If we are his we must depart from evil. We must have works as well as faith - the former a natural outcome of the latter. The one is not without the other - the Passover and unleavened bread go together. Profession by all means, but certainly practice as well. We must show that we are out of Egypt by a repudiation of Egyptian manners. "Christ our Passover;" "For to me to live is Christ." - H. Parallel Verses KJV: Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: |
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