THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #94 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #76
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3778
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #94
THE LIFE OF MOSES #76
Lessons From Passover #2
Yesterday we learned a difficult lesson- that Passover is a good illustration of the sovereign grace of God.
The firstborn of the Israelites were spared but not the firstborn of the Egyptians - not that the Israelites were less sinful than the Egyptians.
Both Israelites and Gentile Egyptians alike deserved the same punishment of death.
But in His sovereign love and grace, He had mercy for the Israelites.
Today we shall see that Passover shows another aspect of God - His implacable justice.
For atonement demands the death of a substitute - otherwise the firstborn must die.
THE SUBSTITUTE ATONEMENT IS CHRIST.
1.The Passover Lamb was the slain substitute.
It pictured the necessity of death and the shedding of blood as essential to atonement (12:6-7).
Death was the execution of justice (12:12).
Death is the earned end of sin; it is the debt that must be paid.
Many in Egypt paid their own debt and received their earned wages, but many others lived by virtue of the death of the substitute.
Justice demands the penalty, and the penalty for sin will be paid either in Christ or out of Christ. But one way or the other, it will be paid.
2. The Passover Lamb Must Be Perfect
As the Passover lamb was isolated from the tenth day to the fourteenth day (12:3, 6) to assure of its perfection, so Christ was under scrutiny from His birth until His death.
He lived under the law, in view of the world and before the Lord, demonstrating over and again that He was indeed holy and undefiled.
His perfect living qualified Him as the perfect substitute to pay for the sins of His people.
3. The Passover Lamb will succeed in warding off death.
The Passover demonstrated graphically that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22).
John witnessed Jesus on the Cross shedding His Blood until only water was left.
In the New Testament, all four Gospel writers give the account of the crucifixion of Jesus.
But John 19:31-34 mentions something not recorded in the other three:
“Then the Jews, since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath day was a great Sabbath), requested of Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other man who had been crucified with Him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that He had already died, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.”
Conclusion
The Lamb was a definitive substitute ( Exodus12:13, 23, 27) in atonement.
It was the perfect sacrifice for sin and death.
The sacrifice worked successfully; there was death everywhere except where the blood was applied.
The blood was the protective covering between God’s people and the curse.
The presence of the Blood caused the Lord to Pass Over and blocked the plague of destruction from entering.
As every blood-covered house was spared, so everyone covered with the blood of Christ is safe and secure.
No soul will go to hell if he or she has been saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ.
That’s the gospel, and it works every time.
