Theological Term of the Week

Passover
A festival of Old Testament Israel commemorating the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of the Egyptians, when God instructed them to spread the blood of a lamb over the doorposts of their homes, and he would spare their firstborn sons, while every other firstborn son in Egypt died. This event and it’s commemoration prefigured Christ’s sacrificial death, so Christ can be called “our passover” in the New Testament.

• From scripture:

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. [22] Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. [23] For the LORD will pass through to strike 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 enter your houses to strike you. [24] You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. [25] And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. [26] And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ [27] you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

[28] Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. (Exodus 12:21-28 ESV) 

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? [7] Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:6-7 ESV)

• From The Atonement: It’s Meaning and Significance by Leon Morris:

Passover may not be the leading New Testament category by which to interpret the atonement, but it is certainly one of the subordinate strands in New Testament thinking. What the Passover sacrifice signified for the Jews, that and more Christ’s sacrifice has done for the Christians. It emphasizes the thought of deliverance, deliverance from a powerful enemy. Because Jesus died as a Passover sacrifice those who trust in Him are no longer subject to the forces of evil. They have been delivered. They are free. 

And Passover reminds us that we are members one of another. Passover was a corporate observance, a feast to be celebrated in the company of others. Both in the Old Testament and in contemporary Judaism the Passover was to be observed in companies. The observance stressed the truth that God’s salvation is not a purely individual experience. The deliverance from Egypt marked the birth of a nation, the emergence of the people of God. The deliverance on the cross marked the emergence of the true Israel, the people of God in more than a merely national sense. Now the people of God are plainly seen as all those who have been delivered by Christ, from whatever nation they may come. They belong to God and to one another in the fellowhip of the redeemed people of God, for “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” (1 Cor. 5:7, AV).

Learn more:

1. The Bible: Exodus 12
2. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry: What is Passover?
3. GotQuestions.org: What are the different Jewish festivals?
4. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Feasts and Festivals of Israel
5. John Stott: The Meaning of Passover (audio)
6. R. C. Sproul: The Passover (audio)

Related term:

• Lord’s Supper
• redemption
• sacrifice
• substitutionary atonement
• typology

Filed under Salvation

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Status Report: March

Sitting…at my desk.

Drinking…the bottom bits of my last cup of coffee for the day.

Planning…my day. I want to do my weekly house cleaning plus make supper for my son’s family. So why am I still at my desk writing a status report? Good question; no good answer.

Feeling…sorry that my oldest granddaughter is sick. Her family has a new baby, a recovering mother, and now a sick (and needy) toddler. 

Also feeling…pleased that March is here. The days are bright; it’s light past suppertime; even if it’s cold in the morning the sunlight is strong enough to make the afternoons warm.

Wondering…yet again, why we do daylight saving time here in the Yukon. It doesn’t help us in any way that I can tell except that it keeps us consistent with the rest of North America—except, of course, for (quoting Wikipedia) “some regions in Québec … most of Saskatchewan, Southampton Island and some areas in British Columbia” and “Arizona (except the Navajo Nation Comunity [sic]) and Hawaii.” Why can’t we be like them?

Today I took the dog for a walk at 7:30 am and  it was light. Next week it won’t be. See? Daylight savings time is stupid. 

Thinking…that I should take this opportunity to remind you to move your clocks one hour forward before you go to bed this Saturday night—unless, of course, you live in “some regions in Québec … most of Saskatchewan,” etc.

Planning…to remodel my kitchen this spring/summer. It has had nothing done to it, except new flooring and new paint, since we moved in in 1984. It has needed new counter tops and new cupboards for 15 years or so, but the time has never been right for it.

And now it is. I’m excited—and apprehensive, too. How will I live without a kitchen, even for a short period? 

Reading…A Puritan Theology by Joel Beeke and Mark Jones. I am reading above my level on this one, but I like to do that once in a while.

Getting…up to clean the house.

Wishing…you a blessed March.

Round the Sphere Again: Lambs Pointing Forward

The Passover Lamb
Don Carson writes on the Passover—the first one, during the last plague in Egypt—and shows the parallels between what happened then and what happened when Jesus, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed (For the Love of God).

Lamb of God
R. C. Sproul traces the idea of the the Lamb of God through the Old Testament (Ligonier Ministries Blog).