NTS Christ our paschal lamb

“For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians ch5 v7)

The teaching of the New Testament centres upon what Jesus achieved when he died upon the Cross. The key point is that something was done about the problem of sin.
Since this was a unique event, it can’t be explained without metaphor.
One such metaphor identifies him as the New Testament’s Passover lamb.

That is prompted, of course, by the fact that his death took place during the Passover season.
According to John’s Gospel, he was crucified on the day of “preparation” for the Passover.
In other words, on the same day that the Passover lamb was killed. Almost the same time.
John also makes the connection more explicit, by taking the Exodus instruction (that the bones of the lamb should not be broken) and applying that to Jesus as a prophecy (ch19 v36).

John has to be right, incidentally, about the day of the crucifixion.
If the Last Supper on the previous night had been a true Passover meal, then all the activities which followed the meal would have been legally impossible.
Everything from Judas going out “to buy food”, through to the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus, would have been taking place in the middle of the high Sabbath (as distinct from the weekly sabbath), which commenced just before the meal was eaten.

Paul was probably writing to the Corinthians before John’s Gospel was written, so his own use of the phrase “paschal lamb” shows that the church was already making this connection.
His application of the image has a particular purpose.
He has been rebuking the Corinthians for their indulgence towards immorality, urging them to drive it out of the community.
He reminds them of the proverb that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump”, the equivalent of our own proverb that “one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel”.
Then, perhaps inspired by the near approach of the Passover season, he compares this necessary cleansing to the ritual of preparing for Passover by eliminating leaven from the household;
The point of his allusion to the sacrifice of the lamb is in the timing of the event, in the schedule of preparations for Passover.
It is almost the last thing that happens before the feast begins.
So if Christ, our lamb, has already been sacrificed (on the Cross), then the Passover cleansing of leaven is obviously overdue, and they must be running out of time.
The community needs to be ready to meet their God.
“Let us celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians ch5 vv6-8).

For the more general significance of the Passover lamb, we need to look back to the well-known story in Exodus.
God’s people needed to be saved from the power of Egypt.
The climax of the campaign against the Egyptians was that God “let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation and distress” (Psalm 78 v49).
Moses was given warning in advance;
“I will pass through the land of Egypt that night” (Exodus ch12 v12).
Then he was given instructions about the Passover lamb.

The function of the lamb was to protect the Israelites from what was happening to the Egyptians. Each household was to sacrifice a lamb (“from the sheep or from the goats”) and then touch some of the blood on their doors;
“For the Lord will pass through to slay 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 slay you” (Exodus ch12 v23).
In other words, it protected the Israelites from the wrath of God, by identifying them as God’s people.
Would their God not have known them anyway? Yes, of course, but then there would have been nothing to tell the Israelites they were being identified as God’s people. It was a visual aid.

The implication of the “Lamb” analogy is that the death of Christ has the same function as the blood of the Passover lamb.
God’s people are troubled by an adversary. In this case, the great adversary is the unrighteousness of the world, the whole complex of sin-and-death which arose out of the events in Eden.
There is an expectation of God’s wrath against unrighteousness.
There is a need that God’s people should be protected against his wrath.
That will be the function of “the blood of the Lamb”, which is shorthand for “the fact that Jesus died”.
That is, our association with his death identifies us as God’s people, and therefore keeps us under God’s protection.

The imagery of the sacrificed lamb is also associated with redemption metaphors.
We have been ransomed “by the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter ch1 v19).
In one of the scenes of Revelation, he stands in the form of a slain Lamb to be praised by every creature in heaven and earth; “for thou was slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God” (Revelation ch5 v9).
Another song declares that “the accuser of the brethren” (representing the judgement of their sin) has been conquered “by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation ch12 v11).
These themes are intertwined. We are identified as God’s people Israel by accepting what he has provided for our redemption.

Therefore the function of the paschal lamb is to identify and protect God’s people in the promised time of judgement.
They are protected by the fact that the death of Christ on the Cross has dealt with the problem of sin.

The paragraph beginning “John has to be right…” is a very condensed version of the essay “The day of the crucifixion” in B.F. Westcott’s “Introduction to the study of the gospels”.
If Jesus was not expecting to survive that day, it would be impossible for him to celebrate the Passover with his disciples except by arranging a substitute meal on the previous night.
So the Last Supper was designated as a “Passover” meal, but the lamb would not have been available for the table on that evening.
This helps to explain the anomaly (which always puzzled me, in childhood) that the words “This is my body” were spoken over the bread. I was told that the purpose was to identify the speaker with the paschal lamb, so they should have been spoken, strictly speaking, over the lamb itself.

“This is my blood” is a different metaphor with a similar purpose. It refers back to the ceremony in Sinai which sealed the original covenant between God and Israel. Oxen were sacrificed, and their blood was collected. Moses threw half the blood over the altar, and the other half over the people, declaring “Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you” (Exodus ch24 vv3-8).
The words of Jesus are evidently adapting the words of Moses; “This is MY blood of the covenant.” Or, in some manuscripts, “my blood of the NEW covenant”. (Matthew ch26 v26)
The message is that his death, like the death of the oxen in Exodus, makes him “the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews ch9 vv15-21).
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So “this is my body” and “this is my blood”, between them, have the effect of identifying Jesus with the paschal lamb of Exodus ch12 and the covenant ox of Exodus ch34.
The common factor is the new corporate relationship between God and his people.
Those who share in the body of the lamb and in the blood of the ox are announcing themselves as participating in the new relationship.
And in both cases, the death of the mediator is the event that makes it all possible

N.T.S. stands for New Testament Salvation.
This thread is one of a series, and I wanted to mark the fact without making the title too cumbersome.
The series is a sequel to, and the consummation of, the older series on Old Testament remedies for sin.
In that series, sin is defined as a relationship problem; the human will is out of alignment with the will of God.

a reply to: DISRAELI

One such metaphor identifies him as the New Testament’s Passover lamb. That is prompted, of course, by the fact that his death took place during the Passover season. According to John’s Gospel, he was crucified on the day of “preparation” for the Passover. In other words, on the same day that the Passover lamb was killed. Almost the same time.

According to John 1:29: John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" This would be 3 years before the crucifixion. It wasn't an observation made afterward. Even if the apostles didn't realize what was going on, the Bible describes Jesus trying to explain it to them in the lead up to the Passion.

a reply to: toms54
Indeed, and I quoted some of the explanations of Jesus in the previous threads;
"This is my body which was given for you..."
"The Son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many..."
etc.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Most excellent posting the title and message....I gotta say

The Spirit is moving this morning.......caught your pen first....me just now at 4 in the am....

Dis, baby.....you must be east of Dallas......!!!!how cool huh

I just received a huge picture of God's view and the nuts and bolts of his Creation ....like the mechanics of how He can fix anything but zHe wants us to ask........coz He is sworn to hands off in the Devil's bargain.!?!!!

I'm awestruck big time...opened the word and Bam......Psalm 1.......kept reading till Psalm 3 and fell over with a new vision

a reply to: GBP/JPY
I'm not just east of Dallas. I'm also east of Newfoundland, by a considerable distance.

I knew.......cool I gotta look that up on the map and history page

originally posted by: DISRAELI
“For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians ch5 v7)

The teaching of the New Testament centres upon what Jesus achieved when he died upon the Cross. The key point is that something was done about the problem of sin.
Since this was a unique event, it can’t be explained without metaphor.
One such metaphor identifies him as the New Testament’s Passover lamb.

That is prompted, of course, by the fact that his death took place during the Passover season.
According to John’s Gospel, he was crucified on the day of “preparation” for the Passover.
In other words, on the same day that the Passover lamb was killed. Almost the same time.
John also makes the connection more explicit, by taking the Exodus instruction (that the bones of the lamb should not be broken) and applying that to Jesus as a prophecy (ch19 v36).

Well then, I apologize for my error. When I read the portion of your commentary quoted above, I took that to mean the concept of Christ as our paschal lamb was derived from the dates of the crucifixion. We both know it goes much deeper than that. I guess you were saying "prompted" in the sense of "reminded." As I reread it, it still looks a little ambiguous.

a reply to: toms54
Shall we say that the date of the crucifixion was what made it possible for the disciples to see the specific Passover connection?
Jesus had talked about his death, which might have been compared with several kinds of sacrifice- the Baptist had called him the Lamb, which might have been taken as a reference to the daily Temple sacrifice. But the date of the event made it impossible not to notice the paschal reference.

This continues a series which began with
Christ died for the ungodly

The most recent thread in this series is God is faithful

The most recent thread in this series is;
If anyone is in Christ