1 Corinthians 5:8
Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.
So we must not celebrate our festivals with the
old yeast {of sin} or with the yeast of vice and
wickedness. Instead we must celebrate it with
the bread of purity and truth that has no yeast.
CELEBRATE LIFE!
We live in such a merciful day,
Created in God's love and grace;
We are washed free of all the sin,
We spent so much lost time in.
Every day anew
In the hope that is true,
For saints who are found
In the freedom of the Lord!
Every morning afresh
From the mercies of heaven,
Breaks through night with pure light
To remind us each day to celebrate life!
This is the day the Lord has made
Perfect in glory by His sovereign grace,
Even now, let us choose to make a joyful noise
Loving God with pure hearts as we praise and rejoice!
J. E. POLLOCK
FEB. 20, 2009
This is the day the LORD has made;
This is the day the LORD has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24
The confrontation between Pharaoh and Moses reached its climax in Exodus 11-12. The moment of the greatest destruction was also the moment of the greatest deliverance, as God struck down the firstborn of the Egyptians and rescued Israel from bondage. The Israelites were commanded to remember these events in an annual event called Passover. This feast of celebration was later transformed by Christ into the Lord's Supper or Communion (cf. Luke 22:15). At the Last Supper, Jesus deviated from the traditional Passover ceremony and used the cup and the bread to illustrate the significance of His own sacrifice (Luke 22:17-20). The apostle Paul also pointed to Passover to explain the practical implications of Christ's sacrifice: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (see 1 Corinthians 5). Like the original Passover lamb, judgment and deliverance were joined together in Jesus Christ. As the Passover lamb slain for us, Christ shed blood shields us from the wrath of God. Because Jesus suffered on our behalf, those who are in Christ have been delivered from the bondage of sin (2 Cor. 5:21). The Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated prior to Passover, when God's people removed all the yeast (leaven) from their homes (Ex. 12:15; 13:6-7). For Paul, this custom symbolized the church's obligation to maintain a standard of purity among its ranks through personal holiness and the exercise of church discipline (1 Cor. 5:8-13). Christ has made us a "batch without yeast." We are holy in God's sight because of the Cross. Through self-examination, personal repentance and corporate discipline, the church reflects in practice what is true of it in position. Christ's sacrifice absolved us of the guilt of sin but did not eliminate sin's presence in our lives. Instead, Christ's work empowers us to "put to death the misdeeds of the body" by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13). Just as the first Passover delivered Israel from slavery, Christ our Passover has broken the back of sin and has rescued us from its bondage. We are still capable of sin---but are no longer compelled to be its slaves (Rom. 6:12-14).
