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CHRIST OUR PASSOVER
CHRISTIANITY affords us not only new grounds of hope, but also new motives to action, yea, the only motives that are capable of giving an uniform direction to our conduct. The arguments derived from the excellency of virtue, the fitness of things, or even the certainty of rewards and punishments, never could produce any effects comparable to those, which have been wrought by the exhibition of a crucified Saviour. St. Paul, well knowing the efficacy of this topic, proposed it on all occasions. If he would enforce the duties of love, beneficence, or zeal, the love of Christ was both his pattern, and his plea. Thus, in the passage before us, having enjoined the Corinthian Church to excommunicate their incestuous member, he reminds them of the sacrifice of Christ; and, in allusion to their accustomed method of eating the Paschal Lamb, exhorts them to celebrate the Christian passover with becoming purity, both as to outward discipline, and inward affection. In considering his words we shall notice,
I. The representation here given of Christ—
Christ is here said to have been “sacrificed for us”—
[Sacrifices were appointed of God from the very fall of Adam as means of conciliating his favour, and expiating any offences which had been committed against him. The creatures sacrificed were put to death, and were always considered as dying in the place of the offender, who, by his transgression, had forfeited his life to divine justice. Precisely in this way has Christ been sacrificed for us: “he died, the just for the unjust;” he was put to death not merely for our good, but in our stead: and in his sufferings we may behold a figurative representation of what we had merited by our transgressions.]
In this view he is called “our Passover”—
[The paschal lamb was sacrificed in a peculiar manner, and on a most extraordinary occasion. God had determined to destroy the Egyptian first-born, but to spare his own people: He appointed the Jews to kill a lamb, to sprinkle its blood upon the door-posts, and to eat its flesh roasted with fire, taking also with it some bitter herbs [Note: Exo_12:3-9.]. Upon their due observation of this ordinance God promised to interpose for their deliverance, and not to suffer the destroyer to involve so much as one of them in the common ruin. Thus are we obnoxious to the wrath that is coming upon the ungodly world: but Jesus, that spotless Lamb, has, on the very same month, day, and hour, that the passover was first killed, and in the midst of most inconceivable agonies both of body and soul, yet without the breaking of a bone, been slain for us [Note: Exo_12:46. with Joh_19:33; Joh_19:36.]; and we are by faith to sprinkle our hearts with his precious blood: we are also to feed upon his body and blood; and, in so doing, are as sure of the divine protection as if we were already in heaven. Though “thousands should fall beside us, and ten thousand at our right hand, the sword of the avenger should not come nigh us.”]
That we may rightly improve this glorious truth, let us consider,
II. The exhortation grounded upon it—
While the occasion of Christ’s death affords us ground for the deepest humiliation, the deliverance effected by it should ever be remembered with joy—
[The Jews were commanded to “keep” an annual “feast” in commemoration of their deliverance from the destroying angel [Note: Such a feast is the Lord’s Supper to us: as they fed on the Paschal Lamb, so do we on the body and blood of Christ, represented to us in the bread and wine.]. And, as their feast was a memorial of the mercies they had received, so is ours to be, to the latest generations. Indeed our whole lives should be kept as a holy solemnity, because we are daily and hourly experiencing the saving virtue of the Redeemer’s blood.]
The peculiar manner in which the Jews were to observe their passover, was a figurative representation of the manner in which ours also should be observed—
The Jews were enjoined on pain of death to forbear the use of leaven, and to put it out of their houses for seven days [Note: Exo_12:15; Exo_12:19.]: and they were to eat the lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Thus is the leaven of sin to be purged out of our hearts with the greatest care; and while we feed by faith on the spotless Lamb of God, we must partake also of the bitter herbs of repentance and “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” As for the “old leaven” of Gentile uncleanness, or of Jewish pride and malignity, it must be wholly put away: the scrupulosity with which the Jews searched and swept their houses to purge out all leaven, is an admirable pattern for our imitation. A sincere desire to know the will of God, a full and unreserved determination to do it, together with a corresponding meekness in our spirits, purity in our thoughts, sincerity in our words, and integrity in our actions—this, this is the Christian temper; this is the frame in which our whole lives should be kept as a feast unto the Lord. Moreover as the Jews were to eat the passover in haste, with their shoes on their feet, and their loins girt, so must we be in a continual readiness to go towards the promised land.]
From this most instructive subject we may observe—
1. How plain is the way of salvation!—
[Ask of every one that was saved that night, To what he was indebted for his preservation? Would there be two opinions throughout the whole nation of Israel? Would there be so much as one that would ascribe it to his own wisdom, or power, or goodness? No, not one. All without exception would say, I owe it to the blood of the Paschal Lamb sprinkled upon my door-posts. That was God’s ordinance: and by the observance of that alone I was kept from the sword of the destroying angel, who was constrained to pass over every house where that blood was seen. Let us then see ourselves doomed to perish on account of our sins; but, through the application of the blood of Christ to our souls, preserved from death: and we have a perfect view of the Gospel salvation. Nothing can be conceived more simple or more intelligible even to the meanest capacity.]
2. How beautiful is the Christian life!—
[It is one continued feast; a feast upon the body and blood of our great Sacrifice [Note: Joh_6:53-57.]. True, it must be eaten “with bitter herbs.” But who is there amongst us who does not need to have his joys tempered with penitential sorrow? It must be eaten too “with unleavened bread:” for if there be in us any allowed guile, we can never hope to escape the wrath of God [Note: Psa_32:2.]. We must eat it also with our loins girt, and our staff in our hands, ready every moment to proceed on our journey to the promised land. Compare this state with that of those who were to be left behind in Egypt, wholly ignorant of these high privileges, and altogether destitute of these exalted hopes: truly of the Christian, whoever he be, it may well be said, “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord [Note: Deu_33:29.]?”]
3. How certain and glorious is the effect of faith!—
[The whole that was prescribed to Israel was one act of faith. The killing of the sacrifice, the sprinkling of its blood, the feeding on its flesh, the uniting with it the bitter herbs of penitence, and the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and the habitual readiness to depart, were all, I say, one act of faith. And of its success we are fully informed. Of the whole nation not so much as one was lost. If any one had refused to comply with the appointed ordinance, he would have perished: but in all Israel not so much as one was slain. So, beloved, it shall be with you, if you live by faith upon the Son of God. Sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, than the least or meanest of true believers shall perish. Be assured of this; and you shall have even now a foretaste of the blessedness that awaits you in the worlds above.]