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that night , roasted; wi th unleavened
bread.... you shall eat it in haste.
It
is the Lord's passover.
Fo r I will pass
through the land of Egypt tha t
night , and
I
will smite a ll the first–
born in the land of Egypt, both man
and beast. ... The blood sha ll be a
sign for you, upon the houses where
you a re; a nd when
1
see the blood,
J
will pass over you. and no plague
sha ll fall upon you to destroy you,
when
I
smite the land of Egypt'"
(Ex. 12: 1- 13).
There is much to learn from the
symbo lism of the Passover servi ce.
Jesus Himself is called " the Lamb of
God" in the New Testament (John
1:29, 36; Rev. 5:6, 12, 13). Paul ,
s pea king of Jes us, wrote: ' 'For
Christ, our paschal [Passover]lamb,
has been sacrificed"
( 1
Cor.
5:7).
lt
is obvious then that the Passover
service ofancient Israel was intended
to depict the sacrifice of J esus Christ
which was to occur many centuries in
the future. J ust as the blood of the
Passover lamb was shed on behalf of
the sinful children of Israel, so the
blood of Christ was shed for all of
mankind. Those who came under the
blood of the Passover lamb- that is,
had it smeared on their doorposts–
wcre exempted from d ivine wra th.
Today, Christians a re "bought with a
price" - the blood of Christ
(I
Cor.
6:20; Acts 20:28).
T hose of us who come under the
blood ofChri st will also escape divine
wrath. " Fo r the wages ofsin is death.
but the free
gift
ofGod is e ternalli fe"
(Rom. 6:23). lt is by God's grace th at
Christians may claim the blood of
Christ. lt is through faith in that blood
that we are justified, though we are a ll
sinners.
Read carefully Romans 3:23-26.
which explains how this justification
comes through faith in the blood
sacrifice of the Son of God. God
passes over our guilt and forgives us
because Jesus paid the death pen–
a lty in our stead. Through Christ,
and His sacrifice, we are regarded as
" righteous" before God.
Each year the Church of God ob–
serves the Passover to symbolize
and renew the covenant made by
each Christian wi th God at the time
of baptism. Each year we a re re–
minded of our need for faith in
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1978
Christ's sacrifice- the
only
means by
which we can be justified in the face
of our own sinfulness.
Jesus' lnstruction
The " Lo rd 's Supper" o r "the Last
Supper" which J esus a te with His
disciples was actua lly a Passover
mea!. Justas God rested on the Sab–
bath day, no t because He was tired
but to set an example, so Jesus kept
the Passover to set an example for
the Church . He Himself had no
need o f redemption since He had
never sinned
(Heb.
4:
15).
But He did eat the Passover mea!
and changed the symbols for the
sake of the practice of the Church.
"Now as they were eating, Jesus
took bread, and blessed , and broke
it. and gave it to the disciples and
said , 'Take, eat; this is my body.'
And he took a cup, and when he
had g iven thanks he gave it to them.
saying. 'Drink of it, all of you; for
this is my blood of the covenant
[sorne manuscripts contain the word
" new"], which is poured out fo r
many for the fo rgiveness of sins' "
(Ma tt. 26:26-28).
All of this was in the context of
the Passover mea! (verses 17-19).
Paul's lnstruction
The apostle Paul showed that this
practice of taking bread and wine to
symbolize the body and blood of
Ch rist was to con t inue in the
Church throughout the ages. Speak–
ing of the above-mentioned events.
he wrote to the congregation a t
Corinth: " Fo r l received from the
Lord what I a lso delivered to you,
that the Lord Jesus on the night
when he was betrayed took bread.
and when he had given thanks. he
broke it, and said, 'This is my body
which is for you.
Do this in remem–
brance of me.'
In the same way also
the cup, after supper, saying, 'This
cup is the new covenant in my
blood.
Do this,
as often as you drink
it, in remembrance of me.' For as
often as you eat this bread and
drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord's death until he comes"
(I
Cor.
11 :23-26).
The service of the bread and wine
is celebrated
annually
si nce the
Passover occurred only once a year.
Unleavened bread is used because
tha t is what was used at the Pass–
over service (Ex. 12:8). Wine, rather
than grape juice, is a lso used since it
is obvious tha t " the fruit of the
vine" was fermented. In Paul's day
sorne were
abusing
the Passover ser–
vice, sorne eating a full mea l, sorne
ac tually getting
drunk
on the Pass–
over wine (I Cor. 11 : 17-21 ). [Editor's
note: The Bible nowhere condemns
drinking ofalcoholic beverages
perse.
In fact, there a re occasions where the
use of alcohol is actually encouraged
(see Deuteronomy 14:26,
I
Timo thy
5:23). But
drunkenness
is absolutely
forbidden. No drunkard shall inhe rit
the kingdom of heaven
(I
Cor.
6: 10).
Fo r more on this subject , reques t our
free reprints "Aicoho lism- A World–
wide Curse" a nd " ls Drink ing a
Sin?")
Foot-washing Service
In addition to the bread and wine
service, Jesus, immediately foll ow–
ing the Passover mea!, a lso insti–
tuted the foot-washing service, a n
o rdinance ofhumi lity (John 13).
Fo r the modcrn Church of God
the annual Passover observance has
deep meaning.
It
is th e most solemn
occasion of the year. Each member
is encouraged to examine himsclf
and remember the high price which
was paid to redeem each of us. Pas–
sages from the Gospel accounts a re
read , and the men and women go
separately to the foot-washing ser–
vice before returning for the re–
mainder of the meeting.
Jesus commanded the Church
to
continue
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prac tice the New Testa–
ment Passover. The apostle Paul
confirmed the necessity of it. And
today's Church observes this bibli–
cally sanctioned ordinance in the
spring of each year , because it is the
Lord's
Passover!
Just as the weekly Sabbath de–
picts and commemorates God's act
of creation which commenced the
plan of salvation, so the annual
Passover service pictures God's next
vital act in tha t plan. Since sin en–
tered the world by Adam, the "sec–
ond Adam" (Christ- I Cor. 15 :45)
offered Himself in sacrifice for the
sins of the first- and for all of his
desceodants: " ... so one man's act
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