Nearly 2000 years ago, God sent His Son to live among men. Much like all men, He was to also die. His death, however, was unique, for He was the Lamb of God, sent to be the sacrifice for sin. Unlike the blood of bulls and goats of the Old Testament sacrifices, however, the blood of this New Testament sacrifice not only grants us forgiveness for sins we have committed, but frees us from the bondage of sin in which we were enslaved, as Bro. C. Eldon McNabb writes in this month?s featured article...

By C. Eldon McNabb, Bible Guy

Just before the children of Israel (Jacob) left Egypt, God commanded them to begin a new ritual, which was to be an annual observance forever. They were to kill a lamb for each family, take the blood and sprinkle it upon the lintels and door posts of their houses. Then, they were to prepare it with other special items and eat it for supper the evening of the 14^th day of the 1^st month. From that evening they were not to eat any bread which had leaven in it for seven days.

God told them that the death angel was coming through the country that evening, and if they did not perform this ritual all of their firstborn would die, together with all of the firstborn in Egypt. The Lord told them further that if they were obedient, "The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." (Exod. 12:13)

This is just another one of the things which happened in the Old Testament which were instituted by our heavenly Father to foreshadow the "good things" in the New Testament era.

When the Apostle Paul had heard of a serious moral offence in The Church of God at Corinth, and it was apparent that the rest of the church had sort of "let it pass," he reproved them severely. In so doing, he mentioned some important facts concerning the Feast of Passover.

He said, "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." ( Cor. 5:6-8)

We see, then, that the early disciples continued to keep that feast of the Lord, even though they did so with the changes instituted by Jesus at the last Passover before his crucifixion. Second, the O.T. observance was accompanied by a week during which none of the children of Israel ate bread with leaven in it. (Paul shows us here that the leaven typified sinfulness.) If a people kept the Feast of Passover before Christ, it did not make them spiritually clean and sinless, but now God has added a new factor. The natural lamb has been replaced by the spiritual lamb: the Son of God. Christ our new passover lamb has been offered as a sacrifice for our sins, and now we are washed, now we are clean. (1 Cor. 6:11) Third, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ effects a change in the heart of the devotees and enables them to live without offence to God.

One of the spiritual flock had reverted to sinfulness and was endangering the entire flock.

Paul reminded them that the kind of behavior mentioned was not acceptable, neither was it unavoidable. We are now able to resist temptation and have victory over sin, because "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us."