Passover means 'a passing over', taken from the night of protection for the Israelites when the avenging angel overwhelmed the Egyptians. For the believer, receiving Christ as the Lamb of God, The Passover Lamb is the beginning of The New Covenant Relationship with God their Creator. The believer in Christ passes from death to life.

Jesus is unique and in a peculiar sense was God's only begotten Son, His essential co-equal, higher than created creatures, for whom was prepared a body that was delivered up and whose substitute sacrifice was accepted.

The Lamb of God was a title given to Jesus by John The Baptist, but chosen by God. "Behold The Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world". John 1:29

A lamb sacrifice progressed in Scripture from a man (Isaac), a nation (Israel), then to the world. Jesus was an emblem distinguished for the things a lamb of sacrifice is to exhibit.

• A lamb is an image of innocence - Jesus had no deceit and was free of all guilt. His nature was spotless, His life being perfect, His conduct unblameable. He had not suffered one sinful weakness or infirmity.
• A lamb is a representation of vulnerability, meekness, patience and sin-bearer - Humbleness was displayed through Jesus' life, He had been despised, mocked and insulted. It had been predicted, "He is led as a lamb to the slaughter'" Isaiah 53:7. He was led before priest, Pilate, Herod's court, to the Cross and on the Cross.
• A lamb is a form of usefulness and a means of exchange - The lamb was a costly but useful creature, its flesh was meat and its wool furnished clothing garments. Jesus provided His flesh and blood, the best robe, a righteous-salvation wedding garment. Jesus is The Lamb of God by His obedience and death. He took away the curse of sin from the world; the world guilty, wretched, helpless and condemned.

Jesus magnified The Law in His life, endured the curse by being made a curse for humankind; "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." Galatians 3:13. His voluntary sacrifice bore humankind's sin in His own body. For this He was born, lived and died on a tree, (The Cross) that He might suffer "the just for the unjust," to bring humans to God.

Sin is taken away by His justifying grace, the forgiveness of sin on the condition of receiving Christ by believing in who He is. By believing in Him, believers are justified freely from all things, sins are blotted out and remembered no more. By the application of His blood a believer's conscience is cleansed and sanctified and obtain appropriate readiness for eternal glory.

• Jesus was typified by both the Passover Law and daily sacrifices of the Law. The Passover Lamb especially was the same in respect to Him, being without spot or blemish, being taken out of the fold, being taken 10 days, then set apart for an extra four days, slain in the midst of the assembly, not a bone broken, its blood delivering the people of Israel from the destroying death angel throughout Egypt, which was the tenth plague from God upon the pagan nation.
• Jesus was holy, the perfection of life, He was selected for this purpose, He was set apart being four days in the promise before His death and entered Jerusalem four days before He was crucified in the midst of the assembly of Israel. He endured the scorching shaft of Divine distribution and in His blood is redemption for humankind from the wrath to come; He took the penalty for others. The wrath of God is a righteous reaction of a Holy God against sin.
• Exodus 12:46 The Passover Lamb was not to have any broken bones. The Roman solders broke the legs of the two thieves that were crucified with Jesus to hasten death but because they found Jesus already dead, His legs were not broken. Men unwittingly fulfilled God's Word.

It is Jesus' substitutionary death and not His life that brings salvation. The blood must be shed for the evidence of death. Salvation is through the threefold name of The Lord Jesus Christ, just as the salvation from the avenging angel was through the blood applied threefold on the two side posts and lintel on every door of God's people in Egypt. No one was to go outside the blood sprinkled door by the commandment of God or there was no guarantee of safety. The believer's security is also to stay under the covenant covering blood in the Body of Christ. Disobedience to this causes the sin of presumption.

The Passover was the first event of the first month of the beginning of the religious year. The Passover Lamb was signified as the firstborn lamb, set aside and given to The Lord. The setting aside is first after the natural and then God's firstborn, which is spiritual (first in the fleshly physcial birth are sinners and after spiritual birth are redeemed believers). Jesus as The Passover Lamb was the Firstborn of the new creation, being those of the second birth.

The Passover Lamb was to be sacrificed in a place where God would record His own Name. Sacrificial lambs were costly and the best had to be chosen. The Passover Lamb was to be a memorial meal to remind Israel of their release and freedom from the bondage of Egypt. Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper as a memorial of deliverance from the bondage of sin.

To eat of the Passover Lamb only the circumcised Israelite was to partake in the eating of it. Any uncircumcised stranger, foreigner or employee could not do so. To partake of The Lord's Supper a person who has had a true circumcision that is of the heart after the spirit, is a believer that is born again from above.

Jesus' substitutionary death was an act of love. How low Jesus stooped and humbled Himself, Immanuel God with us. A life of self-denial, yet of miracles, mercy and grace but He suffered reproach.

The sin of humankind brought Him from Heaven and put Him to death. "As Moses lifted up.....so I will be lifted up" John 3:14,15. "They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced". Zechariah 12:1 and Revelation.

The substitutional death of The Lamb of God was necessary for the penalty of sin, was incomparable to all other deaths, was of infinite and eternal value, was of divine accomplishment, was retrospective, was complete and final.

Behold the Lamb in His Resurrection from the tomb, once dead but alive again forevermore, the Spoiler of the Grave, The Resurrection and The Life.

The whole world will behold Him at The Last Day and believers shall behold Him in His glory forever.

The Book of Revelation speaks of Jesus as The Lamb of God twenty-eight times. The Lamb of God signifies the substitute redemptive character of Jesus' death in the context of believing humankind being saved from the wrath of God.

The Lamb of God is upon the Throne. The Lamb of God is worthy to execute Judgement. The Lamb of God is the Bridegroom of The Church.

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Managed by Stefan Kreslin, Last updated August 2017