26:17-19 What is the significance of the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread for New Testament Christians?

(cp also Mk 14:12-17; Lk 22:7-16) The Passover concerns the events immediately preceding Israel’s deliverance from its four hundred and thirty years captivity in Egypt. It was instituted by God and celebrated by the Jews to commemorate being spared by the death angel on its way to kill all the firstborn of Egypt prior to the Exodus. The Passover involved the killing of an unblemished lamb by the Jews and sprinkling its blood on the lintels and doorposts of their houses. The blood of the lamb was a sign for the death angel to spare, or pass over the houses of the Israelites (cp Ex 12:1-14, 21-28).

There is rich prophetic symbolism here which points forward to our redemption through the blood of Christ. The Passover and the feast of unleavened bread were “a shadow of things to come” (cp Col 2:16-17). The Passover itself was an Old Testament type, of which Christ was the New Testament antitype (an antitype is the person or thing represented or foreshadowed by an earlier type, or symbol). The unblemished lamb sacrificed for its blood prefigured the shedding of Christ’s blood as the sacrificial lamb of God.

As the Passover lamb was a substitute sacrifice for the firstborn of the Jews, so Christ was the substitute sacrifice for sinners (cp Jn 1:29; 1Cor 5:7; 2Cor 5:21; 1Pe 1:2, 18-20; Rev 5:5-10). The sprinkling of the blood of the Passover lamb on the lintels and doorposts typified the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross. The sprinkling of the blood of the Passover lamb by the Old Testament Jews was done in obedient faith. This response of faith brought about redemption through the blood. Salvation through Christ’s blood is likewise obtained through the obedience of faith.

And as the blood sprinkled on the lintels and doorposts saved all the firstborn Jews, so Christ’s blood on the cross saves all repentant sinners (cp Eph 1:7; He 9:11-15, 22; 10:19-20; 13:20; 1 Jn 2:2; Rev 1:5). The eating of the Passover lamb represented the Jews identifying with the lamb’s death, a death which saved them from physical death. Similarly, partaking of communion represents the Christian’s participation in the death of Christ, a death which saves them from spiritual death (cp 1Cor 10:16-17; 11:23-26).

It is also significant that only unleavened bread could be eaten with the Passover lamb. In scripture leaven is used metaphorically to refer to sin and evil (cp 1Cor 5:1-8). The symbol of unleavened bread for New Testament Christians is to be without sin before God. As the Old Testament feast of unleavened bread represented the Jew’s separation from the corruption symbolized by Egypt, New Testament Christians must likewise be separated from the corruption and evil of the world (cp 2Cor 6:14-18;Jas 4:4; 1Jn 2:15-17).

We must repudiate all sin or we will be cut off from the covenant promises like the Old Testament Jews who ate leavened bread were to be cut off from the congregation (cp Ex 12:15). See also comments on Mt 26:26-29; 1Cor 11:20-22 and author’s study Communion in his book Foundational Truths of the Christian Faith.

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