WE HAVE AN ALTAR!

The people of God are blessed with a degree of participation never known before the glorification of Christ Jesus. In salvation, we become capable of imbibing the Divine Nature--a requisite to eternal life.

"Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come." (Heb 13:9-14).

Devotion 7 of 12

THE TYPOLOGY OF THE PASSOVER

Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage is rich in typology. This is not coincidental. The redemptive purpose of God was the spiritual template for the deliverance of Israel. Their bondage was a type of enslavement to sin and death. The Passover lamb was a type of Christ. The blood of that lamb foreshadowed the means to remission and the ratification of the covenant. For purposes of this study, we will only consider the Passover lamb itself- particularly the eating of it.

The Passover Lamb Eaten

Each Israelite household was to have a Passover lamb. The size of the lamb, after meeting the other qualifications, was to be according to the eating capacity of the household. The lamb was to be entirely eaten, with none of it remaining. " . . . if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb" (Ex 12:4).

The appropriateness of this reference is seen in Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians. They were to observe a perpetual feast to the Lord in a state of moral and spiritual purity. Unfortunately, they had allowed Satan to delude them. Caught up in external displays, they had forgotten about purity. They had allowed fornication to enter their ranks, as well as inconsideration and contempt. Due to their contempt for the Lord's table, some of their number had even been stricken with illness, while others were in a state of deterioration. Under the judgment of God, some had even died because of their failure to properly remember Christ Jesus (1 Cor 11:26-30).

The Spirit reasons with the Corinthians about their real Passover. "Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed" (1 Cor 5:7, NASB). As with the Passover of old, the Lamb is to be consumed. We may not take a little of Christ here, and a little there, so to speak. He has not been given to us as a novel spiritual snack, but as sustenance for the "newness of life."

How succinctly Jesus stated the case to the people fed with five loaves and two fishes. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him" (John 6:53-56). The saying proved more than the multitude could take. Of that occasion, it is written, "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him" (John 6:66).

No part of the true Passover, Jesus, is to be left! No part of Him is to be discarded or treated as though He were, in any sense, irrelevant or inconsequential. Here is a sacrifice that cannot be divided as the sacrifices were under the law.

In harmony with the law for the priests, this Lamb is to be eaten in a state of purity, and within the holy place. The purity of reference is accomplished by God through the blood of Christ. As it is written, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Walking in the illuminating light of the knowledge of God (2 Cor 4:6), we experience a purity that qualifies us to ingest the Son of God. In the experience we obtain all of the benefits that resulted from the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood. God be praised for such marvelous provision.

Be sure that you are personally taking advantage of the fellowship of Jesus, into which God has called you (1 Cor 1:9). Keep the perpetual Passover in a state of purity, and in the presence of the Lord. Thus will you be ready to meet the Lord when he comes, and stand before Him in peace and purity.

PRAYER POINT: Father, thank you for a Lamb that is for all time and all times. I praise you through Him for giving me access to the sanctifying effects of His flesh and blood.

-- Tomorrow: CHRIST IS TO BE EATEN --