Passover

As I type this it is sundown, April 5. It marks the beginning of Passover. Thirty-three hundred years ago, Jewish families placed blood of a sacrificial lamb on their doors. Moses tells us they put it on the top and two sides – making the sign of a cross. (Exodus 12)

Why the blood of the lamb? Why the cross? So that when the Angel of Death swept through the land of Egypt, he would ‘pass over’ those homes, and the firstborn inside would not die.

Christians recognize the Passover is a picture of what God the Father would do 1300 years later in Israel. He would sacrifice His only begotten Son – Jesus – who is called the “Lamb of God” who takes away the sin of the world.

When Jesus stained His cross with His own blood, He opened the means of the remission of sins to ALL who want God's forgiveness. In other words, God not only forgives the penitent of their sins, but He promises to FORGET those sins ever occurred.

But wait. There’s more.

The angel of death will eventually come for each of us. For some, soon. For others, later. But if the Angel of Death sees the blood of Jesus covering our homes – our ‘hearts’, so to speak – then we will not suffer eternal death. We will, in fact, live forever with God.

That’s surely one reason the apostle Paul wrote: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Freedom. That’s really what Passover is all about. Freedom from slavery to sin; Freedom from eternal death; Freedom to enter the true Promised Land – all because of the blood of God's sacrificial Lamb who takes away the sins of ALL who call on Him.

Is your ‘home’ – your heart – covered by the blood of Jesus? If not, then today, Passover 2023, would be a great time to ask the Father to do so.

He never refuses the truly penitent.