From “Feast of Tabernacles,” Chapter 2- The Feast of Passover, continued
A LAMB FOR AN HOUSE
Our Passover Lamb is sufficient for all our needs. And though men have appropriated His grace and blessing from the foundation of the world even until now–still there remaineth grace sufficient for any sinner who comes to Christ. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; the ye, always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.” (2 Cor. 9:8).
THE LAMB TO BE WITHOUT BLEMISH
This was necessary because it typified the true “Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” (Jn. 1:29). “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Pet. 1:18, 19).
THE LAMB MUST BE KILLED
Modernism will accept the Lamb of God as He teaches in the temple, lives a life of righteousness and purity, and expounds His parables. But they will have nothing to do with the Lamb who was crucified for their sins. And therefore the door of salvation is closed to them. For there is positively no acceptance for any man before God except by the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul, and “without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Heb. 9:22).
THE BLOOD MUST BE APPLIED
It is not even sufficient that the lamb should be slain; the blood of the slain lamb must be applied to the door-posts of the house. In other words, there must be an individual and personal appropriation, by faith, of the work of the Cross. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (Mercy Seat) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”. (Rom. 3:25, 26).
THE FLESH MUST BE EATEN
Jesus said, “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.” (Jn. 6:53-55). It was a hard saying then, and it is a hard saying today. How can we eat the flesh of Christ? So reasons the natural man. But we can do so by the Spirit, through faith. We may eat His flesh in daily meditation and appropriation of the Word. We may eat His flesh in prayer and communion by the Spirit. And we may eat his flesh as we discern the Lord’s Body in the Communion. Jesus said, and incidentally it was on the occasion of the last Passover, “This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me.” (Lk. 22:19). For He was the fulfillment of every Passover Lamb which was ever offered in Jewish ceremony; and the Substance having been revealed, the type has passed away. GHW
What a rich lesson on the Passover Lamb! There is no doubt that the New Testament writers made the connection between the Passover Lamb and Jesus, the Lamb of God. Charles Wesley, the great hymn writer and brother of John Wesley, also made this connection and penned the following hymn titled, “Calvary.”
1 Lamb of God, whose bleeding love
We now recall to mind,
Send the answer from above,
And let us mercy find.
Think on us who think on Thee,
Every burdened soul release;
O remember Calvary,
And bid us go in peace.
2 By Thine agonizing pain,
And bloody sweat, we pray,
By Thy dying love to man,
Take all our sins away;
Burst our bonds, and set us free,
From iniquity release;
O remember Calvary,
And bid us go in peace.
3 Let Thy blood by faith applied,
The sinner’s pardon seal;
Speak us freely justified,
And all our sickness heal;
By Thy passion on the tree,
Let our griefs and sorrows cease,
O remember Calvary,
And bid us go in peace.
Late Harvest Wesleyan Ministries 