The Uncommon Christ: OUR PASSOVER, LAMB SLAIN, GREAT & LAST SACRIFICE

The Uncommon Christ series explores lesser-known scriptural names and titles for Jesus Christ.

Around 1500 BC in Egypt, the enslaved Israelites were promised that they would be passed over by the angel of death if they followed a specific set of rituals. This included killing and roasting an unblemished lamb, painting its blood around the home’s doorframe, and eating the lamb with special herbs and bread. Indeed, all who trusted His word were miraculously delivered from death and the next day were freed from bondage.

Every spring Jews around the world still commemorate that deliverance in the Passover festival.

Passover, as performed anciently, is also considered by many to be a Christian celebration because of its many symbols of the Savior. Perhaps most significantly, He can be seen in the innocent, unblemished sacrificial lambs. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Christ, our Passover [lamb], was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Because of His willing, pure, and perfect Atonement, we will be passed over by the effects of the Fall and our personal sins.

The Apostle John described Christ as "the lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). The strengthening, cleansing power of the Lamb of God was retroactively efficacious before He completed the Atonement, before His birth, even before the earth’s creation—for it was "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of [our] testimony" that we overcame Satan and won the war in heaven (Rev. 12:11, emphasis added). Somehow, astoundingly, His foreordination as Savior, along with the absolute certainty of His future success, was enough to satisfy justice until Resurrection morning dawned.

Before that glorious day, God’s children centered their faith on the fact that He would, whereas we need faith that He did.

Christians no longer sacrifice lambs, for Christ taught that He fulfilled that law with His own blood. He was “that great and last sacrifice" (Alma 34:14) “who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Because of Jesus Christ’s willing, pure, and perfect Atoning sacrifice, we’ve each been passed over. What does that mean to me?

That I’ve been set free!

I am loved.

Death is not the end.

Sin can be erased.

Satan has no real power over me.

I am never alone or abandoned.

There is hope and purpose in my life.

Hallelujah! [Praise the Lord!]