In Old Covenant times, Jews had to kill a lamb every year, sprinkle the blood on the door posts, and remember the time the angel of death passed over their ancestors' houses in Egypt sparing the life of their firstborn when the angel saw the blood.
It had to be observed annually, at the start of their agricultural year, in the set month, and they had to bring of the seasonal harvest.
And they had to make pilgrimage to the altar at Jerusalem, where a Levite priest would receive their offering - an animal, and the grain of the harvest, etc.
Following that they had to eat unleavened bread, and remember their ancestors eating unleavened bread when they fled Egypt. I could go on with more details.
Firstly, notice how much of that cannot be carried out today.
In the Southern Hemisphere, it isn't Spring in Nisan, it's Autumn! We can't offer the grain - we're still sowing our seed at that time of year!
My ancestors were never in Egypt. So I can't 'remember' when my ancestors experienced the original Passover, nor remember when they fled eating unleavened bread. They never did!
Not to mention the non-existence of the altar today.
And the non-existence of Levitical genealogies required to authenticate the priests.
And the fact God, in Christ, on the cross, eliminated the need for blood sacrifices.
Christ became the true Passover, sacrificed for us.
The wages of sin is death, but the blood of His Son who was sacrificed for us, covered our sin, so death could pass over all who believe and not touch us.
His blood is represented in heaven, like a true altar, in the heavenly Jerusalem, mount Sion, after being physically spilt for us in Jerusalem on the cross.
Thus He is our Saviour!
Instead of eating unleavened bread, we purge out old fleshly behaviours from our life, and live sincerely and honestly.
We experience the new life daily, permanently, not only annually on set days. Christ made one new man in Christ once-for-all, to last forever.
The harvest represented the resurrection - first of Christ, then of us at His coming. We are raised with Him already spiritually even now.
It's a once-for-all reality, and we can also remember Him as often as we gather, not just yearly or seasonally.
The Prophets already told Israel that remembering the Exodus from Egypt would no longer be the thing!
See there are so many ethics embodied in Christ, and in us in Him, in a real way - ethics which existed in the ancient Feast only in an illustrative way.
So we don't have to keep the ancient Feast - because we experience the reality which it modelled. We live-out all of its ethics in a new and living way.
We're not under the Law - yet we fulfil the Law!
It had to be observed annually, at the start of their agricultural year, in the set month, and they had to bring of the seasonal harvest.
And they had to make pilgrimage to the altar at Jerusalem, where a Levite priest would receive their offering - an animal, and the grain of the harvest, etc.
Following that they had to eat unleavened bread, and remember their ancestors eating unleavened bread when they fled Egypt. I could go on with more details.
Firstly, notice how much of that cannot be carried out today.
In the Southern Hemisphere, it isn't Spring in Nisan, it's Autumn! We can't offer the grain - we're still sowing our seed at that time of year!
My ancestors were never in Egypt. So I can't 'remember' when my ancestors experienced the original Passover, nor remember when they fled eating unleavened bread. They never did!
Not to mention the non-existence of the altar today.
And the non-existence of Levitical genealogies required to authenticate the priests.
And the fact God, in Christ, on the cross, eliminated the need for blood sacrifices.
Christ became the true Passover, sacrificed for us.
The wages of sin is death, but the blood of His Son who was sacrificed for us, covered our sin, so death could pass over all who believe and not touch us.
His blood is represented in heaven, like a true altar, in the heavenly Jerusalem, mount Sion, after being physically spilt for us in Jerusalem on the cross.
Thus He is our Saviour!
Instead of eating unleavened bread, we purge out old fleshly behaviours from our life, and live sincerely and honestly.
We experience the new life daily, permanently, not only annually on set days. Christ made one new man in Christ once-for-all, to last forever.
The harvest represented the resurrection - first of Christ, then of us at His coming. We are raised with Him already spiritually even now.
It's a once-for-all reality, and we can also remember Him as often as we gather, not just yearly or seasonally.
The Prophets already told Israel that remembering the Exodus from Egypt would no longer be the thing!
See there are so many ethics embodied in Christ, and in us in Him, in a real way - ethics which existed in the ancient Feast only in an illustrative way.
So we don't have to keep the ancient Feast - because we experience the reality which it modelled. We live-out all of its ethics in a new and living way.
We're not under the Law - yet we fulfil the Law!
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