Before freeing His people out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt, God poured out His wrath on the Egyptians as Pharaoh continued to refuse to let the Israelites go free. He sent plagues of locusts, flies, gnats, frogs, blood, and a number of other plagues. When Pharaoh continued to harden his heart and still refused to let God’s people go, God then passed through the land of Egypt and struck down the first-born of people and animals in every household. Before He did this, God provided a way to ensure that His people would be spared. Through Moses, God instructed the Israelites to slaughter an unblemished lamb for each household and then spread the blood across the lintel and doorposts of their homes. Because their homes were covered by the blood of the lamb, God passed over them and death did not enter their homes (Exodus 12:23).
The Passover sacrifice provides a very clear picture of the sacrifice that would later be made by Jesus for all of us to free us from the bondage of our sin and give us eternal life. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We are all sinners and deserving of the penalty of our sins, but God’s desire was that we should be spared that punishment. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to take our place. Jesus was our Passover Lamb. He was unblemished, without sin, and He became the sacrifice for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). He made the way for spiritual death to pass over us and enabled us to have eternal life with God, but there is action required on our part.
Just as the Israelites were required to cover themselves with the blood of the lamb by spreading it on their lintels and doorposts, so we must cover ourselves with the blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb. In order to be covered by His blood, we must believe that He is the Son of God. We must believe that He died for us and that God raised Him from the dead. We must accept Him as our Lord and Savior and follow Him. And, we must turn away from the sin that bound us. When we do this, God’s gift of eternal life is given to us (Romans 6:23).
The gift of eternal life is ours to accept or reject. We can choose to believe in Jesus and receive eternal life, or we can reject Him. But, when we reject Him, we will not see eternal life because God’s wrath is still on us (John 3:36). We can’t earn eternal life through good deeds or by living a good life. It is a gift that is offered to us by God because He loves us and wants us to have it. But, the choice is ours. Choose life through belief in Jesus, or death by rejecting Him. From where I stand, the choice seems easy.
A Worshiper's Journal 