As Christians all over the world celebrate Passover, it is important for every believer in Christ to sit back and reflect on the significance of this event, which marks the greatest spiritual battle strategy ever executed in the history of humanity, and remains the death knell to the power of evil in every realm of existence.
Not all believers who would be singing, dancing, eating and drinking in the ‘joy’ of Passover understand what Jesus Christ meant when He shouted “It is finished” as He hung on the Cross before He gave up the ghost. The tragedy of the Christian life is that one may be born again, sins washed with the blood of Jesus, but still live on this earth defeated, not having the power to live above sin and the devil. Why is this so?
Before we provide the answer to the above question, let us first lay the background to the story of the Cross. The festivity, known all over the world as Easter, has an archetype in the Old Testament scriptures and it points to the deliverance of the children of Israel from 430 years of Egyptian slavery and bondage (Exodus 12).
The height of it was the night each family of the Israelites was directed by Moses, acting on the instructions from God, to sacrifice a lamb without blemish and apply the blood on the lintel and two door posts of their house. That night, the angel of death moved on the land of Egypt and killed every firstborn of every Egyptian family, passing over the houses with the blood of a lamb on the lintel and two door posts.
The same night, the Israelites embarked on their final journey out of Egypt, marking the end of their oppression in the hands of the Egyptians and their tortuous journey to freedom and final possession of the land promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the land of Canaan – which the Israelites have occupied till today.
Christ on the Cross also has an archetype in the Old Testament scriptures. It is in Numbers 21, where the children of Israel disobeyed God in the wilderness, during their journey to the land of promise, and God sent fiery serpents which bit the people, resulting in the death of many. And when they realized their sin and prevailed on Moses to ask God for forgiveness, Moses was instructed to make a serpent of brass and set it on a pole and whoever was bitten by the snake and looked upon the brass serpent on the pole, would live and not die.
Significance Of The Cross
It is not news to many believers that the lamb sacrificed by the Israelites on the night of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt foreshadowed Christ who died on the Cross, securing the deliverance of every believer from sin and its consequences. What may be news to some believers that many who have confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, having their sins forgiven and washed away, remain under the grip of sin nature – manifesting in sinful habits, crying daily to be free from this quagmire. Many also have died while in this struggle, leading some to conclude that it is not really possible to be free from sin in this life. This is the crux of the matter.
Look And Live
Let it be understood from start that the Cross ended our struggle with sin once and for all. Until the believer knows this fact by revelation, not by head knowledge, he or she would continue to fall and rise. It is Truth that sets free. It is the revelation to the heart of the believer of what Christ accomplished on the Cross that frees the individual from the power of sin – not merely knowing the event in the head.
That is why an individual may be genuinely born again, sins forgiven, but still finds himself or herself being taking down by sin now and again. It is because the person has not truly “seen” the brass serpent on the pole, that is, Christ bearing the sin of the world on Himself and nailing it to the Cross forever, never to exercise power over any believer again.
Christ did not die and rise to save us halfway. He saved us completely. The answer to the question: is it possible to live on the earth without sin after being saved by Christ is, YES. No one who catches the revelation of what Christ accomplished on the Cross would go on sinning. So, any born again child of God celebrating Passover but still struggles with sin, does not understand the Passover by revelation.
This Is The Catch
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, the seed of iniquity was planted in them and through them to all humans who descended from them. This is the mystery of iniquity that has ravaged humans from age to age. It is called the Flesh or the Old Man. It is the hard drive of sins – this is what gives birth to actions that people commit as sins.
It is this hard drive that Christ removed and nailed to the Cross. If you do not have a revelation of this, you will go on yielding to it and committing sins. It is only when you have a revelation of this mystery that you can resist sin whenever you are tempted to commit it, knowing that the hard drive – the Flesh, the Old Man, root of sin – has been removed from your heart and nailed to the Cross.
This is the Passover. This enormous power released on the Cross for your freedom is not at work yet in you if you are still struggling with sin. You would only be an object of mockery to the devil if you are celebrating Passover with singing and dancing, without being free from sin, even though your sins are forgiven each time you confess them to God. The awareness by revelation of the meaning of Passover is what gives you the gumption to say “No” to sin.