A Christian’s Understanding of the Passover VS Easter
When I was younger, I regarded Easter as a religious holiday. Then I was called into a church where I had to considered dropping Easter and to keep the Passover. I had to determined in my mind what was right and what God would expect me to do. The first thing that I had learned was that the word Easter was not in the Hebrew translations. The word Easter was inserted in the King James translation in place of the word pasha which means Passover. Pasha or Passover is mentioned about 26 times in the New Testament, yet the churches and denominations in the world love the Easter holiday, with its dyed eggs and bunnies which have nothing to do with Christ’s resurrection. I had to learn and know both Passover and Easter in a more understanding way, rather than to say Easter is a misprint or was wrongly inserted and translated into the English language. I would not be satisfied until I learned what was the purpose and meaning behind both holidays.
Easter
Easter is a joyful time of the year for many Christians and has been promoted by motion pictures and TV which has nothing to do with Christ and the resurrection. The death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection is an historical event which became a reality when Jesus, God’s anointed and God’s Christ, willingly offered His life as a ransom for all sinners and those who are believers of the term “The Good News.” According to the gospel, the story doesn’t end there. God raised Jesus from a position of death to a term referred in scriptures as resurrection. Death had no victory over Him. This should be the exaltation of all Christian believers around the world. They should learn the hows and whys in order to believe that Jesus Christ paid the penalty of death in the place of all mankind. Allelula, because He lives, we will live also.
There are many scriptures which speak of Jesus’ death. Isaiah 53:12 ; Amos 8:9 ; Mark 15:21-41 ; Matthew 27 ; and Psalm 16:10 says “For Thou will not leave my soul in hell; Neither will thou suffer Thine Holy one to see corruption. The joy of Christ’s resurrection is very appropriate.
Websters Dictionary says of resurrection: a rising from the dead, or the coming back to life.
Passover
Passover is a celebration of freedom. When the nation of Israel was found to be in bondage in Egypt under Pharaoh, Moses was sent to deliver the people from Egyptian slavery. According to the Torah, that event did happen.
There can be no resurrection without a death having taken place? No! It would take a Godly power to raise one who had been dead back to life. What does death have to do with the celebration of freedom anyway? To understand the Passover, we would need to go back to a time before the Nation of Israel was in captivity.
Garden of Eden
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one mans sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men because all have sinned.
Verse 14 says that all who are of the similitude of Adam are under a death sentence. so all mankind is subject to Adam’s death sentence.
Romans 5:17, “For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.”
This is the gospel and the good news for those who have faith and call upon Jesus Christ. Although the Passover of old under the leadership of Moses is called a celebration of freedom, it didn’t last. Why?
Deuteronomy 29:4, “Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see and ears to hear, unto this day.
This is the reason the Apostle Paul says in Hebrews 4:1 and verse 11 that we need to labor in order to enter into God’s rest. Labor in what way? 2nd Timothy 2:15, righty dividing the word of truth.
Christians Today Are Given a New Heart
We read above that because of Adam’s sin, we were all deserving of a death sentence. God had pity for His name, which was profaned among the heathen wherever they went, Ezekiel 36:21.
. Ezekiel 36:22, Therefore say unto the house of Israel, “Thus says the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O House of Israel, but for Mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen whether ye went.”
Verse 26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 27, and I will put My spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and My judgments and do them.”
The people who Moses delivered from Egyptian bondage said in Exodus 19:8, “All that the Lord hath said we will do.”
The people didn’t know God or know themselves. They had no idea that the stony heart within them had to be removed. Only God could bring about this kind of heart transplant. The freedom that they once had experienced under Moses was only temporary because of the hardness of their heart and the spirit they had obtained from birth that had to be replaced with a new spirit. Where is this heart and spirit going to come from?
Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him shall ye harken.”
This prophet is none other than the promised seed mentioned in Genesis 3:15, expounded in Isaiah 7:14, and brought to birth in Matthew 1:25, last part of verse, and he called His name Jesus.
The death sentence placed upon mankind through the fall of Adam, was brought to the cross by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Because of the sacrifice by Jesus, all the sins of man were placed upon Him to furnish redemption for all mankind, thereby making peace between God and man.
God our Father accepted Jesus Christ as our redeemer because He was a perfect sacrifice and did all His Father’s will. Christ,because of His dead position, was raised in resurrection by the Spirit of God to life including all those who have the same faith and hope who will follow His example. Jesus did His part in the redemption of all mankind but He tells His followers what He expects of them.
We Must Carry Our Own Cross
We can’t give of our physical life like Christ did but we are told that we have to carry our own cross as Jesus carried His.
John 19:17, And He bearing His cross went forth into the place called the place of the skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.
We all know that the skull houses the brain and thought process for the body.
Matthew 10:38, “And he that taketh not his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39, And he that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loses his life for My sake shall find it.”
What is being spoken of here is the natural man, inherited from Adam, our old man. This old nature of ours needs to be eliminated and we need to be filled with His Divine nature. Then Christ will be the head and will have authority over those who are formed into His body, His disciples.
Ephesians 4:22, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 24, And ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
All the gospels say the same thing concerning that we need to bear our own cross as Christ bore His.
When we believe the gospel, the Good News, and are joined to Christ we can’t help wanting to empty our old nature and follow after Christ’s example. With Him we have a fleshy heart and a new spirit which enables us to overcome our old man and put on the righteousness of Christ.
The Passover under Moses freed the people from bondage and Egypt but did nothing to free them from the nature that was within them. With this information we can understand why they were not pleasing to God. They never had the opportunity to be pleasing to God and obeying His laws and commands, but we, who are followers of Christ, with a circumscised heart and a new spirit, understand the joy of Christ and the resurrection. We are dwellers within the house with Christ, not on the outside of the house looking in as those who are content with Easter Sunday and their choosing not to be involved with the workings of God.
1st Corinthians 5:7, “Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
The world rejoices on Easter Sunday because Christ has risen from the dead, not seeing that Jesus Christ has made peace between man and God because of Christ carrying His cross and we willingly carry our cross.They also, not seeing that to enjoy true freedom. we need to allow God to bring about a new creation of mankind in His children, with a new heart as well as a new spirit.
2nd Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, (creation), old things have passed away; all things have become new.”