Bible Fact · 1 Corinthians 5:7 — 'Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.'
The Passover: History and Fulfillment
The Fact
The Passover (Pesach) commemorates the night God struck down the firstborn of Egypt while 'passing over' households whose doorposts were marked with lamb's blood (Exodus 12). Every year for over 1,500 years, Jewish families sacrificed a lamb, spread its blood, and ate a meal of unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and roasted lamb. The feast recalled God's redemption from slavery and anticipated his future rescue. At the Last Supper (the Passover meal of Nisan 14, approximately AD 33), Jesus took the bread and the cup and declared them his body and blood — reinterpreting the entire feast as pointing to himself. He was crucified the following day, as the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple (John 19:14). Paul writes: 'Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed' (1 Corinthians 5:7). John the Baptist had called Jesus 'the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' (John 1:29). The 1,500 years of Passover were a divinely arranged rehearsal for the real event.
Context
The Passover seder includes four cups of wine. Jesus took the third cup ('the cup of redemption') and declared it his blood of the new covenant — the cup the church now repeats in Communion.
Significance
Passover demonstrates that the Old Testament is not a different religion but the same story — God's rescue of his people — told in advance through symbols that Christ embodied perfectly.
Reflection
Every time you take Communion, you are participating in a ceremony rooted in a 3,500-year-old rescue story. How does that ancient depth change how you approach the Lord's Table?