July 1932
T h e
308
K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
e PASSOVER'
m
B y I. M. HAJJDEMAN New Y o Î k TN. Y.
rn fter the blood of the Passover lamb was applied, the people were to feast inside the house on the slain lamb. “ And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it” (Ex. 12:8). Applying the blood on the outside of the house and feasting on the slain lamb inside the house go together. We must not only claim the sacrifice of Christ as our deliverance from death, but we must feed on Him daily as the One who was sacrificed for us. There is a great deal said today about “ going back to Christ.” The only Christ to go back to is the Christ o f the cross, a sacrificial Christ. It is on the fact and basis of that sacrifice that we are to live as Christians. We are to appropriate and make it a part of our daily experience. Our Lord has taught this Himself: “ For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. . . . As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:55-57). The daily appropriation of Christ as our sacrifice, by faith feeding on the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, so contemplating the sacrificial revelation of God on the cross for our salvation that the consciousness of His love and the unfailing grace of Christ shall become a part and parcel o f our very being, as much a part of us as the beating of our heart—that is eating the flesh and drinking the blood; that is feeding on Christ and building up the soul in the fiber of divine life. After the lamb had been slain and the blood sprinkled, it was taken into the house and the door shut. Then the lamb was put upon a spit; that is to say, the wood was run through the body till it actually hung upon a cross—a cru cified lamb. Here is the truth set before us in this wonderful object lesson. We are not to feed upon the perfect life of Christ as He walked the earth, but upon a crucified Christ. Here you have the inspired application by the Apostle Paul: “ For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2 :2 ). The fire that enveloped and roasted the crucified lamb has been antitypically fulfilled (cf. Lam. 1:12-14). God sent down fire from above, the fire of God’s wrath due us. That fire burned so into the depths of His soul on the cross that He cried out: “ I thirst” (John 19:28). F eeding on the L amb for S trength T he children o f Israel were to feed on the crucified and roasted lamb, not that they might be saved from death, but have strength to get out of the land. *Second in a series of two articles.
Salvation has two sides: deliverance from death, and deliverance from the world; as it is written: “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world [age]” (Gal. 1 :4). It is by the blood we are delivered from the judgment of death. It is by feeding constantly on the Crucified that we find strength to come out and be separate from the world. Feeding on the slain lamb gave the Israelites strength to take their journey out of Egypt. Feeding on an atoning, sacrificial Christ gave us the strong Christians of the olden time. The failure to feed on the atonement of Christ is what gives us the weak, uncertain Christianity of today. A vicarious Christ makes a vigorous Christian. If the children of Israel had not eaten of the slain lamb, they would have run no risk of death, but becoming too weak to escape from the land, they would have remained the bondslaves of Pharaoh. Today there are those who have confessed Christ and Him crucified, have taken shelter under the blood of the cross, sincerely believe; but they do not feed on Christ. They are little taken up with Him. They have believed and accepted the fact that they are saved. Failing to feed on Christ, scarcely ever reading the Word of God, study ing the Holy Scriptures never, they have no spiritual strength. Christ does not minister to their daily expe rience. They have Christ as a Saviour, but not as a daily companion, an invisible but conscious presence. They have Christ, but He is not sufficient. They want Christ and something else. They are not able to move away from the world and its attractions. They listen -to the voices of the world calling them. They loiter. They have not power to go out and away from the land of Egypt, from its tem ples, its pleasures, its deceitfulness, and presently they are bound hand and foot. Bought with the blood of the Lamb and entitled to be Christ’s freemen, and yet bond- slaves of Satan, living at his will in the world! E ating w ith girt L oins and S taff in H and T he children of Israel were to eat this Passover with their loins girded. A girdle is everywhere recognized as the symbol of service. This was the object of Israel’s redemption, not only salvation, but service, and service for God. “ And thou shalt say unto him [Pharaoh], The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 7 :16). We are redeemed and saved as Christians that we may serve God: “ Now being made free from sin [from the penalty and guilt of sin by reason of the death of our Substitute], and become servants of God” (Rom. 6:22).
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs