1 Corinthians 5:7 says that “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us”

Paul said that Christ is our Passover.  Thus, we can learn about Christ by learning about the Passover feast.  Let’s consider it in Exodus 12.

Now, there is much in this passage which pertains to Christ.  The imagery is so rich, and there are many parallels between the Passover lamb and our Lord and Savior. But today, let’s look at the roasting of the lamb. Starting in verse 8, it says:

“Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.  Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire”

So many of the animal sacrifices commanded by God were boiled.  But here, God twice commanded that the lamb be roasted.  Why is that?  In this case, why is fire more appropriate than water?

Deuteronomy 4:24, 9:3, and Hebrews 12:29 say that “God is a consuming fire.”  Indeed, when God first appeared to Moses, it was in a burning bush.  God spoke to Israel out of fire atop Mt. Sinai, as well.  And when Elijah confronted the pagan prophets in 1 Kings 18, God answered by fire.  “Our God is a consuming fire.”  This “fire” points to His perfect holiness, like unto the refiner’s fire which purifies silver.  And this fire likewise points to God’s wrath upon sin.  Consider the great number of Scriptures in which His wrath is revealed by fire:

Gen. 19: God sends fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

2 Kings 1: God sends fire from heaven to consume Elijah’s enemies.

 

Psalm 50:  “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him”

 

Psalm 68: “As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.”

Ezekiel 24:  God speaks of His vengeance:  “Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.”

   2 Thess. 1: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God”.

 

 

And there are many more Scriptures which speak of God’s fiery wrath upon sinners.

 

Christ is our Passover, and He was roasted by the fire of God’s wrath.

 

Even in Gethsemane, the flames of God’s wrath started taking vengeance upon sin, as Christ stood in our place.  He had great drops of blood fall to the ground, not unlike the Passover lamb’s drippings into the fire[*], caused as the heat of the flames began to scorch the victim.

 

In preparation for the roasting, the Passover lamb had been skinned.  The Jewish Talmud says that iron hooks or nails were fixed in the walls and pillars, on which nails they hanged up and excoriated, or flead the lamb.  Christ, too, was hung up, as the merciless whip of a Roman soldier tore away his flesh.

 

Then, when the lamb was roasted, it was not turned upon a bar of iron. Rather, it was transfixed to a spit made of wood. In fact, we learn from Justin Martyr that “The roasted lamb was made into the figure of a cross, by impaling . . . from head to tail, and then from one shoulder to the other with a skewer, on which last were extended the fore feet, and thus it was roasted.”  The Passover lamb was attached to a cross of wood, and roasted by fire.

 

The lamb was roasted, and the Angel of Death passed over the Israelites.  And because Christ, our Passover Lamb, was roasted, God’s wrath has passed over us.  We deserve hell.  But we have escaped it, because “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” 

 

 

In Ezekiel 22, God sent a destruction of fire because no one was found to stand in the gap before Him, on behalf of the people, so that they would not be destroyed.  But for us, Jesus did stand in the gap. 

 

So, like Meshach, Shadrach, and Abed-Nego, we are saved from the flames, and are not burned.  The fire did not hurt them, because there was a 4^th man in the midst of the flames, like unto the Son of God.  Likewise, even when the furnace of God’s wrath consumes this world and exacts vengeance upon all sin, we who are in Christ shall escape punishment. 

 

 

After the lamb was roasted, God’s people ate the flesh of the lamb.  Similarly, today, in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus offers the bread and says, “Take, eat; this is My body”.  Both represent His body.  And both point toward our participation in the body of Christ, the Lamb of God who suffered the Father’s wrath on our behalf.

 

 

--- Article by Joseph M. Gleason - December, 2005