or the Day of Atonement, which
was in the seventh month. Now these two sacrifices picture
the two accomplishments of our Lord's sacrificial offering of
Himself. Now both of them point to the
same historical event, the death of Christ at the hands of God. But they are pointing to different
accomplishments. Now, Passover is a symbol or
an illustration of redemption. And we'll see that here in a
few minutes. And the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, pictures atonement. They were about six months apart.
I mean, within just a few days. The sacrifice of one was on the
14th of the first month, and the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement
was on, I believe, the 10th day of the 7th month. Now, there
are similarities between these two prominent sacrifices. Both
days were considered Sabbaths, and when God was giving the instructions
on them, He was adamant, on this day you shall do no work. Anyone
who does work on this day shall be cut off from the people. Pretty
important. This wasn't just, you know, a
side thing in atonement and redemption.
It was essential that those who were participating not do any
common work. Both were days of rest. Both
involved the sacrifice of an animal. But there were also differences,
and the most prominent being that all the men were to be present
at the tabernacle or the temple at Passover, but they were not
required to be there on the Day of Atonement. Now five days later
they would have to come to celebrate a week-long feast. There were
three times each year that every grown man had to appear at the
temple or tabernacle or whatever was the central place of worship
in Israel at that time. And that festival after the Day
of Atonement was one of them. But they didn't have to be there
on the Day of Atonement. Now, these two days were about
six months apart. Passover was counted to be the
beginning of their new year. And, therefore, Yom Kippur was
in the middle of the year. The primary difference between
the concepts of redemption and atonement is how each of these
views sin and what the sacrifice for that sin accomplishes. Redemption
views sin as a debt, a debt to be paid. And therefore,
the redeeming sacrifice pays that debt and frees the debtor
from all obligations. And then atonement views sin as personal offense
against God. And the sacrifice of atonement
is a payment to God that puts away his anger, appeases his
wrath, and reconciles him to his people. He says in the Old Testament,
he says, there is no wrath in me. Why isn't there any wrath
in him? He spent it all on Christ. Therefore,
from him, when it comes to him and his elect, from him, there
is no anger. There is no breach in the relationship. But this atonement accomplishes
something else, though it accomplishes it in each person at different
times. It not only reconciled God to
us, it reconciles us to God. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5
that the overall message of the gospel, the exhortation of the
gospel is be reconciled to God. And then he speaks of the atoning
work of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5.21, and it's our learning in
the heart of what God did to put away our sin. That's what
changes our heart and attitude toward God. It reconciles us. Now both redemption and atonement
are prominent themes in the New Testament as descriptions of
the Lord's cross work. Let's look first at redemption.
The first Passover was celebrated in Egypt and it resulted in the
Israelites being delivered from their bondage in Egypt. Now that's
redemption, to be delivered from bondage by payment. In Deuteronomy
chapter 13, verse five, it says, that prophet or dreamer must
be put to death. He's speaking about sorcerers
and that kind of person or a prophet that's declaring something that's
not true. He must be put to death for inciting
rebellion against the Lord your God, and it describes God this
way, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land
of slavery. So redemption views us as those
who by our sin have incurred a debt, and because of that debt,
and we couldn't pay it, we didn't have money to pay it back, therefore
we are in bondage, we are in slavery until the debt is paid. Of course, we also understand
this, since we can't do anything other than sin, there's no way
we're ever going to be able to pay off that debt. Even if at
the moment of our enslavement, if from that point on, we were
to act righteous all the time, it still would never pay our
debt because the demand is righteousness all the time. And you're never
able to do more than righteousness in order to pay back that which,
that debt you incurred before. It's kind of like when someone's
in debt and they never can get their debt paid because their
day-to-day expenses consume all the money they have. So they
can never pay the debt that they incurred before. Well, that's
the way it is with us. If by some strange means, we
were able at some point to begin living perfectly righteous. It
would not pay the debt for what we had done before. And so when we look at our Lord's
sacrifice as an act of redemption, we are looking at ourselves as
those who have sinned, and by our sin we have incurred a debt
It's a debt we cannot pay, therefore we've been brought into slavery.
And that's what happened to the Jews in Egypt. They had been
brought into slavery. Now they continued to observe
this annual sacrifice, the Passover, in order to remember that they
had once been slaves in Egypt, but that the Lord had delivered
them from that bondage. And that bondage or deliverance
is called redemption. Now, we kind of do this too. The Lord's table was instituted
as the Lord Jesus and his disciples observed the Passover celebration
of eating the Paschal lamb. Why do we do that? Paul said,
for as often as you drink this cup, eat this bread and drink
this cup, you do show, you do bring to mind, you do remember
our Lord's death. And of course, therefore, that
makes us remember we were in bondage, but He delivered us
from that bondage. Now, neither the Passover in
the Old Covenant actually delivered anybody from their bondage that
came by sin. And the Lord's Table does not
deliver anybody from their bondage to the law, sin, and death. But
both of them, the Passover celebration of the Old Covenant and the Lord's
Table of the New Covenant, both of them point to the very thing
that did deliver us from the bondage to law, sin, and death. But let's notice some things
about the Passover and how they apply to redemption. First, those
for whom the Passover was designed were the chosen people of God
to whom promises had been made through the fathers, the patriarchs.
Passover was not made for the Egyptians. The Egyptians were not told about
it. They were not told what to do
to escape from it. Only the Jews, for whom Passover
was designed, were told about it. So, this redemption is a pointed
work. The Lord Jesus Christ, or excuse
me, God, when he went through Egypt, he didn't deliver Egyptians. He delivered his people because
a redemption was made for them and he told them about it and
revealed it to them. Secondly, the sacrifice of that
Passover lamb was offered to God. When they killed that lamb
and took its blood and put it on doorposts and on the lentil
and then roasted it without breaking any bones, roasted the whole
of it and ate all of it that night. They were supposed to
do all of this. When they were doing that it
was unto the Lord that it was being done. That blood was for
the Lord to save. The key component of Passover
And therefore, the key component in redemption is what? The blood. As our Lord came through Egypt
as what some call the death angel. He wasn't just an angel, it was
God. He came through Egypt killing. And there was a death sentence
upon every firstborn in Egypt. Now, this sentence was not only
on the firstborn of the Egyptians, it was on the firstborn of everyone
in Egypt, Egypt representing the world. And God had said,
when I come through I'm going to kill the firstborn in every
household all the way from Pharaoh down to the milkmaid, the firstborn
of cattle, born of everything. I'm going to kill it." And see
that's the judgment against the whole world of humanity. We all
came into this world with a death sentence upon us. But there was
blood upon the doors of the houses of the Jews. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Even though the Jews were God's
chosen people, God did not say, when I see a Jewish house, I
will pass over it. He didn't say, when I see your
faithfulness, I will pass over it. When I see your Jewishness,
or when I remember Abraham, or anything like that, The only
thing God was looking for when he came through Egypt was blood. And where there was no blood, death came. Where there was blood,
that was the testimony that death had already come upon that place.
That's why he passed over them. He didn't pass over them because
they didn't deserve to die. He didn't pass over them because
he had chosen them. He passed over them because the
blood on the door was a testimony. Death has already come upon this
house, and death never strikes twice. Now these are important
things to keep in mind. They teach us. This picture teaches
us some things. So the blood protected everyone
for whom it was shed. Fourth, everyone for whom the
Passover lamb was sacrificed was redeemed, was released from
bondage, and set free to leave Egypt, and every one of them
did. There was not one household that
had the blood on it in which someone died. There was not one household with
the blood on it in which everyone in it was not set free. And there was not one household
with the blood on it that had anybody living in it the next
day. They all left. Wherever the blood was found,
there was redemption. It was the payment of the price
they owed, and everyone for whom that payment had been made owed
nothing, and they were set free, and they left the household of
bondage. Now, that's a very important
truth. taught to us in the Passover as a picture of redemption. You
see, redemption, we normally think of redemption as simply
the payment of the debt. Well, that's the first part of
redemption, but redemption involves more than that. Remember, redemption
comes from the whole concept of slavery, of someone being
in debt, being unable to pay the debt. Sometimes pay the debt,
they had to give up their land or some other kind of property.
Sometimes they lost or even their children were taken
in to slavery. But if the debt was paid, everything
that had been taken was restored. Now, if our Lord Jesus as our
sacrifice paid the price of redemption, everyone for whom he paid it
is restored. Everything they lost by their
indebtedness is given back. Now, the common religion of our
day, common Christianity of our day says, Christ redeemed us,
but you've got to accept that sacrifice. No, you can't accept
the redemption price. For one thing, it wasn't owed
to you. You were the one that owed it. It was never offered
to you. You can't accept it. It was offered
to God because he is the one to whom the debt was owed. And
inasmuch as Jesus Christ offered himself without spot to God as
our redemption sacrifice, And God accepted that payment in
our behalf. God, who is just, he will by
no means clear the guilty, but neither will he condemn the innocent,
neither will he hold in bondage those who are debt free. I'm reminded again of that morning
at 13th Street Baptist Church. as my mind was wandering around
here and there as it commonly does, I picked up one line from
Henry's message. If Christ paid my debt, I don't
owe it. Now that's just about as perfectly
simple as you can imagine anything being. But that's not what's
being taught in most places when it comes to redemption. Christ
paid your debt. But in the end, you might still
end up having to pay it yourself in hell. That can't be. God's
not like that. Payment justice cannot twice
demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again
at mine. My hope is not that I believe
Christ. That'd be a pretty shaky hope,
wouldn't it? You think your faith is strong
enough to get you to glory? As the old hymn writer said,
this is my hope, this is my plea, that when Christ died, he died
for me. Now that can't be your hope if
he died for everyone, and yet most of them end up in hell anyway.
What good is the death of Christ if those for whom that death
was made, most of them end up eternally lost? Brother Barnard put it this way,
if Jesus Christ died equally for every person in the human
race, then what does the death of Christ have to do with whether
or not I'm saved? Nothing. You see, the difference between
those who are saved and lost It has to be some kind of difference
concerning them. But we know it's not a difference
they accomplish. Then salvation will be by works
and we'd have a right to boast in it. Even if it was this thing,
well, you make it effective by faith, which is exactly the opposite
of what the Bible says. But you don't make it effective
by faith. If you did, you'd be able to
say, you know, that, you know, when you get to heaven, you can
say, oh, look at me. Boy, those guys over there, they're going
to hell. But I believed, you know. Give me a crown of faith,
you know. No. There is a difference between
those who end up in the presence of God, faultless and full of
joy, and those who spend forever in that wretched state we described
this last week or the week before. There is a difference, but the
whole difference is Christ. And what he did, he did things
for them that he didn't do for other people. Now Paul relates all of this
business of the Passover as redemption. He relates it to us in 1 Corinthians
5, verse 7, Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Now, who sacrificed him? It wasn't
us. It wasn't the Romans. It wasn't the Jews. The Romans may have been the
actual people that, you know, performed the task of putting
his body to death, the Jews may have been the one to call for
it, but they can't sacrifice Christ. Who sacrificed Christ? Christ. Once again, returning to that
scripture, I believe it's Hebrews 9.14,
in which it is written, he offered himself without spot to God. So Christ, our sacrifice, was
offered for us. Now, those of the religion that
I was raised in, you know, basically free willism, says, well, Christ
died, but we put the blood on the door. No. We don't. In Passover, who offered that
lamb? The father did. Fathers were
the heads of the household and considered to be the priests
of the household. So that the father did this. But the father was not saved
by doing it, was he? Why is that? He wasn't in danger. Who is in danger? His firstborn
son. That's who is in danger. So the
one who is in danger is not the one who performed the sacrifice.
So Christ offered himself without spot to God. His blood is the
testimony to God that death is already passed upon us and God
in justice passes over us. Even though the gospel is preached
indiscriminately and we'll preach it to everybody and we call on
all men everywhere to repent. But God tells only His elect
what we preach to everyone. Now we preach it and people can
be taught the doctrines of salvation, but only God can teach this truth
in the heart, which causes a man to believe it. And just as the
Jews were the only ones to whom God gave instructions regarding
The Passover lamb, only to God's elect does he reveal Jesus Christ,
our Passover. In Ephesians chapter one, where
it speaks of us being chosen in him before the creation of
the world, in verse seven it says, in him we have redemption
through his blood. We have it, we possess it. forgiveness
of sins in accordance with the riches of His grace that He lavished
on us with all wisdom and understanding. And then notice verse 9, and
He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His
good pleasure which He purposed in Christ. He did it and then He told us
about it. And He did it for us, and He
told us about it, and He doesn't tell anybody else, because He
didn't do it for anybody else. Christ, our Passover, was offered
to God. We've already gone over this,
but the key component also that is the blood is the issue. Peter
says in 1 Peter 3, verse 18, for you know that it was not
with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were
redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from
your forefathers. Now in this case, he's speaking
of, he's bringing up Passover imagery, but this redemption
is not from a physical slavery, it's from spiritual slavery.
He's talking about being redeemed from old covenant obligations,
being redeemed from that system that says, do this and you will
live. And he says, where am I at here? Okay. He says, you're
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. a lamb without blemish
or defect. He didn't say that you're redeemed
when you see the blood, understand the blood. You're redeemed by
the blood, which must be that we were redeemed when that blood
came before God, the judge of all. When was that? When he shed
the blood. When did he shed the blood? He
is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Fourth, all for whom Christ was
offered are redeemed. They are set free from the bondage
of the law, sin, and death. In Galatians chapter three, verse
13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. by becoming
a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung
on a tree. Jesus Christ was made the cursed
thing. He was made to be the price. What's the curse of the law?
is everyone who does not continue in every point of the law to
do it. That's what the law says. And that curse was death. Jesus
Christ became that death. He is our death. And if He is
our death, we never die. If He became a curse for us,
we shall never be cursed. So that's the first side of of
this business of the method of substitution. It's a redemption. It's a price that's paid that
sets us free from the law, which is bondage to sin and death. Therefore, we are no longer under
law. They who are of the law are under
a curse. And what things the law has to
say, it says to them who are under the law. But we are not
under law. We are under grace. What does
the law have to say to us? Nothing. Why? Because what the law says, it
says to them that are under the law, and we're not under the
law. And since we're not under the
law, we're free, absolutely free from all the consequences of
disobeying it. And if that's not true, then no one will ever be saved. Redemption actually redeems. It pays the price and restores
everything that was lost. All right, next week we're going
to go over atonement.