Dear Brethren and Friends, The Passover will soon be here! We all should think and meditate on the deep meaning of this solemn occasion, for it pictures the fact that our Creator was willing to die for His creation! As we approach the Passover service, we really do need to think through the many lessons we should learn from this observance.
God’s Word tells us that the One who became Jesus Christ actually created all that is: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). Then the Word emptied Himself and came into the world, “and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him” (v. 10).
God the Father and the Word (who became Christ) want to share ETERNITY with those of us who are willing to totally surrender and let God build within us His holy and righteous character. God and His Word have perfect love—which is OUT-flowing concern—and sincerely desire to share love, glory and immortality with untold millions of begotten children who will yield to God. God does NOT want spirit beings in His family who will be fighting and squabbling and MISERABLE for all eternity! Rather, God wants to give eternal life in His everlasting Kingdom to those who have PROVEN that they will always strive to express God’s character in everything they think, sayand do.
Yes, brethren, in spite of our present faults and sins, God was willing to reach out to us and “call” us to be His full sons, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Brethren, we always need to realize that true Christianity is NOT just a matter of “keeping the law.” Some orthodox Jews and perhaps others keep at least the letter of the law as diligently as many of us do. Of course, we must strive to obey God’s law! Make no mistake about that. But, above andbeyond that we must have a profound appreciation of the fact that we have been FORGIVEN of our past sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. And, we must fully realize that ONLY through Christ living His life within us will we be able to keep God’s law as we should—in the spirit as well as in the letter.
The Apostle Paul said, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin (Romans 7:14). But Paul also wrote, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV).
Therefore, even in keeping the law, our focus is on CHRIST. It is only through Him LIVING HIS LIFE within us by the Holy Spirit that we are able to keep the law. As Jesus Himself said, “If anyone loves Me he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). Through the Holy Spirit, God and Jesus Christ actually LIVE within us and guide our lives—giving us the spiritual strength, power, love and wisdom that we need. When He was here in the human flesh, Jesus said, “I can of Myself do NOTHING. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30).
If Jesus Christ could do NOTHING, how dare we think—apart from God—that we can do anything? Rather, we must develop a total dependence on Jesus Christ living within us to help us do what we need to do. We must profoundly recognize that it is NOT through our strength or our goodness, but ONLY through the power of our Father and our Savior Jesus that we are able to grow, to change and to over-come. We must walk with Christ, talk with Him, drink in of His Word constantly and realize that the true Jesus Christ is our living, active Savior and High Priest. Brethren, this will NOT “offend” Godthe Father—because that is exactly what God wants us to do!
That is why Stephen was inspired to cry out and to PRAY even as he was dying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). This inspired prayer—coming almost automatically out of Stephen’s heart as he was traumatized in the very process of being put to death— shows the depth of the personal relationship between Christ and Stephen, and no doubt most of the early servants of God. So, although we should primarily address the Father in our prayers, it is not wrong occasionally to address Jesus Christ during our prayers—as Stephen did—knowing that He is very God and is sitting at the right hand of God the Father even as we pray!
Truly, we are to “honor” Jesus Christ just as we honor the Father. Does that sound blasphemous to some of you? Will someone try to “pick on” me for saying that? Then notice what GOD inspired Jesus Christ to say, “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son JUST AS they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:22-23).
Brethren, the depth of honor, worship, adoration and everlasting LOVE and LOYALTY we should feel toward Jesus Christ is something which should constantly increase in our hearts and minds year by year. Each Passover season should renew our profound APPRECIA-TION for what Jesus Christ actually did for us, is now doing as our High Priest and Living Head and what He will do as our Elder Brother and King throughout all eternity.
The early apostles obviously had a tremendous feeling about Christ’s death and resurrection. They were there! They heard Jesus cry out, “It is finished” and saw the blood come pouring out of His body. They knew He was dead. Yet, a few days later, they personally saw Him and talked with Him as He came and stood in their midst (John 20:19). So the then-converted and thus completely fearless Apostle Peter could say to the Jews, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses” (Acts 3:13-15).
Over and over we read in the book of Acts about the profound feeling the original apostles had for the death and resurrection of Jesus. Only by constant study, by heartfelt prayer and by deep MEDITATION on these things can we modern day Christians approach the feeling of adoration and WORSHIP toward Jesus Christ which those apostles felt. But, again, to be as close to Jesus as they were, we need to strive for this by zealously walking with Christ so that we can fully honor Him and the Father who sent Him to be our Savior and Living Head.
One of the most powerful “pre-Passover” scriptures is found in Philippians 2:5-11. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Truly we are to have Christ’s mind of service and sacrifice. With God’s help through His Holy Spirit, we are to develop the “footwashing attitude” of Christ in being willing to humble ourselves in order to serve. Remember that in verse 7 the expression “made Himself of no reputation” should be translated “emptied Himself.” For in order to serve us, in order to DIE for us, Christ “emptied Himself” of the glory, the power and the majesty that He had shared with the Father from eternity. He did this in order that He could genuinely understand the human experience and the temptations and trials we go through in a personal sense and so become our “merciful and faithful High Priest” (Hebrews 2:17) so that He—now made human—could suffer and DIE for us as the ultimate Passover Lamb.
As we each file into the meeting hall this coming Passover evening and prepare to take the symbols of the bread and the wine, let us think and MEDITATE on these things. Let us THANK GOD that He was willing to sacrifice His beloved Son—His companion from eternity—in this way. And let us thank Christ that He willingly gave of Himself that we might someday join Him and the Father in the Kingdom of God. Let us also have absolute FAITH that our sins will be totally forgiven if we repent of our sins and accept the magnificent gift of total forgiveness, mercy and love that comes from God and from God alone.
