Passover Lesson
The other night, my children and I were reading about the Passover in their illustrated Old Testament reader. According to the Bible account of the Passover, Moses and the Israelites were commanded to smear the blood of a lamb above their door posts of their homes while they feasted upon the meat of the lamb within. Like the sacrament, where we partake of the bread and water in rememberance of the body and blood of Christ; both the blood and flesh of Christ are represented here. Also, like the sacrament; the body of Christ is representative of the letter of the law while the blood of Christ represents the spirit of the law. Now, it doesn't seem that astonishing that Moses smeared the blood on the doorways and he ate the meat instead of the other way around. I'm sure the meat wouldn't smear as well as blood. But, it did seem intersting in considering the symbolism as it relates to our usual belief about the letter and spirit of the law.
Our usual attitude with regard to the letter and spirit of the law is to excuse ourselves in our inability to keep the letter. We say, "I know its obviously apparent that I am not keeping letter of the law, but I have the spirit of the law in my heart and that is what counts." However, according to the lesson of the Passover, the letter should be on the inside and the spirit on the outside.
The passover and the sacrament remind us that we are to feast upon and make the word of God a part of us. We do this by reading the scriptures and likening or applying the scriptures to our lives. We also must pray always; pray over everything we do and ask that God would consececrate it to our good, and always have a prayer in our hearts. The scriptures say we should also enjoy of the words of eternal life in this life (Moses 6: 59). Then if we really make the word of God part of us, then we are promised that the spirit of God will eminate from us. We will reflect God's glory and become spiritually born of God; receiving his image in our countenances (Alma 5: 14, 19).
In this way we will actually start exceeding, in many instances , the letter of the law, through Christ, instead of continually falling short from it. This is how we "light a candle, and put it . . . on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5: 15).
4 comments:
I'm afraid you are missing the crucial point of the Passover. The teachings of the LDS church are false in that they do not teach that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. The Passover points directly to the atoning death of Jesus Christ as our sin substitute. Only through faith in Jesus Christ as God in the flesh and His propitiatory work on the cross is there forgiveness of sins. It must be faith alone in Christ - not in works. I urge you to read the Bible alone and not depend on the "wisdom of man" and see for yourself that what the Bible teaches is in complete contradiction to the heretical teachings of the LDS church. I am only telling you this in love as I want to see you and your family flee from this heresy. Even the history alone of the LDS church raises such serious questions - everything the LDS church teaches as part of its "history" has been proving historically errant. Do your research and turn to the only God and Savior Jesus Christ who saves from the wrath to come!
Unlike Jay Wingard, I will not be too quick to jump to the conclusion of heresy. In fact, your post seemed very plausible when I first read it. However, by the grace of God after chewing on it for sometime I realized the post had many inconsistencies.
First off, let us establish that the bible never once makes an association between the body of Christ with the letter of the law nor the blood with the spirit of the law. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that you're wrong but let us take a closer look.
You have written that since the meat is eaten inside and the blood is smeared outside then the letter of the law should be inside and the spirit of the law on display outside. You wrote that this meant we must continue to abide to the law by the grace of God. The latter is correct but I do not see a connection between this and the blood outside flesh inside concept.
In fact, if one has the letter inside and the spirit outside then what else would that make one but a hypocrite? One would be like the pharisees who display themselves as abiding the spirit of the law but on the inside does not care about the spirit but only of the letter.
If we remove the association of blood and flesh to spirit and letter and instead associate them BOTH to the price needed for atonement and to life then it would be much more cohesive. The blood and flesh are united elements not separate. They both represent that the life of another firstborn has been taken to atone for the life of the firstborn Israelite and hence the destroyer will passover them.
In this way, Jesus also saved us by his blood and flesh. Jesus abided to the letter of the law as long as it does not conflict with the spirit. If you say that his flesh represents the letter of the law then there would have to be times where he tore off his own flesh and become some blood being. This is obviously not the case.
If Jesus were just a human, his flesh and blood would also not be able to atone all humans. Even if he was a perfect human and nothing else, his death would only atone ONE other human. For his death to be effective in saving humanity, he needs to be above humans, a greater being. He needs to be God in the flesh. Only then would his flesh and blood count for something.
If you ever manage to reach this end of my very long and dreary essay, I hope it has helped you in your understading of God.
God bless
Actually Passover has nothing to do with Christ. Since the crossing of the sea happened a little under a thousand years before Jesus exsisted. Passover is about the Jews freedom from enslavement in Egypt. No Jewish holiday has any refernece to Christ.
Everything in the scriptures points to Christ. It is Christ who saves us. The children of Isreal were freed so that they could live the law of Jehovah. All the commandments were specifically pointing to a savior. Reading the Bible only emphasizes how much we need to not just believe but act on that knowledge. Christ set an example of things that we should do, not just have faith in.
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