The Feast Days of the Lord

What does Passover mean to the Church Today?

The word “passover” is only used two times in the church epistles: once

in the book of Hebrews referring to Moses’s faith and the other time in

1 Corinthians referring to Christ as being our Passover.

Hebrews 11:28 says, “Through faith he [Moses] kept the Passover,

and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should

touch them.” And 1 Corinthians 5:7 reads, “Purge out therefore the old

leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ

our Passover is sacrificed for us.”

The King James Version reads the verse as “is sacrificed,” but it

should be in the past tense since it has already been accomplished and

completed. The Aramaic translation reads “for our Passover (figure of

speech ellipsis, add [Lamb]) is Christ, who was sacrificed on our behalf.”

Magiera defines an ellipsis as “words omitted from a sentence or

phrase that are necessary to complete the grammar, but not the sense.”9

The New King James Version translates this, “For indeed Christ, our

Passover, was sacrificed for us.” Hebrews 10:1 says, “For the law having a

shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can

never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually

make the comers thereunto perfect.”

These feast days were foreshadows of things to come. All of these

sacrificial offerings that were done either daily, weekly, or yearly could

not perfect a person. Hebrews 10:2–4, says,

For then would they not have ceased to be offered?

because that the worshippers once purged should have

had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices

there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats

should take away sins.

And verses 5–7 reads,

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith,

Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast

thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for

sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come

(in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy

will, O God. [This is a quote from Psalm 40:6–8].

These sacrifices did not fulfill God’s ultimate desire. They were mere

shadows of things to come. God’s will was that these sacrifices should

be fulfilled in the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:8–14

reads,

Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt

offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither

hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He

taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering

of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest

standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the

same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But

this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for

ever, sat down on the right hand of God; [the completed

work]. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be

made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected

for ever them that are sanctified.

Today the church has no reason to keep this feast day. The Passover

was to be remembered as a completed work of Jesus Christ. This final

offering by Jesus Christ was done once and for all, never to be done

again. This man (Christ) offered himself, one sacrifice for sins forever,

and sat down at the right hand of God. Sitting down represents the

completed work, just as God sat when He finished His creation and

rested. Jesus Christ was the Passover past tense and completed work, a

new covenant.