Eliminating Sin

Looking once again at the Passover ceremony for Israel, we find one burning question for our application today:

How do we get the shed blood—after the sacrifice is complete—to the places where we live?

As long as the blood remains in the basin, it is not doing any good. It is available, but it does nothing. The Israelites had to take this simple plant called hyssop, dip it in the blood, and strike it on the outside of their houses on the doorposts and above the doors. Only then were they protected. Yet in the Passover ceremony, something else preceded the application of the blood.

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians, where Paul applied the teaching of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Christians. Every Jewish family had to eliminate everything that was leavened from their house for seven days. The Orthodox Jews still observe this practice today.

“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7–8)

We, too, must purge the old leaven—sin—from our lives in order to live in obedience to God. This enables the blood to protect every area of our lives.