The Substitute Teacher

Go, . . . slaughter the Passover animal. . . . Take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hyssop across the top and sides of the doorframes of your houses.   Exodus 12:21-22

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, “God made clothing from animal skins” for them (Genesis 3:21). That means God killed an animal on the very day the first sin was committed. God warned Adam that disobedience would lead to death, and there was a death in the Garden that day. Adam’s life was spared, and an animal died instead.

We find the same pattern in the story of Abraham and Isaac. God told Abraham to take his son up the mountain, and God provided an animal that was killed in Isaac’s place. The animal’s blood was shed, and Isaac’s life was spared.

Now a lamb would be killed for every Hebrew family in Egypt. God was teaching the same lesson to a new generation: “The way you will be saved from judgment is through the death of another. It will involve the shedding of blood, like it did for Adam and for Abraham.”

Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Like the sacrificed animals, he died in the place of Adam and Isaac and in the place of God’s people in Egypt. He died in your place too. He bore the judgment of God so that it would not fall on you. As Paul says, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Just as there had to be an act of faith and obedience in which the blood was applied to the doorframes of the Israelites’ homes in Egypt, so there must be an act of faith in which Christ’s blood is applied to your life. The blood must not only be shed; it must also be applied.

Since the blood of Christ has been shed, why would you not, in an act of faith, ask that his blood cover you? Then you can rest on God’s promise, and God will bring you safely through the day of judgment.

For further reading, see Romans 4