# Was There Any 'Atoning' Value To The Passover Lamb?



## KMK (Feb 25, 2008)

Exo and Lev seem to indicate that the value of the Passover Lamb was mainly 'commemorative' or 'memorial' or 'pedagogical'. Was there any 'atoning' value to the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb?


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## Herald (Feb 25, 2008)

Ken,

This may not answer your question but I found it insightful.



> "Christ - OUR PASSOVER"
> 
> Exodus 12:1-13​
> The Lord had sent plague after plague upon the Egyptians; but each time Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. The Lord spoke to Moses (Exo. 11-1) and declared that He would bring one more plague upon Egypt; after that plague, Pharaoh would send them forth out of the land.
> ...


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## elnwood (Feb 25, 2008)

KMK said:


> Exo and Lev seem to indicate that the value of the Passover Lamb was mainly 'commemorative' or 'memorial' or 'pedagogical'. Was there any 'atoning' value to the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb?



Interesting questions. To use Eucharistic language, was there a "real presence" of Christ in the Passover Lamb?


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## Contra_Mundum (Feb 25, 2008)

I don't think that one can separate the "sacrificial" aspect of the passover lamb (or other approved creature) from the event, or its commemoration. The blood on the door posts was a sign of an offering, of blood shed in place of the firstborn there. I am willing to grant that the commemorative lambs were emblematic of the original slaughter, but they would still evoke the memory of the original substitution. And if substitution is part of the symbolism, I cannot see why atonement is not also part of the meditative aspect of the commemoration.

To be clearer: The commemorative Passover was _sacramental_. OUR Lord's Supper commemoration is not itself _atoning_, but its _referent_ IS. So also, the Passover referent (the original slaughter) was atoning. The lambs were substitutionary and sacrificial, and thus atoning. 

Sunday, for our LS meal (quarterly), my main text was John 1:29, "Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." I referenced Paul's term, "Christ our Passover lamb," 1 Cor. 5:7, but did not make the OT Passover my prime references. Why? because for all its symbolic value (and Christ did do his atoning work at Passover time) the Passover celebration was not _directly_ tied to sin removal.

Instead, I referenced Gen 22:8 "Abraham said, 'God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son,'" and Is 53:6-7, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth."

But Passover clearly belongs to the wider system of sacrifice and offering, which is inseparable from substitutionary atonement.


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## KMK (Feb 25, 2008)

Bill's response seems to point to primarily a 'commemorative' or 'memorial' aspect. (not that there's anything wrong with that) And Rev Buchannon's response seems to say that it does have some atoning value simply because it is a sacrifice at all.

However, the atoning value of the Passover sacrifice (whatever it was) must be different than that of the Day of Atonement, for example, which is explicitly described as atoning for sin. I can find no such explicit reference to atonement in the Passover.

Could it be that the Passover was a memorial similar to that of the Lord's Supper, looking back to a redemption already happened, and the 'atoning' sacrifices were looking forward to something that had yet to happen. 

The NT church does not need any atoning sacrifices but we still have a need to 'commemorate' or 'memorialize' or 'show' that redemption that has already taken place in us.

I am just thinking of the top of my head.

I agree with Rev Buchannon that if one were to preach about atonement, the Passover would not be the best illustration.


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## Iconoclast (Feb 25, 2008)

*Ex24:8 Numbers19*

Kmk,
You had asked this question in one of your posts;



> Could it be that the Passover was a memorial similar to that of the Lord's Supper, looking back to a redemption already happened, and the 'atoning' sacrifices were looking forward to something that had yet to happen.


It would seem in the first and second Exodus, The Passover would speak more to the Propitiation of Our Lord's sacrifice. The blood applied caused the judgment to pass over.
In Hebrews 9, and 10 It seems as if reference is made to the water of seperation, of Numbers 19. The quote in Hebrews 9 I believe is from Exodus24:8


> 6And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
> 
> 7And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
> 
> 8And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.


 Where this is quoted In Hebrews 9:19-28 comes after speaking about the tabernacle vs 1-17



> 19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
> 
> 20Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
> 
> ...


 it is spoken of in term of The once for all time atonement for all the elect, as most of chapter 10 goes on to explain, that indeed it looked forward to the cross



> 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
> 
> 5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:


 It is in the incarnation of the true Israel, the covenant Son, that all the aspects of the cross , the blood of the everlasting covenant come together.
I do not think it is possible that any *one*of the types could display it all


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## MW (Feb 25, 2008)

Iconoclast said:


> I do not think it is possible that any *one*of the types could display it all



Well noted! The manifold types point to a single redemption of manifold significance.

Concerning the original question -- the Passover was more than a sacrament, it was also a type together with the other sacrifices. Those who looked to it by faith in the promise were looking to Jesus Christ, "the propitiation through faith in His blood." The "atoning value" was in the passover eaten by faith in Christ to come. So now that "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," the shadow of the Passover has no further validity.


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## Contra_Mundum (Feb 26, 2008)

Just be clear about what you're saying, Ken. You started off asking whether the memorial Passover lamb (which is what I believe you are referring to at the end there) had "atoning" work in it, along the lines of Temple sacrifices. It wasn't the same as those, however. in terms of the "by faith" aspect of sacrament, its referent did. As long as you are presenting the memorial Passover as sacrament, and people realize that, the idea of atonement is most appropriate, especially in light of Redemption.

The _original_ Passover was certainly an atoning sacrifice. The sign was that every person, in Egypt deserved to die--the Egyptians for their sins of unbelief, the Israelites for their sins of unbelief. The difference was, a sacrifice was allowed, the gospel was preached. Kill a lamb, follow Jehovah's instructions regarding the blood, identify with God and God's people (there was, after all, a mixed multitude that left with the natural descendants of Jacob), and you will be saved.


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