“KNOWING THAT YOU WERE NOT REDEEMED WITH PERISHABLE THINGS LIKE SILVER OR GOLD FROM YOUR FUTILE WAY OF LIFE INHERITED FROM YOUR FOREFATHERS, 19 BUT WITH PRECIOUS BLOOD, AS OF A LAMB UNBLEMISHED AND SPOTLESS, THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 20 FOR HE WAS FOREKNOWN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, BUT HAS APPEARED AT THESE LAST TIMES FOR THE SAKE OF YOU 21 WHO THROUGH HIM ARE BELIEVERS IN GOD, WHO RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD AND GAVE HIM GLORY, SO THAT YOUR FAITH AND HOPE ARE IN GOD.”
Peter is exhorting the believers who read this letter to live in a way that shows they belong to Christ. Then in verse 18 he tells us why we should live that way; “knowing...” etc.
It is interesting that he says we were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold. Think about it. God could have made planets of silver and galaxies of gold to buy us back; but from eternity past he had decreed that only the shedding of blood could pay for sin, because “the wages of sin is death”.
What I want to focus on here, is verse 19. Paul calls Christ “a lamb without blemish and without spot.” If you read Exodus 12:1-6, you’ll see that when God gave Moses instructions for the first Passover dinner (on the night He would deliver the children of Israel from bondage to Egypt), He told Moses to have each household take a lamb from their flocks and keep it for several days. The lamb was to be without spot or blemish, and they were to examine it for three days, then kill it at twilight. This was to be their Passover meal.
This is what is referred to as a “type” or “shadow”. The Passsover lamb was a “type” of Christ, who would be God’s sacrificial Lamb to take away the sins of the world and deliver us from bondage to sin.
In God’s instructions to Moses, He said the people should drain the blood of the lamb in a basin at the foot of the door, and place some blood on the two doorposts and the top of the door, then go inside and eat the Passover lamb. He promised, “When I see the blood, I will cover over your door, so the death angel will not come near your house, when he passes over to destroy the firstborn of every house in Egypt.”
If you think about where the blood was placed on the doorposts, top and foot of the door, you’ll realize that they were making a form of a cross over their doors..and this about 1500 years before the crucifixion style of execution was introduced into the world by the Roman Empire.
Jesus was God’s spotless, perfect Passover Lamb, and if we believe in Him it’s like putting His blood over the door of our life. When God sees the blood, He eternally protects us from death and the destroyer (Satan).
One more tidbit to give you assurance of this truth; notice that verse 20 says “He was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these last times...” This means that before the world was made, God, Who sees all of eternity at once, determined that He would become a man and die to pay for sin. Before anyone was ever born; ever had a chance to sin, He planned for buying us back with His own precious blood. If He was willing to determine to do that then, how much more will He keep His promises to us, now that He has actually (physically) paid the price for us? Nothing we did made Him decide to save us; we weren’t even in existence yet. So, nothing we can do now, nothing anyone else can do to us, can make Him change His mind.
He doesn’t see our works (good deeds), He sees the blood of His sinless Son, Jesus, and that is enough. All He requires of us is to put our faith and hope in God.
The Israelites were only told to place the blood on the door, then go inside and sit down and eat the lamb, and they’d be safe.
We are only to appropriate to our lives the shed blood of Christ, then enter in to His new life, and rest...and partake of the Lamb. And God covers us over as a hen gathers her brood under her wing. How could we be safer?
John 6:52-58 Exodus 12:12,13 Luke 13:34
