On Day Three we studied how Pharaoh is a type of Satan, the ruler of this present age, and how Egypt is a type of this present world. We also studied the resistance that Pharaoh gave to Moses when he demanded that the Lord's people be set free. This was pre-ordained by God because His people were not to be set free by the permission of Pharaoh, but by His power. Through all of the resistance, and the attempts by Pharaoh to get Moses to compromise the call of God, Moses remained resolute, declaring "not a hoof" that belonged to Israel would be left behind in Egypt. We must do the same if we are going to be free.
We can see in the Book of Revelation how parallel plagues that are going to come upon the earth have the same ultimate purpose—to set the Lord's people free, as well as the rest of creation. Just as the plagues that came upon Egypt destroyed the gods of Egypt, the plagues that come upon the world will destroy the gods that men have made, and ultimately set men free.
There was one final plague that came upon Egypt which finally and completely set the Lord's people free from Egypt—the Passover. In I Corinthians 5:7 we read "...for Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed." The Passover was a biblical model of the sacrifice of Jesus that sets us free from bondage to this world. Let's look at a few of the ways that it gives us a powerful model of what the Lord Jesus did for us to set us free. These are taken from Exodus 12 (you may want to read this chapter before proceeding). We will start with verses 1-2:
Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall be the beginning of months for you;
it is to be the first month of the year to you."
The Lord changed the entire Hebrew calendar so that the Passover would be the beginning of their year. This was to represent the new beginning that we have when we partake of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. As we read in II Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature;
the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
The night that Israel partook of the Passover, their whole world was to change. They were to leave the place that they had known their entire lives never to see it again. They were going to journey through places that they had never seen before. When they took the Passover, their whole world changed! When we partake of Christ, we are so radically changed that the only way to describe it is to say that we are "born again." We start all over. All things become new to us in a supernatural transformation.
However, there is one basic difference between what happened to Israel and what happens when we become a Christian. Israel's environment changed, but when we partake of Christ we change. Israel was taken out of Egypt, but in the New Covenant, Egypt is taken out of us—we become new. The world we are in may be the same, but the eyes we see it through are different.
This is one of the most precious Christian truths—in Christ we have a new beginning. He wipes out all of our past failures. There is no other religion or philosophy in the world that has such grace and power to transform human beings. Even so, when we are born again, that is not the end of the matter, rather it is the beginning. We must grow up into spiritual maturity. Having our minds transformed is a process, but it would not be possible for such a transformation without the initial regeneration by the Holy Spirit that comes when we first embrace the cross. We are forgiven! We are new creatures in Christ!
That we are called "new creatures" in Christ actually means that we are a new species. This is something that we must grasp, but it seems that few Christians do. Those who are born again by the Spirit of God are no longer just human beings. Before the cross, men walked with God, but under the New Covenant God comes to live in us. That is why Jesus said in John 16:7:
"But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away;
for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you;
but if I go, I will send Him to you."
Think of that. What could possibly be better than walking with Jesus the way that these disciples did? But He said it would be better for them if He went away so that the Helper, His Spirit could come! Even better than walking with God is to have God living inside of us! Now we do not go to His temple, we are His temple. Our quest in this life is to live in the reality of this greatest of Christian truths—God has made man His abode.
The goal of the new creation is not just to be restored to the sinless state that Adam enjoyed before the Fall. That is the starting point. Our sin is removed at the cross of Jesus. This is not something we can do, but we can abide in Him in whom there is no sin. We are not trying to make ourselves perfect, we are trying to more perfectly abide in the One who abides in us. We do not look to ourselves for the power or the goodness, but we look to Him.
We may stumble and get back up, but we must keep our focus on the ultimate goal of our calling, which we see in Ephesians 4:15:
but speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ.
You were called to grow up in "all aspects" into Christ. You are called to be like Him and do the works that He did. This is our journey, our quest, and we must never settle for a lesser vision.
On Day Five we will continue to examine the power of the cross that sets us free from all bondage to this world and releases us into the most glorious quest in all of creation—Christlikeness.