A foundational principle that enables us to be children of God is the idea of type and antitype. If we have been in the church for any time, we have been exposed to this concept. Biblical type-and-antitype concerns the revelation of a truth or a prophecy and its later or spiritual fulfillment. Within Scripture, an antitype in the New Testament is most often foreshadowed or predicted in type or as a pattern in the Old Testament.

The Passover lamb is a type of its later fulfillment in the life and death of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Ancient Israel is a type of the spiritual nation of Israel, the church of God (see Galatians 6:16). The death of the lamb in Egypt provided the Israelites with physical deliverance from their bondage, and Christ's death provides us with deliverance from our spiritual bondage to sin.

How does the Passover offering stand as a type of its fulfillment in Christ some 1,450 years later? God describes this offering in Exodus 12:3, 5-6:

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: "On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. . . . Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight."

The first New Testament fulfillment is Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As Exodus 12:3 commands, each household of the children of Israel chose a lamb from their flocks on the tenth day of the first month, Abib, four days before it was to be slain. In the sequence of events leading to Christ's crucifixion, the tenth of Abib aligns with Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The people laud Him with palm branches, calling out, "Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'" (Mark 11:9). In this way, the people of Israel choose their Passover Lamb.

The second fulfillment concerns the Passover lamb of old being chosen from the personal flock of each Israelite household. Originally, Passover was a very personal festival, kept in the home, not as it was later observed nationally in the Temple. This detail indicates that its purpose was personal. The head of the household brought the chosen Passover lamb into the home four days before its sacrifice to spend those days with the family. Among the most docile animals, lambs symbolize gentleness, innocence, and vulnerability. The family and the lamb enjoyed an amount of intimacy during that short time, and they personally felt the grief of its death.

The third fulfillment coincides with what the apostle Peter writes in I Peter 1:18-19

. . . knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

The chosen lamb was a lamb, by definition, not older than one year. It was as innocent as an infant. As a child ages, he becomes more worldly and corrupted by sin. The Passover lamb, an infant among sheep, was to symbolize this innocence, being undefiled and harmless.

The author of Hebrews describes Jesus Christ in this way: "For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens" (Hebrews 7:26; emphasis ours throughout). He was indeed "holy," pure and separate from other humans, having never sinned (II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; I John 3:5). He was perfect like His Father in heaven (Matthew 5:48). Only a perfectly sinless, holy Sacrifice could redeem sinners and take away their sin.

The author of Hebrews calls the Savior "harmless," denoting innocent, blameless, or free from evil. Peter provides some commentary to this description: "‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth'; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously" (I Peter 2:22-23). Though we are full of sin, our Redeemer was as innocent as a newborn baby.

Hebrews 7:26 also declares Jesus Christ to be "undefiled," from a Greek word meaning "unstained, unsoiled, undefiled, chaste, pure, inviolate, and unimpaired." The author adds another layer to His absolute perfection and purity. He was so perfect that He had not one flaw, not one imperfection, not one defect, not one blemish! But He was more than just perfect: He was both a perfect human being and a holy God-Being, something infinitely greater than a mere physical lamb. As such, He could represent both Creator God and man and thus qualify as the Perfect Sacrifice to pay for and take away the world's sins.

The fourth fulfillment brings together Exodus 12:46 and John 19:32-33, 36:

Exodus 12:46: "In one house [the Passover lamb] shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones."

John 19:32-33, 36: "Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. . . . For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, ‘not one of His bones shall be broken.'"

The type of the Passover lamb was fulfilled even to this "minor" detail. However, God made sure that even these seemingly insignificant details had their antitypes so that we could have no doubt that Jesus Christ is our Savior.

The fifth fulfillment manifests in Jesus' obedience, which is perfectly exemplified by an uncomplaining and submissive lamb. In the Suffering Servant chapter, Isaiah 53, God prophesies:

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

This passage convinced the Ethiopian eunuch once Philip explained it to him in light of its fulfillment in Christ. Matthew 27:11-14 provides us a gospel account of the antitype:

Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?" Jesus said to him, "It is as you say." And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?" But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.

As we saw earlier, Peter also attests to this in I Peter 2:23 (see also Mark 14:61; 15:5; Luke 23:9; John 19:8-9).

In Part Two, we will investigate a final antitype of the ancient Passover lamb.