App
Who should partake of the Christian Passover? Should anyone who thinks that he or she is a Christian observe this sacred service? Or are there specific Scriptural requirements for participating in the Christian Passover? This vital question needs to be answered.
In the Old Testament, one of the ordinances for the observance of the Passover required that all male participants be circumcised in the flesh. Those who were not circumcised were forbidden to participate in the Old Testament Passover (Ex. 12:48). However, the New Testament clearly teaches that circumcision in the flesh is not a requirement for the New Covenant relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ (Gal. 5:6, Rom. 2:28-29).
Physical circumcision is not a requirement for the observance of the New Covenant Passover. However, there is a spiritual circumcision required for the New Covenant, as taught in the New Testament. As we will see, anyone, male or female, must be circumcised spiritually through Jesus Christ in order to participate in the New Covenant Passover—the Christian Passover. This spiritual circumcision is called “the circumcision of the heart, in the spirit.”
The apostle Paul defines spiritual circumcision in Romans 2:28-29: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is external in the flesh; rather, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
Spiritual circumcision is achieved only in this manner: The first step for each person who answers God's calling is to repent of his or her sins against God the Father and to accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. As the apostle Peter proclaimed: “Repent and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
After answering God’s calling and repenting toward God, a person must be baptized by full immersion in water, which signifies the death and burial of the old, sinful self. The apostle Paul reveals the full meaning of baptism: “Or are you ignorant that we, as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him by baptism into death; so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, in the same way, we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been conjoined together in the likeness of His death, so also shall we be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man [the old, sinful self] was crucified with Him [co-crucified] in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer be enslaved to sin; because the one who has died to sin has been justified from sin” (Romans 6:3-7).
The operation of baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit from God the Father is called “the circumcision of Christ,” which is the spiritual circumcision of the heart. In Paul’s epistle to the Colossians we find this explanation: “And you are complete in Him, Who is the Head of all principality and power; in Whom you have also been circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, by which you have also been raised with Him through the inner working of God, Who raised Him from the dead. For you, who were once dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He now made alive with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses. He has blotted out the note of debt against us, with the decrees of our sins, which was contrary to us; also He has taken it away, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:10-14).
The New Testament clearly shows that no person should partake of the New Covenant Passover until he or she has been baptized and has been spiritually circumcised in heart by the receiving of the Holy Spirit of God. “But He Who establishes us with you in Christ, and Who has anointed us, is God, Who has also sealed us and has given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (II Cor. 1:21-22).
To partake of the New Covenant Passover worthily, a person must have been baptized and must have received the Holy Spirit from God the Father. Only those who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit from God the Father should partake of the Christian Passover, because they are the only ones who have been spiritually circumcised in heart and have truly entered into the New Covenant with God the Father and Jesus Christ.
