In the New Testament the rites and symbols of the Old Testament find
recognition and explanation. This is peculiarly true of the passover
service. It was a central fact in the gospel story. The sacrifice, or
offering, of Jesus Christ as the Saviour, was made at that season;[580]
and it was evident that he himself felt that it was essential that this
be so. He held back from Jerusalem until the approach of the passover
feast, when he knew that his death was at hand.[581] And his last
passover meal was made the basis of the new memorial and symbolic
covenant meal with his disciples.[582] The passover sacrifice is as
prominent in the New Testament as in the Old.
Paul, familiar with Jewish customs by study and experience, writing to
Corinthian Christians of their duty and privileges as members of the
household of faith, urges them to make a new beginning in their lives,
as the Israelites made a new beginning on the threshold of every year at
the passover festival, with its accompanying feast of unleavened bread,
when all the lay-over leaven from a former state was put away. “Purge
out the old leaven,” he says, “that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are
unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even
Christ.”[583]