Page 15 - The Gate and the Way

and sin.
Consider how the church has cheapened this great gift that the Son of God has given
to mankind. The church wants to be made alive in Christ, but they do not want to give their
lives to Christ. They want salvation without sacrifice. The church wants the riches that are
found only in Yahshua the Messiah, but they do not want to live the same life of devotion
to the will and pleasure of the Father that He lived. The vast majority of Christians today
wish to remain living the life of their own choosing, a self-focused pursuit of personal
fulfillment and pleasure, while adding the benefits of Christ to their goody basket. Christ
never offered salvation on these terms.

Matthew 16:25-26
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his
soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Yahweh has given us many ways to visualize the salvation He has provided to
mankind. The grandest similitude found anywhere in Scripture is in the epic history of
Yahweh delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt. In this event we see both the atoning work
of Christ in the blood of the Passover lamb placed on the doors of the homes of those
dwelling in Goshen, and we also see the IMMEDIATE call to FOLLOW wherever God would
lead.

Exodus 12:11
“Now you shall eat [the Passover meal] in this manner: with your loins girded, your
sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste - it is
Yahweh’s Passover.”

The events of this first Passover Feast serve as a type and shadow of those things to
be fulfilled in Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to
a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day - things which are a shadow of
what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

I Corinthians 5:7
For Christ, our Passover, also has been sacrificed...

As the Israelites ate that first Passover meal 1,500 years prior to the birth of Christ,
they were acting out in type the salvation that Yahweh would one day provide for all
mankind. Yahweh would send forth His Son as the Passover Lamb to be sacrificed that man
might be “passed over” by death. The Lamb of God would be slain that mankind might live.
God instructed the Israelites to take a year old male lamb without spot or blemish, and
to bring it into their homes. The lamb was to dwell with them for four days, and afterward
it was to be slain and the blood put on the doorposts and lintel of the home. The death angel
was to visit Egypt that same night. Wherever he saw the blood on the door he would pass
over and no one inside would die. In every house where there was no blood, the firstborn