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People of Zion participate in the festival of life, which God grants, by keeping the Passover holy every year. The Gospels of the New Testament show that Jesus established the Passover as the new covenant, saying, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15).
Why did Jesus eagerly desire to celebrate the Passover with His disciples? It was because He wanted to accomplish His administration of redemption to save the sinners, who were bound to die, by making their bodies immortal through the Passover of the new covenant. People say that the manna coming down from heaven or Lazarus’ rising from the dead is a miracle. In actuality, however, there is no greater miracle than making human beings, who were destined to die eternally, immortal beings forever through the Passover. Let’s look into God’s wondrous miracle of changing our mortal bodies into immortal ones and take a look at the words of promise concerning it.
Human beings are all slaves to sin
Everyone born into this world cannot escape death. Although it is said that man is the lord of all creation, he must yield to the power of death in the end. So, we cannot help but say that man is a slave to sin, rather than the lord of all creation.
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,Heb 9:27
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? …Ro 7:24-25
The above words in the book of Romans show not only Apostle Paul’s personal anguish and lamentation, but that of all people. Man is to live a weary, hard life, being chained to death. In order to live a longer and healthier life, people seek medical help from famous doctors or good medicine even though it costs so much, but nobody can escape death and after death they are to face judgment. The Bible tells us this fact.
All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.Ps 90:9-10
Just as the Bible says that we “fly away,” our life passes away very quickly. Even for such a short life span, people live a sinful life that is not pleasing to God, and all of their days pass away under the wrath of the Lord; their life is filled with trouble and sorrow and it fades away quickly. Living without knowing God is like rushing towards death—such a life is just like a breakless car. So, Solomon testified that everything is meaningless if we look deeply into life.
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? …Ecc 1:1-11
People make all kinds of efforts for meaningless things, but eventually their life ends in death. Since Solomon realized this emptiness of life, although he had everything—wealth, splendor, power and wisdom which everyone envied, he came to the conclusion that all of man’s toilsome labor under the sun is totally useless, saying, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
God has given us the Passover, the feast of life
God looked down from heaven on human beings living such empty and meaningless lives, and took pity on them. Having pity on us who couldn’t escape the agony of death and the tortures of hell in the future, God came down to this earth to give us eternal life.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.Heb 2:14-15
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”Jn 10:10
God Himself came to this earth to grant eternal life to human beings who were destined to die—this is the most blessed and joyful news for us. Now, let’s see how God gives us eternal life.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day…”Jn 6:53-57
To save us by letting us eat His flesh and drink His blood, God has to sacrifice Himself. For so many sinners who are dying, God has established the principle of truth—that is giving them eternal life by sacrificing Himself. If a kernel of wheat dies, it sprouts and blooms and produces many seeds—a hundred times or a thousand times what was sown. This is the principle that God has taken.
The flesh and blood of Christ that grants eternal life is given to mankind through the Passover.
… So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover… While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”Mt 26:17-19, 26-28
… When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…” And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”Lk 22:7-15, 19-20
Jesus says that we have eternal life if we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood. By saying this, Jesus means that He will give us eternal life if we eat bread and drink wine on the Passover. God has given us the Passover in order to redeem us, mortal beings, from death and grant us eternal life and then take us to heaven. This is God’s ultimate will contained in the Passover. So, in the book of Luke, this Passover is described as the “new covenant” which Jesus established while He was on the earth.
The kingdom of heaven where those who have received the promise of eternal life can enter
The Passover of the new covenant is not just a feast, but it is God’s promise to lead mankind to the way of eternal life. The Bible calls this blessed news the “gospel.” So, Apostle Paul called himself a servant of the gospel or a minister of the new covenant. Thus, he made it clear that the gospel is the new covenant.
God came to this earth and established the Passover of the new covenant through His precious blood to give us eternal life. Let’s find out the reason why God wanted to give us eternal life.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea… Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death …Rev 21:1-4
The kingdom of God is an eternal world where there is no death. To live where there is no death, the first condition is to have eternal life. So, in order to bring us to that place, God has promised us eternal life through the bread and wine of the Passover of the new covenant, and has opened a new and living way by which those who have eternal life can go back to heaven. When the everlasting kingdom of heaven comes, those who have received the promise of eternal life in the truth of the new covenant will be changed into the spiritual beings over whom death can never reign again and will go to that eternal place.
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality…1 Co 15:50-58
This is the promise of God. God has promised that He will change our mortal bodies into the immortal ones in a moment, at the last trumpet. The promise of eternal life is a gift from God, which is granted only to those who partake of the bread and wine which represent the body and blood of Christ by celebrating the Passover of the new covenant. For them, there is a living hope that at the last trumpet, the dead will be raised and those who are still alive will be changed and they will meet Christ together in the air.
… For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.1 Th 4:13-18
This is the scene where the mortal body is changed into an immortal body as stated in 1 Corinthians. This perishable body puts on the imperishable, and this mortal body puts on immortality—this happens to the people who keep the Passover of the new covenant, who live in the promise of God. On the contrary, those who do not live in the new covenant cannot receive the promise of eternal life. Without the promise of eternal life, how could they be changed into immortal beings?
In order to change our mortal bodies into the immortal ones, God has given us the Passover of the new covenant, the truth of life. Therefore, the apostles celebrated this precious Passover year after year, and even after the Apostolic Age it continued to be celebrated. However, at the Council of Nicaea held in A.D. 325, the Passover was completely abolished by Satan.
Afterwards, the Passover, the truth of life, disappeared from the earth for a long time. After the 1600-year-long period, Christ who came to this earth a second time restored the Passover to His chosen people in the last days. By this, God’s work of salvation is to be completed. We can confirm this through the prophecies of the Bible (Heb 9:28; Isa 25:6-9).
The Passover through which God promises us life
God makes streams gush forth in the desert and the buds of life come out on dry branches. This promise of God is fulfilled through the Passover of the new covenant. Those who receive this promise of life will become immortal, and their mortal bodies will be transformed into immortal, imperishable bodies. This is the teaching of the whole Bible.
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant…Heb 9:15-22
The new covenant has the power to enable those who are called by God to receive the promised eternal inheritance of heaven. Some people may ask doubtfully, “It is merely a piece of bread and a cup of wine. How can we have eternal life just by eating the bread and drinking the wine?” However, the Passover contains a promise that God has made to us.
Christianity is a religion based on God’s promise. We are blessed by believing the promises which God has made to us and putting them into practice. No matter how diligently we believe in God, unless we celebrate the Passover, it is nothing but our own personal faith without God’s promise.
“I will bestow blessing on you if you keep the seventh-day Sabbath.” This is a promise between God and His people. “I will give you eternal life if you eat bread and drink wine on the Passover.” This is also a promise which God has given us. We may eat bread and drink wine in ordinary times, but God doesn’t give any promise to that bread and wine. God has especially chosen the Passover to fulfill His promise to us. The Bible says that if we believe the promise of God and put it into practice, God will change our mortal bodies into the immortal ones so that we may experience the glorious moment when we will meet Christ in the air.
Relying on the promise of God, we participate in the holy and precious Passover. So, we should live according to the example of Christ, following the path He walked. Our thoughts have to resemble the thoughts of Christ, and our behaviors should also change, so that we may become worthy to be called Christians. Since Christ came to this earth in order to save the world, our goal in life should be the same as that of Christ. Let’s preach the gospel of the new covenant to all nations, especially to the countries where the good news has not yet reached, so that they can all participate in God’s work of salvation.
To preach the gospel of the new covenant to the whole world, many brothers and sisters are now flying to and from all nations, like clouds, like doves to their nests. All our brothers and sisters in Zion! Let us strive even harder in preaching this gospel and depend firmly on the promise of God, so that we may become worthy enough to enter eternal life.