What Old Testament connections are evident in 1 Corinthians 5:7? 1 Corinthians 5:7 — the text “Get rid of the old yeast, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you indeed are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7) Old Testament echoes packed into one verse • Passover lamb (Exodus 12) • Unleavened bread / removal of yeast (Exodus 12–13; Deuteronomy 16) • Purging what is corrupt (Exodus 12:15; Deuteronomy 16:4; Leviticus 2:11) The Passover lamb in Exodus 12 • “Your lamb must be an unblemished male a year old” (Exodus 12:5). • Blood applied to the doorframes protected Israel from judgment (Exodus 12:7, 13). • No bone of that lamb was to be broken (Exodus 12:46), foreshadowing John 19:36. • Paul’s words, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed,” identify Jesus as the literal fulfillment: – John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” – 1 Pt 1:18-19 “a lamb without blemish or spot.” Unleavened bread: erasing every crumb of yeast • “Seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you must remove the yeast from your houses” (Exodus 12:15). • “For seven days there is to be no yeast found in your houses” (Exodus 12:19). • “No leavened bread shall be seen among you” (Exodus 13:7). • Leaven pictured sin’s pervasive spread; Paul carries the symbol straight into church discipline (1 Corinthians 5:6). Purging the old to welcome the new • The physical act in Exodus—scraping cupboards, sweeping floors—becomes spiritual in Corinth: remove open, tolerated sin. • “No grain offering that you present to the LORD shall be made with leaven” (Leviticus 2:11) gives the same pattern: God rejects mingled corruption. • Deuteronomy repeats the call: “You must not eat leavened bread with it… so that you may remember the day you came out of the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 16:3). Memory and moral purity walk together. Seeing Christ in the feast • Just as the Passover lamb died before Israel left slavery, Christ’s cross precedes and guarantees the believer’s exodus from sin. • Unleavened bread follows the sacrifice; holy living follows salvation. The order is never reversed. • The church already “is” unleavened (“as you indeed are”) by position in Christ, yet is told to “get rid of” leaven in practice—a classic Scripture pairing of standing and state. Living the picture today • Treasure the accuracy of Scripture: Exodus’ details are not relics; they are the Spirit-given blueprint for understanding the cross. • Sweep out personal and congregational leaven—doctrinal compromise, moral laxity, unforgiveness—because the Lamb has been slain. • Celebrate the continual Feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:8) by honest repentance and joy in the finished sacrifice. Old Testament rituals and New Testament realities blend seamlessly in 1 Corinthians 5:7, proving again that every word God breathed out is trustworthy and intentionally connected. |
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