Foundation Text
1 Corinthians 5:7
Context: 1 Corinthians 5:7 provides the NT's most explicit typological identification of Christ as the Passover Lamb: "Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν … ἐτύθη) Paul writes in the context of church discipline — the Corinthian church is tolerating sexual immorality (5:1-2). His argument moves from the indicative to the imperative: because Christ has already been sacrificed as the Passover Lamb (indicative), the church must live in purity (imperative). The Passover metaphor is comprehensive: Christ is the lamb, believers are the household eating the meal, and leaven represents the sin that must be purged. Paul follows with an explicit ethical application: "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth" (5:8).
Greek Key Terms
- G3957 πάσχα (pascha) - "passover" — the feast and its sacrificial lamb, applied directly to Christ
- G2380 θύω (thyo) - "to sacrifice, slaughter" — cultic verb for ritual sacrifice, indicating Christ's death is a formal sacrificial act
- G106 ἄζυμος (azymos) - "unleavened" — the purity required of those who partake of the Passover
- G2219 ζύμη (zyme) - "leaven" — metaphor for sin that corrupts the community
Connections
- TO: Exodus 12:1-13 (Passover institution), Exodus 12:15-20 (removal of leaven during feast)
- FROM OT: N/A — this is NT application
- FROM NT: John 1:29 (Lamb of God), 1 Peter 1:19 (redeemed with precious blood of lamb), Hebrews 9:28 (offered once to bear sins)
Christological Connection: Paul's declaration is the hermeneutical key for the entire Passover trajectory. The aorist passive ἐτύθη ("has been sacrificed") indicates a completed, once-for-all event — Christ's death on the cross is the decisive Passover sacrifice that renders all subsequent lamb-slaughter obsolete. The possessive pronoun ἡμῶν ("our") establishes corporate identification: Christ is not generically a Passover lamb but specifically "our" Passover lamb — the one whose blood marks the household of faith.
Paul's argument reveals the logic of gospel ethics. The imperative ("Get rid of the old leaven") is grounded in the indicative ("Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed"). Believers do not purge sin in order to earn the Passover sacrifice; they purge sin because the sacrifice has already been made. The Passover chronology is instructive: in Exodus, the lamb was slaughtered first (12:6), then the leaven was removed (12:15). The sacrifice precedes and enables the purification. Paul applies this same sequence: Christ's sacrifice (past, completed) grounds the call to holiness (present, ongoing). This is the Reformational pattern of justification producing sanctification, not the reverse.
The escalation from the Exodus Passover to Paul's application encompasses scope, duration, and effect. The Exodus Passover delivered one nation from one night of judgment through an animal's blood; Christ's Passover delivers people from every nation from eternal judgment through the blood of God's own Son. The annual repetition of the Passover acknowledged its provisional nature; the aorist ἐτύθη declares its once-for-all completion. The Passover leaven removal was a seven-day ritual; the ethical response to Christ's sacrifice is a lifelong posture of "sincerity and truth."
Connection Method(s): Typology (Direct Institutional Type, Forward-Looking — canonical level) — Paul's explicit identification "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" is the definitive NT hermeneutical key, recognizing the Passover as a divinely designed type completely fulfilled in Christ's atoning death. Paul's use of the sacrificial verb θύω confirms he understands the cross as formal sacrifice, not metaphor. The ethical application (remove leaven) follows the Passover typology's own internal logic.
Trajectory Table: 114 - Passover (Christ Our Passover Lamb)