The children of Israel were required to stay in the house whose door had been touched with the blood; they were not to go out of it until the morning (12:22). To understand the significance of this we need to see that the basic concept in the Bible with respect to redemption is identification or union. Without identification there can be no substitution, which is necessary for redemption. On the cross Christ died as our substitute. However, His being our substitute requires us to be identified with Him.
In the Old Testament, the ark of Noah as a type illustrates this matter of identification. In order to be saved from the waters of judgment, Noah and his family had to be in the ark. To be in the ark was to be identified with the ark, to be one with the ark. The destiny of the ark was automatically the destiny of everyone in the ark. Whatever happened to the ark became the experience of the people who were one with the ark. After the door of the ark was closed, others may have held onto the ark in desperation. But they were not one with the ark or identified with it. The only way to be one with Christ is to enter into Him. In the words of 1 Corinthians 1:30, it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus. God has put us into Christ. As the eight persons were in the ark of Noah, so we, the redeemed ones, are in Christ Jesus.
Our entrance into Christ is through the door to which the blood has been applied. When we use hyssop to put the blood on the door, we are able to enter into Christ. After getting into Christ, we need to remain in Him. In John 15 the Lord Jesus says, “Abide in Me.” To abide in Christ is to remain in Him, that is, to maintain our identification, our union, with Him.
The effect of many of the teachings in Christianity is to cause believers to be separate from Christ and to lose their identification with Him. No teaching that causes us to lose our union with Christ can avail anything. Anything apart from Christ is human effort or strife. There is no need for us to struggle or strive. We simply need to enter into the house through the blood-sprinkled gate. Once we are in the house, we are one with the house and identified with it.
Many who believe in Christ were in the house at the time of their conversion. But shortly thereafter, as far as their practical daily experience is concerned, they came out of the house. In their experience, not many Christians stay in the house after their conversion. This means that when they believed into Christ and were saved, they entered into the house. But then they began to do many things apart from the house and outside of the house. This means that they did things outside of Christ. This has been the experience of many of us. We entered into Christ when we were saved. But in our effort to please God by ourselves, we came out of Christ. We did not remain in Him.
After we came to the church, we were brought back into the house through the ministry of the Word. Those who came into the church life still may not be in Christ in a practical way. This is a source of trouble in the church. Everyone in the church should be in Christ. However, there may arise an abnormal condition wherein many who are in the church life are not abiding in Christ. Before coming into the church life you may have struggled in your own energy to please the Lord. Now that you have come into the church, which is part of the house, you need also to come back to the house. This means that you need to come back to Christ and remain in Him.
We were all saved in Christ. But, like the Galatians, we may try to go on apart from Christ. Thus, we must be brought back to Christ. There is no need for us to do so many things. We should simply maintain our identification with Christ, with a constant realization that we are nothing and that He is everything. We need to see that we are in Him and that He is in us. As long as we abide in Him, He will abide in us. As the Lord Himself said in John 15, “Abide in Me and I in you.”
Some may have heard this teaching before they came into the church life. The crucial matter, however, is not whether or not you know the teaching about abiding in Christ; it is whether or not you are actually abiding in Him. Where are you at this very moment? Are you in Christ, or are you apart from Christ? The Lord Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). To remain in the house is to abide in Christ and to be identified with Him. In other words, it is to remain in oneness with the Lord.
The greatest problem among believers today is that, in their experience, they are outside of Christ, apart from the oneness with Christ. Moses charged the children of Israel to eat the lamb in the house and then to stay in the house. If they had come out of the house, they would have lost everything. In the house they had the full enjoyment of the Passover. Only in the house could the Passover become their experience.
We need to be clear concerning what the house is and where the house is today. We have emphasized the fact that the house is Christ. But where is the house? The house is where there is the sprinkling of the blood. The unique sign of the house is not what we are, have, or do. It is the sprinkled blood of Christ. Where redemption is, there Christ is also. Apart from redemption, we have no standing. Our unique standing is the redeeming blood of Christ.
If you read the book of Galatians, you will see that the Galatians had been distracted from the standing of redemption. They had come out of the house and were thus deprived of the benefit, the profit, of being in Christ. If the children of Israel had not remained in the house, they would have been deprived of the benefit, profit, enjoyment, and experience of the Passover. To participate in the Passover there was the need to remain in the house.
The reason we do not agree with so many of the teachings of today’s Christianity is that these teachings cause Christians to get out of the house, to no longer remain in the standing of redemption. Once we are saved, we need to remain in the very place where we have been redeemed, in the place where the blood has been sprinkled. Here in this place we have the house.
The redeeming blood keeps us in Christ. Whenever we try in our own energy to do something for God, we violate the principle of redemption. The principle of redemption is that there is no need for us to do anything other than to exercise our hyssop, our faith, to apply the blood. Whenever our hyssop applies the blood to the gate, the way is open for us to be in Christ. Let us remain in the place of redemption, in the house with the blood-sprinkled entrance. We should not practice those things which cause us to come out of the house. Rather, we should stay in the house where we participate in the Passover.
The longer we remain in the house, the more light we receive; and the more light we receive, the more we see that everything we need is in the house. If you stay in the house, you will be filled, qualified, equipped, and formed into an army. Our only need is to remain in Christ as the house.
When I was young, I heard a number of messages on the Passover. All these messages emphasized the one point that when God sees the blood, He passes over us. A well-known gospel song even uses the word from Exodus 12:13, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” But in all these messages I heard on the Passover, not a word was spoken about remaining in the house. Only twice are we told that when God sees the blood, He will pass over us. But time after time Moses spoke of the house.
If you are enlightened of the Lord, you may realize that even now you may be outside of the house, outside of Christ. The only way to get into the house is through the redeeming blood spread on the gate. It is impossible to separate the redeeming blood from the house, for the blood and the house are one. Whenever we maintain the standing of the redeeming blood, we are in Christ. However, whenever we endeavor in our natural energy to please God, we leave the standing of the redeeming blood and are outside of Christ.
Do you know what the children of Israel were doing inside the house? They were eating the flesh of the Passover lamb. Exodus 12:14 indicates that they were feasting. This verse says, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah throughout your generations” (Heb.). What does it mean to have a feast to the Lord? It means that we remain in the house and enjoy a full participation in the lamb. In this way we feast on the lamb. However, the Lord enjoys this feast more than we do. To have a feast unto Him means that we feast for Him and with Him. We eat, but He enjoys. We feast, and He is happy. The more we feast, the more enjoyment He has and the happier He is. However, the more we endeavor to do things, the more displeased He becomes, for our endeavors do not give Him any enjoyment.
What a poor situation there is in today’s Christianity! Most Christians are outside of the house trying to do things for the Lord; they are not in the house feasting unto the Lord. Praise Him that we in the local churches are in the house feasting unto the Lord!
This principle of staying in the house by keeping the standing of redemption must govern our whole Christian life. All day long we, the redeemed ones, should remain in the house. When some hear this, they may point out that the children of Israel left the house in order to make their exodus out of Egypt. However, the time they spent in the house signifies the full course of redemption.
As we remain in the house feasting on the Passover lamb, we are equipped. Actually, the feasting is the equipping. When the children of Israel were filled with the Passover lamb, they were ready to march out of Egypt. Hence, they were equipped by being filled with the lamb. This is the reason we say that remaining in the house involves the full course of redemption.
Do not think that the blood sprinkled on the lintel and the door posts is sufficient for everything. It is sufficient to usher us into the house and to keep us from the judgment of God, but it is not sufficient to equip us. It cannot enable us to make the journey. For this, we need to roast the lamb, eat its flesh in the house hastily, and be filled with the lamb. Every part of the Passover lamb must be eaten, including the head, the legs, and the inward parts. Nothing should be left over. Perhaps the children of Israel had to encourage one another to eat certain parts of the lamb. Some may not have cared for the inward parts or the head, but nevertheless they had to eat the whole lamb in order to be fully equipped for the battle.
As we feast on Christ as the Passover lamb, God is happy and full of enjoyment. Then He can say, “Satan, look at My people. They are being equipped by feasting on the Passover lamb. Because they are being equipped in this way, they will be able to defeat you.”