Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

The Lord gave old covenant Israel sacramental signs and seals of His covenant to reflect something of the saving work of Christ. Circumcision and Passover pointed forward to the shed blood of Jesus on the cross, as is true of their non-bloody New Testament counterparts––baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Since the blood was shed at Calvary, the bloody signs in the Old Testament are replaced with non-bloody signs in the New Testament. The Old Testament revelation about circumcision and the Passover informs our understanding of the new covenant signs and seals of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The apostolic allusions to circumcision (Rom. 2:25–29; Colossians 2:11–12) and the Passover (1 Cor. 5:7) in the New Testament guide our biblical interpretation of the Old Testament sacraments. The New Testament also refers to the typical baptisms of the Flood and the Red Sea, as well as to the typical Lord’s Supper in the wilderness with the manna and water from the rock (1 Cor. 10:1–4). Taken together the Old Testament types help us better understand the new covenant signs of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Old Testament Signs and Seals

Circumcision

In the Old Testament, God gave Israel the covenant signs of circumcision and the Passover. The bloody sign of circumcision carried deep significance for Abraham and his descendants in redemptive history. God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision (Gen. 17:1–14) to symbolize and seal all that He had promised Abraham and his offspring in the covenant.  The Lord promised Abraham a people, a place, and His presence (Gen. 12:1–3). In order for the Lord to bless ungodly Abraham (Rom. 4:1–5), he would have to justify Abraham. In the making of the covenant, the Lord reiterated His promises to Abraham. Abraham believed God and was counted righteous by faith alone (Gen. 15:6).

The Lord then enacted a covenant ceremony with Abraham in the cutting of the animals (Gen. 15:7–20). The cutting apart of the animals indicated that two parties were covenanting together. Both parties were obligated to walk through the separated animals. In this way they were pledging their commitment to fulfill their obligations in the covenant. The cut animals carried with them the imagery of judgment. If one party in the covenant failed to uphold their part, what happened to the animals would happen to them––namely, they would be “cut” apart in judgment. This ceremonial ritual symbolized the penalty of those who were cut off by the Lord in judgment. If they failed to keep their part in the covenant agreement, they would fall under the penalty of their covenant breaking. When the cutting of the covenant was enacted, Moses tells us, “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (Gen. 15:17). R.C. Sproul explained the significance of this, when he wrote,

“What is going on here in this theophany is that God, manifesting Himself as the burning fire, moves between these pieces and symbolically is saying to Abraham, as He’s cutting a covenant with him, He said, ‘Abraham, if I don’t keep My word, may I be torn asunder as you have cut these animals in two. I am promising you and swearing, not by My mother’s grave—I don’t have a mother. I’m not swearing by the earth—that’s My footstool. I’m not swearing by the heavens—that’s My abode. I’m swearing by Myself.’ And because God could swear by nothing greater, He swore by His own being, saying, ‘If I break My word, may the immutable deity suffer mutation. I’m swearing by My holy character.’”

After the cutting of the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 15:7–20), the Lord gave Abraham the sign of circumcision (Gen. 17). Circumcision was another “cutting” ceremony in the confirmation of the covenant promises. It carries similar symbolism as the cut apart animals in Genesis 15. The Lord commanded that the sign of circumcision be placed on all the males in Abraham’s house. Additionally, it was to be put on the reproductive organ of all his male offspring on the eighth day. The cutting away of the foreskin of the male reproductive order symbolized that there would be new creation (i.e., regeneration) by means of bloody judgment. It went on the male reproductive organ as a sign that God would cleanse the corruption that passes generation to generation upon all those who ordinarily descended from Adam. God charged Abraham to put the sign on his male offspring on the eighth day. This symbolized that God was promising to bring about a new creation––since the eighth day is also the first day of the week.

Throughout the remainder of the Old Testament, the Lord reminded His people that they needed “a circumcised heart” if they were going to enjoy the blessings of knowing and living for the Covenant Lord. The sign of circumcision indicated that the blessing could only come through a bloody judgment. In order for God to cleanse the corruption from the hearts of men, blood had to be shed. This pointed forward to the saving work of Christ. The blood Jesus shed at the cross is the blood of the ultimate circumcision. 

As an infant, Jesus was subject to receiving the Old Testament sign of circumcision. Though he knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15), Christ would have to take on himself the sign of a bloody judgment as the Last Adam, the saving representative of his people. In this way, Jesus was showing that he had come as the representative redeemer of a sinful people. Just as at his baptism, Jesus submitted to practices that God gave a sinful people to show their need for redemption. As the representative redeemer, Jesus submitted himself to these cultic practices as part of his humiliation (Phil 2:5–11).  Since Jesus is the mediator of the everlasting covenant of grace, everything he did––from his conception to his ascension—form essential elements of his humiliation in his saving work.

The blood that Christ shed in his circumcision was in obedience to the covenant obligations the Lord put upon His people in the Old Testament economy of redemptive history. The circumcision of Christ when he was eight days old was part of his active obedience—even though it was done passively by him through an act of obedience on the part of Mary. In short, Jesus’ circumcision is part of his law-keeping and, therefore, apt of his meritorious righteousness. In fact, in Galatians, the apostle Paul stated that everyone who is circumcised (under the legal demands of the Mosaic legislation) “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4–5). Beginning with circumcision, Jesus obeyed every single command and precept of the law perfectly in covenantal obedience to his Father.

There is another reference to “the circumcision of Christ” in the New Testament––one that focuses on the spiritual circumcision of the heart brought about by the death of Jesus on the cross. In Colossians 2:11, the apostle Paul wrote,

“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11).

There are two circumcisions mentioned in this passage in relation to Christ. The first is the spiritual circumcision he performed on the sinful hearts of men (Deut. 10:16, 30:6; Jer. 4:4; ;9:25–26). The apostle refers to this when he says, “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.” The apostle is here referring to the new birth, as he elsewhere refers to the promised blessing of regeneration as “circumcision” (Rom. 2:25–29). In order to circumcise the hearts of His people the Lord would have to remove their sin nature first (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26); he would do this by hanging on the tree. The second “circumcision” in this passage is that which makes the spiritual circumcision of the hearts of God’s people possible––namely, “the circumcision” of Jesus on the cross. As one commentator observed,

“Assuming that the  two phrases, ‘in the stripping away of the body of flesh’  and ‘in the circumcision of Christ’  are construed alike. . .then the meaning is that the body of flesh was stripped off when Christ was circumcised, that is, when he died; the whole statement is ‘a gruesome figure for death’. . .Here is a circumcision which entailed not the stripping off of a small portion of flesh but the violent removal of the whole body in death.”

The sign of circumcision carried with it a promise of judgment and salvation. For those who broke God’s covenant and failed to keep its obligations deserve to be “cut off” from the presence of God. This was the promise of judgment signified in the sign. The promise of the new birth through the “cutting away” of the filth of our flesh was enacted by the promised judgment falling on Christ at Calvary. The sign of circumcision indicated that deliverance would come through an act of judgment. Jesus was “cut off from the land of the living” so that God’s people might have the body of flesh cut away.

Passover

The other Old Testament sacrament that the Lord gave Israel was the paschal meal (Exodus 14). The Passover was the redemptive feast in which God’s people were to commemorate what He had done for them in bringing them out of their bondage in Egypt. Like circumcision, the Passover was a sign of judgment and salvation. The Lord had sent great judgments upon his enemies in the act of delivering His people. The judgment promised in the tenth and final plague (i.e., the death of the firstborn) would fall upon the Egyptians (Exodus 12). However, the same judgment would fall on Israel if they did not have the sign of the covenant applied to the doorposts of their homes. In this way, the Lord was signifying that there is no difference between Jews or Gentiles regarding the just punishment of sin (Rom. 3:9–18). In the institution of the Passover, the Lord graciously granted his people a substitute sacrifice in the Passover Lamb. Whoever put the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of his home would be delivered from the judgment of the destroying angel of the Lord. As the Lord promised, when He said, “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:13).

Jesus is our Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). He is the one of whom Isaiah spoke when he foretold that he would be “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent” (Isaiah 53:7). The apostle John alludes to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover throughout his gospel and the book of Revelation. At the outset of Christ’s ministry, John the Baptist pointed his disciples to him, saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36). When Jesus hung on the cross, a soldier came to break his legs to take his body down. John tells us,

“When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness––his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’” 

Phil Ryken traced the redemptive historical development of the sacrificial lamb in the Old Testament from Abraham to the Passover to the Day of Atonement. He observed,

“There is an obvious progression. . .with the lamb serving as a representative for larger and larger groups of people. At first God provided one lamb for one person. Thus Abraham offered a ram in place of his son Isaac. Next God provided one lamb for one household. This happened at the first Passover, when every family in the covenant community offered its own lamb to God. Then God provided one sacrifice for the whole nation. On the Day of Atonement, a single animal atoned for the sins of all Israel. Finally the day came when John the Baptist “saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29; cf. John 11:50-52). God was planning this all along: one Lamb to die for one world. By his grace he has provided a lamb — ‘the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.’” (Rev. 13:8)

The Lord’s Supper was instituted during the Passover. This is no insignificant historical detail. Jesus intended for his disciples to draw the connection between the Passover meal and the Lord’s Supper, when he instituted the Supper on the same night as he partook of the Passover with his disciples. In many respects, Jesus drew these two redemptive meals together in harmonious unity by removing the bloody sign with the non-bloody signs of bread and wine. R.A. Finlayson envisages it in this way: “At the institution of the Lord’s Supper, “Jesus, with infinite majesty and quiet deliberation, lays, as it were, the Paschal lamb aside, and places himself on the table!”

B.B. Warfield explained the close connection between the two by virtue of the sacrificial imagery, when he wrote,

“The Lord’s Supper is the continuation of the Passover feast. The symbol only being changed, it is the Passover feast. And the eating of the bread and drinking of the wine mean precisely what partaking of the lamb did then. It is communion in the altar. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; and we eat the Passover whenever we eat this bread and drink this wine in remembrance of Him. In our communing thus in the body and the blood of Christ we partake of the altar, and are made beneficiaries of the sacrifice He wrought out upon it.”

The Supper, the apostle will tell us, is a sign and seal of our union and communion with Christ. This is clearly taught in 1 Corinthians 10:16–17. Jonathan Edwards noted this in his sermon on that passage, Sacramental Union in Christ, where he wrote,

“The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. . .is a seal on Christ’s part. The minister acts in that ordinance as Christ’s representative. The minister’s actions in breaking [bread], pouring out [wine], and offering [them] are appointed as an open declaration and confirmation of the act of his heart, that he fully and freely consents to, and complies with, his part of the covenant. The union of his heart to his people exhibits his dying love, his readiness to receive them into that near relation, into a vital union.

It is also a seal on his people’s [part]. . .Their taking the bread and wine is a declaration that they accept of Christ [and] accept that sacrifice. Their eating and drinking [signifies] that they accept of Christ as their food, and openly profess their union of heart, their faith and love.”

Old Testament Types

Baptism

There are a few significant references to typical baptism in the Old Testament that help us better understand the nature of the New Testament sign and seal of the covenant. In 1 Peter 3:20–21, the apostle draws a connection between the Flood and new covenant baptism, when the apostle explains,

“God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Regarding the flood as a typical baptism, Jonthan Edwards explained,

“That water that washed away the filth of the world, that cleared the world of wicked men, was a type of the blood of Christ that takes away the sin of the world. That water that delivered Noah and his sons from their enemies is a type of that blood that delivers God’s church from their sins, their worst enemies. That water that was so plentiful and abundant that it filled the world and reached above the tops of the highest mountains was a type of that blood the sufficiency of which is so abundant baptismal for the whole world’s baptism, to bury the biggest mountains of sin. The ark that was the refuge and hiding place of the church in this time of storm and floods was a type of Christ, the true hiding place of the church from the storms and floods of God’s wrath

In 1 Corinthians 10:1–4, the apostle Paul referred to the Red Sea crossing as baptism when he writes, “All our fathers passed through the sea; all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Jonathan Edwards reflected on the significance of the baptism typology in the Red Sea, when he wrote,

“Christ overthrew their enemies in the Red Sea: the Lord triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider cast into the sea, and there they slept their last sleep³ and never followed the children of Israel any more,⁴ as all Christ’s enemies are overthrown in his blood which by its abundant sufficiency and the greatness of the sufferings with which it was shed may well be represented by a sea. The Red Sea did represent Christ’s blood, as is evident because the Apostle compares the children of Israel’s passing through the Red Sea to baptism, 1 Cor. 10:1–2 [‘All our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea’]. But we all know that the water of baptism represents Christ’s blood.”

The flood and the waters of the Red Sea are said to be typical baptisms insomuch as they are an act of deliverance through judgment––particularly through water-judgment. Noah and his family were delivered through an act of judgment in the flood. God washed away His enemies with the flood. Just as He had brought blessing out of the waters at creation, so He would bring judgment through the flood waters. When the waters abated, Noah stepped out of the ark and into a typical new creation. In the same way, the Red Sea crossing was a type of baptism in that God destroyed His enemies in the waters of the Red Sea while delivering His people in a typical new creation. The language used in Exodus 14:16 and 21 reflects the language of creation in the dividing of the water and the dry land. Again, God was intimating that through a typical baptism He would deliver His people through judgment.

The final baptism in the Old Testament era was that of John the Baptist. John came at the end of the old covenant economy with a baptism of repentance. He was sent by God to call rebellious and apostate Israel back to the Lord by preparing the way of Christ. The remarkable thing about John’s ministry is what it teaches us about Jesus. Just as Jesus had submitted himself to receiving the covenant sign of circumcision (a sign that indicated that man needed God to cleanse the corruption of his heart), so he submitted to the act of a baptism of repentance––though he needed no personal repentance as the sinless one. Nevertheless, as the representative of his people, Jesus received the baptism of John as a precursor to what would happen to him on the cross.

As Jesus drew near to Jerusalem to suffer and die, he told his disciples, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished” (Luke 12:50). This allusion to his death under the figure of baptism ties everything typified in the flood, the Red Sea and John’s baptism together. Jesus would fall under the judgment of God in the place of his people on the cross. The floodwaters of the wrath of God would destroy the body of sin in his body on the tree. God would wash away the filth of our hearts by pouring His wrath out on Jesus in judgment on the tree. Meredith Kline summarized this so well, when he wrote,

“As covenant Servant, Jesus submitted in symbol to the judgment of the God of the covenant in the waters of baptism. But for Jesus, as the Lamb of God, to submit to the symbol of judgment was to offer himself up to the curse of the covenant. By his baptism, Jesus was consecrating himself unto his sacrificial death in the judicial ordeal of the cross. Such an understanding of his baptism is reflected in Jesus’ own reference to his coming passion as a baptism [Luke 12:5].

The Lord’s Supper

In 1 Corinthians 10:1–4, Paul sets out another Old Testament type of a New Testament sacrament, namely, to the Lord’s Supper in the food and drink Israel had in the wilderness. He writes, “All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from that rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” The phrase “the same spiritual food and. . .the same spiritual drink” refers to the manna and water from the rock. This is a clear typological reference to the Lord’s Supper typified in these wilderness types. Jesus explained how the manna was a type of his own flesh, when he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven. . .I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:41, 51). The manna was a sign that God would provide supernatural, spiritual nourishment for the souls of His people in the Christ who came down from heaven.

The water from the rock was a supernatural, spiritual drink for Israel, analogous to the wine in the Supper. Israel experienced God’s provision of this life-giving drink at the beginning and at the end of their wilderness wanderings (Exodus 17:1–7; Num. 20:1–13). Moses was told to strike the rock with the rod of judgment with which God had sent the plagues on Egypt. The Lord came and stood on the rock so that when Moses struck it with the rod of judgment it symbolized the Lord being struck in the place of his people under the judgment of God to provide them with life-giving drink. Edmund Clowney drew the typology of the water from the rock in Ex. 17 and Num. 20 together through the lens of Calvary when he wrote:

“When Moses struck the rock, a stream of life-giving water poured out into the desert.  When Jesus was crucified, John tells us that blood and water poured from his side (John 19:34). . . . We do not wonder that Moses was judged severely for striking the rock a second time, when he had been told to speak to it (Numbers 20:7-13). Only once, at the appointed time, does God bear the stroke of our doom.”

Jesus is the rock who followed the Israelites throughout their wilderness journeying. When they complained, God graciously answered their accusations by placing Himself in their place under the rod of His own justice. In this type, we discover that Jesus steps in the place of His people on the cross to be struck with the rod of divine justice. Now that He has offered Himself once-for-all without spot to God, we are to simply ask Him for the living water, and He has promised to answer us for the soul-quenching blessing of the Spirit. 

If we are to understand the nature of the signs and seals of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, we have to understand the judgment-deliverance symbolism of circumcision and the Passover, as well as of the typical baptisms and Lord’s Supper in the flood, the exodus, and the wilderness. When we understand that the sacraments symbolize judgment, we look at the one who fell under that judgment on the cross––the one who was “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.” By his blood, Christ delivers us from the wrath to come. He washes and cleanses us with his blood, even as water washes and cleanses. He feeds us spiritually with his flesh and blood, even as we are physically nourished by bread and wine. The signs and seals of the New Testament are rooted in the symbolism of the types and shadows of the Old Testament. Taken together, we come to see more clearly the Christ to whom the sacraments point.