Today is the Passover in the Jewish calendar. (And it’s snowing outside!) The Passover commemorates the Exodus and Red Sea Crossing of the nation of Israel in fleeing Egyptian bondage (of 400 years) — see Exodus 12:33-14:31 . The Passover was the last great miracle/plague of Yahweh for His people. It all took place almost 3,500 years ago. (If any wish to explore the veracity of the Red Sea crossing and where it was, I highly recommend Exodus Revealed , a recent documentary of explorations tying together the biblical narrative and the archaeological evidence.)

Sadly, most of the maps in our Bibles are fashioned after a liberal view of the events, thinking the crossing was of the "Reed Sea," a marshy shallow lake/sea near the eastern border of Egypt. (There’s not much reason for this, perhaps other than the fact that is a hostile environment in the Middle East and very difficult to enter these areas to explore and investigate further.) This also places Mt. Sinai in what is thus commonly called the Sinai peninsula, while it is very likely in Arabia, east of the Red Sea crossing of the Gulf of Aqaba. It is fascinating to see how the landmarks do in fact line up in placing the Red Sea Crossing there, and Mt. Sinai in Arabia (see map above right). Our maps have not normally matched a true reading of the passages, but rather acquiesced to the liberal view that no supernatural miracle could have happened.

From their explorations (for the documentary Exodus Revealed ), the explorers and archaeologists also found fossilized shapes that are obviously in round (chariot-wheel) shapes, a few of the images. These cannot be touched for legal and archaeological reasons — they would disintegrate in their hands. Coral has fastened itself to some wooden or metal object, in wheel shapes — and will not do that unless it has a substance of that type to attach to. The documentary illustrates the geometry similarities of the wheel shapes to the actual Egyptian chariots under one specific Pharaoh in history. Also of note is the topography and geography of this specific location on the Gulf of Aqaba. The depths of the sea on either side of the proposed crossing spot plunge to more than 1000m, yet here it is perhaps 50m deep — a prime spot for God to do a miracle and recede the waters for the Jewish people to cross, and the Egyptian soldiers in pursuit to be washed away afterward (Exodus 14:21-31 ).

Rooted in historical fact, the Passover was meant by God to establish the nature of redemption from bondage, in a vicarious or substitutionary. The people of Israel were no more righteous in thought, word and deed than the Egyptians. Rather, they were by faith in Yahweh, the Creator of all, passed over. The innocent (passover lamb) died in place of the guilty, and the people were freed to serve their God. Substitutionary atonement, purchasing redemption.

Jesus Christ came as the authentic Lamb of God, who takes away our sins (John 1:19 ), and He is the ultimate Passover sacrifice (). Jesus earnestly desired to eat one final Passover meal with His disciples before He suffered. The bread was symbolic of His body, broken for them, and the wine in the cup of His blood, shed and poured out for redemption (Luke 22:14-23 ; also see Matthew 26:17-29 ).

Perhaps no doctrine about Christ’s finished work on the cross has come under as much attack as penal substitutionary atonement . Yet, if we abandon this precious truth, we abandon Christ and His Gospel. God treated Jesus like He was us, receiving the fullness of His just wrath, so He could see us as if we were Jesus, perfect, innocent and righteous (2 Cor. 5:21 ). Let us not abandon substitutionary atonement, for because of it God will not abandon us.

Because of Christ’s atoning work of propitiation on the cross, believers in Jesus the Messiah can be considered white as snow (cleansed and forgiven), as God told Isaiah would be the case 700 years prior:

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool…” [Isaiah 1:18]

Jesus did all of this, while were yet sinners, dying for the ungodly, the righteous in place of the guilty (Romans 5:6-8). We must only glory in His glorious atonement.

“It is Christ set forth in His blood who is a propitiation; that is, it is Christ who died. In dying, as St. Paul conceived it, He made our sin His own; He took it on Himself as the reality which it is in God’s sight and to God’s law: He became sin, became a curse for us. It is this which gives His death a propitiatory character and power; in other words, which makes it possible for God to be at once righteous and a God who accepts as righteous those who believe in Jesus. . . . I do not know any word which conveys the truth of this if ‘vicarious’ or ’substitutionary’ does not, nor do I know any interpretation of Christ’s death which enables us to regard it as a demonstration of love to sinners, if this vicarious or substitutionary character is denied.”

- James Denney, quoted by J.I. Packer in “What Did the Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution” reprinted in In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008), 75.