We have already learned the meaning of some of the "types" in the Bible. Egypt is a type of the evil world system. Pharaoh is a type of Satan. Satan is the real ruler of the evil world system in which we live.

When God looked down on the people of Israel, what did He see? He saw that the people were slaves of Pharaoh in his evil world system. God saw also that the people of Israel were sinners, just like the Egyptians. They too were under God's judgment for their sins.

How did God deliver them? First, God delivered them from the judgment of death by the blood of the Passover lamb. God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you."

Then He delivered them from Pharaoh's power. The great thought of the Passover was God's taking His people out of Egypt that He might have them for Himself.

How did God do this? He took His people through the Red Sea. God told Moses to stretch out his hand and to divide the sea, so that the children of Israel could cross on dry land in the midst of the sea.

God took His people through a "place of death," with walls of water on either side of them. He brought them through the Red Sea into a new land.

When the Egyptians saw this, they thought they could do the same thing. They followed with their army, their chariots, and their horsemen. Then God told Moses to stretch out his hand again, and the waters closed over the Egyptians. The entire Egyptian army was destroyed.

Israel's deliverance was the beginning of a new life for them. They were no longer slaves of Pharaoh. They were like "new people" in a new land.

All of this is a "picture" of God's great salvation for us. In my unsaved condition, I was under God's judment for my many sins. I was a sinner—the one who did all those sins. And I was a slave of Satan in his evil world system.

How did God deliver me from my sins? He delivered me by the blood of His Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

How did God deliver me from my sinful SELF? He did this by putting me in Christ on the cross. When Christ was crucified, I was crucified with Him. When He died, I died with Him. And when He rose from the dead, I rose with Him as a new person in God's new creation.

God's salvation is a great salvation. It involves the defeat of Satan and all his evil powers, the breaking of his power, and the complete deliverance of God's people from "Egypt"—Satan's world system. The children of Israel, standing in safety on the far shore, saw all their enemies destroyed in the sea. The Bible says,

"Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and His servant Moses." Exodus 14:30-31

Israel's crossing of the Red Sea is a type of baptism. The Bible says that they "were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." (1 Corinthians 10:2) They went into a place of death and came up in a new land.

What is this deliverance a type of? It is a type of the way God has delivered us from our "Egypt." God put us in Christ on the cross. We died with Him, we were buried with Him, and we rose with Him in God's new creation.

God did not simply redeem His people by the blood of the lamb and leave them in Egypt, under Pharaoh's power. God delivered His people from Pharaoh and the power of Egypt by taking them down into "death" and through "death" to another land.

Baptism by immersion is a picture of this. We go down into the water, which is a picture of our death with Christ. We go under the water, which is a picture of our burial with Christ. We come out of the water, which is a picture of our resurrection with Christ.

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