The Unleavened

 

 

 

 

I Corinthians 5:7

 

“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us”

 

Christ Jesus our Passover is sacrificed for us and the referenced “us” are believers. Christ Jesus is sacrificed for believers and because Christ Jesus is sacrificed for those who are given faith in Christ to rest in Christ as the complete Savior of His people, those who believe are unleavened. That is they have no sin laid to their account viz. they have no sin imputed to them because all their sins were put away by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as it is written: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9: 24-26) Someone may say: I know that I have sinned, and that I am a sinner in my own person, in thought, word and deed. How is it possible then that I am without sin in any way and accounted unleavened by a Thrice Holy God?

 

It is admitted that men are certainly sinners in their own proper persons, and that all who are sinners must die (Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23). But it is also true that all the elect people of God have already died vicariously in the Person of Jesus Christ. And those who are “dead with Christ” (Romans 6:8) have no sin because they are dead to the law by the body of Jesus Christ (Romans 7:4) and dead to sin because Christ Jesus bore their sins on the tree, as it is written: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24). Those who are dead to the law cannot sin against the law, to which they are already dead and they cannot transgress against the law because of their death in Christ, as it is written: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3:4). Those who are dead to the law cannot transgress the law, as it is written: “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). Believers are freed from the law, as it is written: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Those who are dead to the law having died vicariously under the sentence of the law in the Surety of the New Testament, are without fault before the throne of God (Revelation 14:5) and are the mystical body of Jesus Christ who is their head (Colossians 1:18) in whom they are “one bread, and one body” (I Corinthians 10:17).

 

It is not suitable, fit, nor proper that those who are made the holy people of God by the blood of Jesus Christ, should walk in this lower world according to the manner of those who are of this world. Those who have been given the most holy faith of God’s elect and who God has separated unto Himself are not of this world, even as Messiah is not of the world, as it is written: “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14-16). Verse twenty of this seventeenth chapter of John makes it clear that the whole body of the elect are included as the objects of this prayer of our Great High Priest, as it is written: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (John 17:20). This prayer is not for the Apostles only; but it is for all believers of all ages. That is, it is for the elect of God of every age, as it is written: “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). And again it is written: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4). That is, the children of God have overcome the spirit of antichrists and that is made evident by how they speak and who they hear, as it is written: “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (I John 4:5-6).

 

“Purge out therefore the old leaven” What is the old leaven? The old leaven is the evil of this world in many and various forms, as it is written: “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:8). Malice and wickedness are the modes of common life of the those who are of the world. Murder, theft, cheating, and swindling are the trades of many who are of the world. Others of the world are pleased with themselves through a sanctimonious self-righteousness, that is characteristic of the Pharisees who were instrumental in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord warned of the leaven of the Pharisees, as it is written: “Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). Our Lord made His disciples understand that He spoke of the evil of false doctrine, as it is written: “Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:12). How are we to purge out the old leaven of the evil nature of the natural man?

 

Thus saith the Holy Ghost by the pen of the Apostle Paul: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:16-26).

 

The Apostle Paul experienced and the rest of the people of God do experience the internal conflicts of sin indwelling the flesh and the principles of the new spiritual life in them who are in Christ Jesus, as it is written: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:14-25).

 

The Apostle John saith: “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (I John 1:5-10). Christ Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the people of God of all nations, kindreds and tongues (I John 2:2; Revelation 5:9). Those who believe on Christ Jesus as the Christ of God are unleavened, being made the righteousness of God in Him, as it is written: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:26-31).

 

For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Someone may ask: is the fact that Christ Jesus is sacrificed for the children of the covenant the whole, entire and complete reason that the children of God are unleavened? Yes! Let us diligently hear the words of the Holy Ghost: “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). Precious believing Reader, before you were born or even thought of (save in the mind of the Eternal One) Christ Jesus sat down on the right hand of God as your Mediator, Sponsor and Spokesman. He spoke for you in the everlasting covenant of grace before the world had been called into being. The whole and entire company of the election of grace (Romans 11:5), that is all the people of God of all ages were washed in the blood of Jesus Christ when He, our Passover was sacrificed for us.  His precious blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20) and His unspeakably and incomprehensibly holy blood is called the “blood of the New Testament which is shed for many” as it is written: “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28).  And again: “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Revelation 1:5).

 

The blood of the New Testament being shed has washed the many who are “heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29), being shed so that: “they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15). Being washed in the blood made the heirs of promise every whit clean, as it is written: “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean” (John 13:10-11). The fact that the blood is shed for many and not for all men is unquestionably declared in the fact that our Lord Jesus said “Ye are not all clean”. The betrayer demonstrated the intent and purpose of his own heart by his actions. It is also clearly demonstrated that God had given him, (“the son of perdition” John 17:12), up unto his own purposes, as it is written: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28).

 

In the times of their lives men demonstrate themselves to be what God knows that they are in themselves and in being given up to themselves they perish to all eternity. It is as one has said: “men will perish in hell to all eternity if God will allow it. But God has determined that a company of comparatively few (Matthew 7:13-14) of the sons of men “shall never perish” (John 10:28) because that “God hath from the beginning chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and the believe of the truth, as it is written: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Thessalonians 2:7-14). How very precious is the love of the truth and the faith of God’s elect!

  

 AJ Ison

 

See the writer’s blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com and hear the true Gospel preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.