The Feast of Unleavened Bread 2023 is behind us, but it should not be forgotten. As we do every year, we focus on keeping physical leaven out of our homes and bodies, making sure that we don’t consume it during those seven days, while at the same time being cognizant of sin in a spiritual sense, how we are to try our best to abstain from committing it. But this mindset shouldn’t be limited to just during this time.
In a recent sermon titled, “Sin of Omission” by Eric Rank, he spoke about how sin is possible through neglect, and how we are supposed to turn away from sin. If we become negligent in our responsibilities, then it will be easier to give in to sin. Once we recognize we are sinning, that is the precise moment when we need to change, ask God for forgiveness, strive to do better, move forward, continue to live righteously and try our best not to sin.
Paul who was human just like us tells us this in Romans 6:1-4: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
What we are to do is put sin behind us. Being properly baptized by receiving the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands by God’s true ministers is the only way we can ultimately receive the gift of eternal life and be a part of Christ as begotten members in God’s Family. Because we know this, as Paul mentions in verse 6, “our old man was crucified with Him” and “we should no longer be slaves of sin.” He says later in verse 14 that sin shouldn’t have dominion or authority over us since we are not under the penalty of the law but under the benefits of grace, since we have obtained forgiveness.
Having the Holy Spirit work in us is vital, and we can’t be careless in this power God has given us which we are able to use at ANY time, to help us when we go through trials and struggles. Paul understood this very well, and that is why he wrote about everything he went through, which was also for our benefit, so we could understand and thereby use the knowledge with faith and diligence to continue to live righteously.
It may be easy to lose track of our focus and drift away, going backwards and off course. When we are at that point, the challenge is to do the opposite and we must seek God and His help to lead us back in the right direction. Once we start to let go, it can be easier to give up, and the time will come when God will have had enough. He tells us in Jeremiah 15:6, “‘You who have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD, ‘You have gone backward. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting!’” We need to make sure this doesn’t happen to us. We will always be confronted with sin and its desire is for us, but it is up to us to rule over it (Genesis 4:7). We are not supposed to go back into the world from which we have come out of but continue to live a spiritually unleavened life that will lead us to our destiny, for Christ says, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
