“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleav ened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work there in. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD sev en days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile ivork therein” (Leviticus 23:6-8). rose again ” (2 Cor. 5:15). At this point let it be stated clearly that none but the re deemed can live a holy life. How utterly illogical for the Egyp tians to put all leaven out of their houses when there was no blood over their doors! The unsaved man cannot feed on Christ. Like many today, he may go to church and observe some ritualistic form of religion, but the vital contact with the living Christ, with its resultant power, is missing. He who rejects the absolute necessity of blood atonement is cut off from the Lord, notwithstanding his re ligious ceremonies. My Christian friend, are you feeding on the Lamb? The fol lowing is a most enlightening statement from the lips of our Lord. Read it carefully: “ I am the living bread which came down from heaven: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. “ The Jew s therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat: “ Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ex cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. “ Whoso eateth my flesh, and
BREAD by
Ur.Lehman Strauss
en, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5:7, 8). As far as God is concerned, the Pass- over (Death of Christ) met every righteous demand against sin; however, the Feast of Unleavened Bread marks the beginning o f the believing sinner’s fellowship with God, based on practical holiness. All of this is markedly signifi cant. The believing sinner must put away the leaven as soon as he is redeemed. Positionally, he is sanctified in God’s sight, but prac tically, he must work at his sal vation immediately upon being bom again. Why should there be a lapse of time after conversion before the Christian assumes his responsibility in regard to holi ness ? A part o f God’s divine pur pose in redemption is that we should be delivered from the un holy practices and habits of the old life. Look at I Peter 1 :18 and there you will see that the Holy Spirit says you are redeemed “ from your vain conversation (manner o f life) received by tra dition from your fathers.” God contemplated much more in the Death of Christ than the mere pardon of our sins. The Scripture says, “ He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and
drinketh my blood," hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him” (John 6:51- 56). Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man does not apply to the Lord’s Supper, although ritualistic Christendom teaches that it does. To say that our Lord meant the Lord’s Sup per here would cut off from eter nal life all who do not take com munion. Further, we would have to conclude that all who die in in fancy are lost forever and that the repentant thief on the cross was not saved. Contrariwise, our Lord taught that little children will be in Heaven and that the dying thief on the cross was saved. No, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ makes no allusion whatever to the Lord’s Supper. “ Feeding on Christ” denotes that close communion with Him that stablishes, strengthens, and sustains one. No man to this day can understand how the loaves and fishes were multiplied to feed the five thousand. Suffice it to say the people were fed. Moreover, the feeding was not merely a physical necessity, but a spiritual
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OCTOBER, 1968
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