Scripture Reading this Week:
Exodus 10:1-13:16
Jeremiah 46:13-28
John 19:31-37
When the Lord instituted the first Passover, He had the children of Israel remove all of the old leaven from their homes and make their bread in a hurry.
This is what the Lord asks of us as well, not just to throw out the old yeast and that caked up baking powder that we have had for years but to leave our old lives and habits behind in favor of a new life in Christ.
People love the familiar. We prefer keeping things the same not because what we have is good but it is what we know. Leaving the old life behind is difficult but necessary to have the better life promised by God.
When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He asks that we give up the sin that is killing us but also the habits and lifestyle, maybe even the people that contribute to that old life.
It sounds contradictory to say that we are saved but once but that we need renewal often, however, that is what scripture teaches in Passover.
The blood of the lamb was only needed once to set the people of God free, but the feast of unleavened bread is to be observed each year forever.
Humans need to be reminded of things. We must be reminded to reject sin and to show love, kindness, charity and more. We also need to celebrate the good in our lives while at the same time condemn what is evil.
That is why the Apostle Paul reminds us:
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed [b]for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8