SPIRITUAL

Keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread following the Passover symbolized living the Christian life in dedication and service to God. How does this apply to us today? Living the Christian life in this context means allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to be Lord of every area of our life. We are expressly told in I Corinthians 5:8 to continue celebrating the holiness of life in dedication to God.Holy dedication means avoiding such sins as malice and wickedness. Faith should express itself in obedience. Service should accompany our believing and thinking. Sincerity and truth are the nourishments on which the faithful believer will be sustained.

As the Lord Jesus Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, we should continue to offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto Him. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans said, "Therefore, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-the good, pleasing, and perfect will" (Romans 12:1,2).
Many Ante-Nicene Fathers wrote about the continual offering of spiritual sacrifices. Athenagorus, a second century apologist and prior Greek philosopher (c.175) said, "The noblest sacrifice to Him is for us to know who stretched out and vaulted the Heavens and who fixed the earth in its placeYet, indeed, it does behoove us to offer a bloodless sacrifice and "the service of our reason."Tertullian of Carthage, North Africa (c. 197) said, "It is not earthly sacrifice, but by spiritual, that offering is made unto God. Therefore we read 'Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and render to the Highest your vows.' Thus, accordingly, the spiritual "sacrifices of praise" are pointed to."

Mark Minucius Felix, a Roman lawyer who converted to Christianity (c.200) said, "He who cultivates innocence, supplicates God. He who cultivates justice, makes offerings to God. He who abstains from fraudulent practices propitiates God. He who snatches man from danger, slaughters the most acceptable victim. These are our sacrifices; these are our rites of God's worship."
The Holy Book of I Peter 2:5 further illustrates that it is essential the symbolism of the feast be kept at all times in that believers derive their very life from the Lord Jesus Christ and the "life-giving spirit:" "You also, like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

The Eucharist is an important specific type of spiritual sacrifice. The Eucharist is an ongoing continuance of the feast. The Didache tell us, "But every Lord's Day, gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow man come together with you, until they are reconciled, so that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is the thing that was spoken of by the Lord, "In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, and My name is wonderful among the nations."Irenaeus (c. 180) a bishop of the Church at Lyons, states of the necessity of the spiritual sacrifice, "Therefore sacrifices do not sanctify a man. For God does not stand in need of sacrifices. Instead, it is the conscience of the offerer that sanctifies the sacrifice when it is pure. This moves God to accept it as from a friendIt behooves us to make an oblation to God and in all things to be found grateful to God our Maker. We should do this in a pure mind, in faith without hypocrisy, in well-grounded hope, in fervent love, offering to Him the first-fruits of His own created things. And the Church alone offers this pure oblation to the Creator."

Following the Holy Great Fast, the Holy Week, and the Glorious Resurrection we must continue to keep the feast. We must offer our lives as living sacrifices unto the Lord. We must hear and pay heed to the Holy Scriptures. We must open our heart to hear and apply the Biblical truths to our lives. Life for the Lord Jesus Christ should be like fertile soil. Keeping the feast does not mean, "Will I be fruitful?" but "Just how fruitful can I become?"

May we all continue to endeavor to be holy and acceptable unto the Lord Jesus Christ.