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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Seven Steps to the Rest of God, #5
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest [pledge] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13,14)
After we believed in Christ, God sealed us with His Spirit. God's seal indicates that we shall be freed from all moral bondages, raised from the dead, glorified, and brought into His Presence.
We are to walk humbly and obediently in the Presence of the Holy Spirit of God.
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)
The Lord Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He has begun a mighty work in us. He, as Joshua of old, is bringing us into the rest of God, into the finished work, the timeless vision, the wisdom and power behind all human history, that was accomplished perfectly in God's mind before He created the heaven and the earth.
God regards us as holy to Himself in Christ because what He has begun in us is holy.
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. (Romans 11:16)
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)
We must realize, however, that this perfection, this "holy city," is reckoned to us because of the perfection of Him who has been born in us. We must press forward in faith each day until we actually experience the complete reaping of the harvest.
The Feast of Pentecost
During the feast of Weeks (Pentecost), which came at the end of the wheat harvest, two large loaves baked with leaven were waved before the Lord. Since leaven (sin) was removed from the camp during the week of Unleavened Bread, the writer prefers to think of the leaven in the Pentecostal loaves as the new leaven of the Kingdom of God—that which works in us until our whole personality has been brought into union with God.
Other writers, perhaps the majority, hold that the leaven in the two loaves of the feast of Weeks symbolizes the body of sin that still is a part of us even though we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit.
This latter interpretation is especially useful today because it is clear that the Lord has come to cleanse His Church from moral bondages. Those of us who have walked in the Pentecostal way for a number of years are well aware of the worldliness, bodily lusts, and self-love that are prevalent in the Christian churches, including those that stress the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Some are objecting that if we are saved and filled with the Spirit there is no sin dwelling in us. Obviously this is not true if one is honest with himself and looks about him.
To be continued.