TYPOLOGY PART TWO
CHRIST AS UNLEAVENED BREAD
From the book "The Feasts of the Lord" by Robert Thompson,
we read: "Christ is our Unleavened Bread. He came down from the
Father without inherited sin. He was without the leaven of sin in
His nature.....Through the power of the Holy Spirit He lived a
life completely free from the leaven of sin, and then was offered
as a perfect sacrifice to God, His Father. If Christ had ever
been guilty of one sin, even one small infraction, He would not
have qualified as our Redeemer. Think of that! He would then have
died for His own sins only, and we would have had to die for
ours.....But thanks be to God! Jesus Christ was totally free of
leaven, totally without sin, and so He was able to redeem us.....
He Himself is our feast of Unleavened Bread. During the
whole Passover season, which was the Passover plus the seven days
of the week of Unleavened Bread, there was to be no leaven at all
seen among the hundreds of thousands of Israelites.....
Through this very strict ordinance God was showing us His
utter abhorrence of sin.....There is no leaven of sin whatsoever
in Christ; and when He is finished with His church,
which is His body, there will be no leaven of sin in it
either.....The first three acts of redemption, as performed by
the Lord Jesus Christ, took place over a short period of time.
The Passover, the week of Unleavened Bread, the Firstfruits, took
place when Jesus was crucified, descended into the realms of the
dead, and then rose again....."
End of quote from Thompson.
Concerning Jesus Christ, the apostle John wrote that the
Father gave not the Spirit unto Him by "measure" (John 3:34). To
be sinless at conception, to be sinless at birth, and to have
any chance of never committing one single sin throughout a
physical life time, it would take having the Spirit without
measure, for sure. The father would make sure Jesus had all the
Spirit it would take to accomplish what to us would seem an
impossibility. Yet, this was not some "magic" trick, a slight of
hand movement, on the part of the Father. This did not mean Jesus
could just sit back, put His feet up, rest and relax, as if on
some Caribbean Cruise ship touring in the warm sun. It is clear
from the Scriptures that christ had to do His part as He was also
human flesh from His mother's side (Mary) as well as Immanuel, or
God in the flesh (Mat.1:23).
First, let us see that it is written very clearly that Jesus
did not sin, ever, not in mind or body. "For even hereunto were
you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an
example, that you should follow His steps: Who DID NO SIN,
neither was guile found in His mouth.....Who His own self bare
our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should live unto righteousness...." (1 Peter 2:21-24).
Secondly, was it just a breeze for Jesus to live a perfect
sinless life? Not at all! "Who in the days of His flesh, when
He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying
and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was
heard in that He feared" (Heb.5:7).
When the one who was God and was with God from the beginning
(John 1:1) was willing to give up that glory as God, and take on
the form of physical mankind, making Himself of no reputation,
humbling Himself to live and to die as mortal man (Philippians
2:5-8), He did so in order to accomplish the Father's plan and
desire for the humans He had created. Notice it all in
Hebrews chapter two.
" Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and
blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that
through death He might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of
death were all their life time subject to bondage. For truly He
took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Himself
the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be
made like unto His brethren; that He might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself
had suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are
tempted" (verses 14-18).
Ah, did you notice a wonderful and glorious added truth
found in those last few verses? Because Jesus was also human as
well as divine, because He felt the force of human nature
within Him, because He also had the Spirit without measure (which
is the nature and power of God - see 2 Peter 1:3-4) in Him,
because He cried to the Father in prayers and supplications, and
because He so conquered sin, never sinned even once, He could
understand what His brothers and sisters in the flesh had to
contend with throughout their physical flesh and blood lives.
Jesus was "tempted" - He had to suffer the temptations of
the flesh just as all human flesh must suffer those temptations
to sin, to miss the mark, to err from the perfect holiness of the
Father. Now, temptation of and by itself is NOT sin, being
tempted to sin does not automatically mean you have sinned or
that you need to fall into sin. The apostle James was inspired to
relate to us the truth of the matter on this point. A point that
we need to understand, for many have otherwise been tormented and
confused. Having the "thought" of sin "pop into our mind" is not
sin. That may be and is, suffering being tempted, but it is not
sin per se. Here is how James explained it to us.
"....Every man is tempted (to go on into sin, to do sin)
when he is DRAWN AWAY of his own lust, and ENTICED. THEN when
lust HAS CONCEIVED, IT BRINGS FORTH SIN: and sin, when it is
FINISHED (when acted upon and done), brings forth death" (James
1:14,15).
If we are tempted, if the thought of sin pops into out mind,
but we reject it immediately, not allowing it to stay around in
our mind, if we cast it our, put good and righteous thoughts in
our mind, then we have not sinned. Remember Jesus being tempted
of the devil after His 40 days of fasting in the wilderness?
Satan came along and popped a thought into Jesus' mind....."why
not turn these stones into bread, as you are so hungry" but
Jesus immediately answered with righteous thoughts and answers,
and cast out the thought that if allowed to continue to entice
and draw away and conceive, would have led to doing sin.
Being tempted, having a thought of wrong doing pop into the
mind is not sin of and by itself. It is written Jesus was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. See it for yourself
in Hebrews 4:15.
As Christ was fully human as well as fully divine, as He was
tempted in every way like all humans are tempted at times, as He
knows exactly what all of us flesh and blood human creatures go
through in this physical life, then He can be a merciful and
faithful High Priest in heaven above, on the Father's right hand,
as He continues to make reconciliation and intercession for all
of His brothers and sisters who are still fighting the good
fight, while living still in the flesh.
Much of the book of Hebrews is devoted to relating all this
great and wonderful good news to us, of the PAST and PRESENT work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle John was also inspired to
give us all this truth fully expounded in the book of Hebrews,
but in a succinct manner. See 1 John 1:6-10; 2:1-2.
Jesus did not sin. Could Jesus have sinned? Oh, you bet He
could have, for it was not "impossible" for Him to not have
sinned. It was not impossible, but with the full measure of the
power and nature of God in him, through the Holy Spirit, with
Jesus Himself doing His part of crying out to the Father in
prayers and supplications, casting out the thoughts of the devil
and lusts of the flesh when they popped into His mind, by putting
in holy and righteous thoughts, by answering the wiles of the
devil with Scriptures, He was able to remain sinless, and so be a
perfect Passover lamb sacrifice for the sins of the world.
And so He was also our perfect sinless Unleavened Bread.
Next we shall see how Christ Jesus was in His person the
fulfilment of the "wave sheaf" offering, the first of the
firstfruits to God the Father.
..................................
Written by Keith Hunt in April 2000
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