Now let’s see how is it that we are dead in our sins and trespasses. How did that happen? Well, it goes right back to the beginning of the creation of Adam and Eve. Now let’s come to Romans 5 and let’s see how Paul explains this so that we understand the whole process, so that we realize what we need to do.

Now let’s come here to verse 12. I’m going to read from my translation. “Wherefore, even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by means of the sin came death; and in this way death passed into all mankind, and it is for this reason that all have sinned:…” (Rom. 5:12, AT). Now we sin because we have an imperfect nature, as we will see, with the law of sin and death within us. Now then, we were born this way. This is why there has to be redemption through Christ. Since we are this way, and it came because of the sin of Adam, therefore God is the one Who must provide the salvation. God is the one Who must provide the way of forgiveness. God is the one Who must provide the way back for Him. And this is why God reaches down and calls us today, because too many people say no to God. “This far God, and no further.” Or, they don’t want God at all. Or, they want to do things their way. They want to figure out how they can get right with God. Well, there’s no way you can get right with God unless you accept God’s way of doing it. And here’s the way that God does it.

Let’s come to Romans 3:20. “Therefore, by works of law there shall not be any flesh justified before Him;…” In other words anything that you can do in the way of keeping a law in any religion, in any function, in anything that you can do, can justify you to God. Because law is not the operation, or the works of law, is not the operation of the thing that brings you justification. Notice, “…for through law is the knowledge of sin…” That’s the most that law can tell us. That’s the most that law can do for us. If you obey the law, then you are righteous. But the law cannot forgive. And because we have the nature of death and sin within us, we sin automatically. So there has to be a way that God has devised to reinstate us to Him. And He’s done it through Christ.

Now notice verse 21. “But now the righteousness of God…” And this means the ability to be put in right standing through justification to God that is separate from law. Law has one function. Grace has another function. “…Has been revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God that is through faith of Christ Jesus toward all and upon all those who believe there is no difference” (vs. 21-22, AT). So this is something of faith. This is something of the heart. It is a greater thing to believe God than to do a work of law, whether it be of Judaism or whether it be of Hinduism, or whether it be of Catholicism, or whether it be of Islam, whatever. They all have their works of laws. They all have things that they do. Muslims supposedly pray five times a day to Mecca. Does that give them love? Does that give them forgiveness before God? No, it doesn’t. First of all, they have to have the right God, which they don’t have. So all that they are doing cannot bring them back to God. There’s only one way, through the redemption that is in Christ.

Now here, “Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We are being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (vs. 23-24, AT). And that’s why every year we keep the Passover and renew the New Covenant and understand and realize that forgiveness of sin only comes through Christ. And forgiveness of sin is an ongoing process so that we grow and overcome. That we repent of our sins. That we let Christ be formed in us. And all of these things are all a part of it, you see.

Verse 25, “Whom God has openly manifest to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, in order to publicly declare His righteousness in respect of the remission of sins that are past.” And let’s understand something, though there are sins which will occur in the future, you do not ask God to forgive you for something you’re going to do tomorrow because that’s premeditated evil. And God will not forgive you for that because that time hasn’t come. Whenever you sin, the sin is in the present tense, and when it occurs it is immediately in the past. So therefore, all sin is in the past. That’s why it says “remission of sins that are in the past.”

Now let’s understand something here. By the operation of the grace of God to do this, Paul asked the question, verse 31, “Are we, then abolishing law through faith?” Now the King James says, “God forbid”, but the Greek means “MAY IT NEVER BE! Rather, we are establishing law!” Why? Because when you have the forgiveness of sin, and the Holy Spirit of God to lead you, you desire to keep the commandments of God. You desire to love God. You desire to overcome. And this is all a part of getting rid of the sinfulness of human nature, which we have inherited from Adam and Eve. And this is why Christ came and did what He did.

Now let’s come back to Romans 5 again, and let’s understand something very important here. Let’s begin in verse 13. “For before the law…” That means the law given to Israel. “…Sin was in the world. Now then, sin is not imputed when law does not exist;…” Meaning that from the time of Adam clear on down to the time of the giving of the law there were the laws of God. Abraham kept them, Job kept them, the patriarchs kept them, and so forth.

Verse 14, “Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even upon those who had not sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one Who is to come.” Now Adam’s sin was a particular sin because first of all he was created by God, he knew God, he talked to God. God told him specifically what to do, told Eve specifically what to do, and they went against God. That is a greater sin than for those of us who are born afterwards and we come into a world that is already there, and we have the law of sin and death in us, and we have our carnal nature, and our human way of doing things, and we don’t know any better. Adam knew better.

Now let’s continue on in verse 15. “But should not the free gift be even as the offense was?” Now, God is going to bring the opposite. Instead of giving sin to every one, now we have the free gift of grace. “For if by the transgression of one man many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gift of grace…” And that gift of grace, as we will see in just a little bit is a tremendous and wonderful thing which this whole Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures. God has given you the gift of grace. Let’s read that again. “…How much more did the grace of God and the gift of grace, which is by the one man Jesus Christ, abound unto many. And should not the free gift be like that which came by the one who had sinned? For on the one hand judgment was by one unto condemnation; but on the other hand, the free gift is by one to the justification of many offenses.” And justification means to have your sins forgiven, and put in right standing with God. “For if by the offense of one man death reigned by the one, how much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness,…” Now it talks about the gift of grace, and here we have “…the gift of righteousness reign in life by the one, Jesus Christ” (vs. 15-17, AT). So there we have it.

Let’s understand something. Very important. When you repent and are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, God imputes to you the righteousness of Christ. That is the gift of righteousness that God gives you. And when you walk in the grace, and you live in the grace, and you are under the grace of God, that is constantly there. But we are also going to see something else which is very important and very profound. This does not mean that you now are incapable of sin. This means you have had your sins forgiven, and you are justified.

Now let’s continue on, verse 19. “For even as the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, in the same way also by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” And that is not only by His perfect obedience, which He did. And Christ does not keep the law for you. Christ does not keep the commandments for you. No rather, what happens is this, you receive the Holy Spirit and Christ is in you. You have right standing with God so now you can grow in grace and knowledge, and be made righteous. It is a process.

Verse 20, “Moreover, the law entered, so that the transgression might abound [so we can see how bad sin really is]; but where sin abounded, the grace of God did superabound; so that even as sin has reigned unto death, in the same way also might the grace of God reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (vs. 20-21, AT).

Now then again we come to another statement which Paul makes. Now we have, how are we to live, and how are we to overcome? Now that we’ve been justified with Christ through His sacrifice, now that the one Who was perfect was made sin for us that we can be the righteousness of God, how are we to live? Are we to proclaim, as the lawless grace of Protestantism claims, that now we can decided what we want to do, and anything we choose to do because we’ve had our sins forgiven, and we have grace given to us that through this grace we can do anything we want to do. No, no, no, no, no.

Romans 6:1, “What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” That’s the whole proposition of Protestantism. They continue breaking the Sabbath. They continue breaking the laws of clean and unclean meats. They continue observing their holidays instead of the holy days of God. They live in the world but they take the name of Christ and attach it to their lawless grace and say, “We are delivered to do that.” That’s not the proposition that God gave. Living in the grace of God has nothing to do with that kind of behavior whatsoever at all.

Verse 2, King James says, “God forbid.” But here it is in the Greek mh genoito, meaning MAY IT NEVER BE! Don’t even let this thought even enter into your mind. “We who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?” That’s why. Now you see, Protestants never died to sin because most of them aren’t baptized. They just accept Christ and now they’re converted. That is a false conversion. They never died to sin. When you are buried in the watery grave of baptism, you have died to sin. We have died to sin. How shall we live any longer therein?

“Or are you ignorant that we, as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death?” Now let’s understand something very profound concerning the operation of baptism. Christ died for our sins, correct? He died for the sins of the world, correct? He also means that He died for each one individually, which means also that your sins killed Christ. In order for your sins to be forgiven, the sacrifice of Christ, all of it, had to be applied to you individually. To me, individually. To each one that God calls, you see. That’s why when we’re baptized, we’re put under the water. It is a watery grave. We are baptized into His death. “Therefore, as we were buried with Him by the baptism into death; so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, in the same way also, we should walk in newness of life” (vs. 3-4, AT). We’re not to go back and live in the oldness of sin. We are to not go back into the world, back into Babylon, back into Egypt. And that’s the whole lesson of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt to the promised land. They wanted to go back. They didn’t believe God. They complained, they murmured, they rebelled against God, rebelled against Moses. What a terrible thing. You read the whole book of Numbers and what the children of Israel did. They didn’t believe God. They wanted their way. No, we have died in Christ.

Now notice. “…So that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, in the same way also, we should walk in newness of life.” And that newness of life is the things that God has ordained that we should walk in them. His commandments, His laws, His way, His truth, His grace. All of it, all together.

Verse 5, now understand this, and this is something great to really understand. “For if we have been co-joined together in the likeness of His death,…” And that’s what the Greek means. You have been co-joined with Christ. In other words when you are baptized you yourself were crucified. The old self was crucified, you see. “…In order that the body of sin might be destroyed,…” It’s not destroyed all at once. It’s a process, and we have to overcome. “…That [it] might be destroyed, that we should no longer be enslaved to sin;…” Just like the children of Israel were enslaved to the Egyptians and God had to bring them out with a mighty hand through miracles and power to do so. So likewise God has reached out in your life to call you out of this world to bring you forgiveness, to bring you to Christ, to bring you to the understanding of God the Father, and so that we should no longer be enslaved to sin. No longer be in bondage to it. “Because the one who has died to sin [and that’s through the operation of baptism] has been justified from sin” (vs. 5-7, AT). You’ve been made in right standing with God. You stand before Him pure and clean. You have the righteousness of Christ imputed to you through the grace of God. That is a tremendous gift. That is the gift of righteousness.

Now then, verse 8. “Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has any dominion over Him, for when He died, He died unto sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives to God. In the same way also, you should indeed reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies to obey it in the lust thereof” (vs. 8-12, AT).

Now let’s go to something here. It says, don’t let sin rule. It doesn’t say that there is now a complete absence of sin. Rather we are to yield ourselves as instruments of righteousness unto Christ. But we do have sin that we need to overcome. Now once you receive the Spirit of God there is a phenomenon that takes place, and you might call that the exposing of the internal sin. Because you see, sin begins in the mind. Let’s go to Mark 7. Let’s understand something about this nature. Once we receive the begettal of the Holy Spirit we don’t automatically get rid of human nature. Just like for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we are to put out the leaven and we are to put in the unleaven. So likewise there is a process and there is a battle that goes on that no other people in the world have, because they don’t have the Holy Spirit, and they are not able to understand what I am about ready to tell you here.

Mark 7:21, the very words of Jesus. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23, KJV). Now that’s human nature. Now once you’ve been baptized and receive the Holy Spirit of God, now then a battle takes place within you that you did not have until God began dealing with you to show you what sin really is.

Now let’s come to Romans 7 and let’s see what this battle is. And this battle is very profound. A lot of people think that once they have been converted and receive the Holy Spirit of God, that everything is perfect. They can no longer sin. That is not the case. We have to overcome. You see, the first proposition is, is that if you are converted and you can no longer sin, where’s the overcoming? What are you going to overcome? How is it that you have to overcome? What is it that you have to overcome? You have to over come the human nature that we just read of here in Mark 7.

Now that we’re done with Mark 7, let’s come back to Romans 7 because here’s the struggle that we all go through. And this is an ongoing process. And that’s why with the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread we commit our lives again to God with the renewal of the New Covenant on the Passover night. We commit ourselves to God to continue walking in the way of truth. We commit ourselves to God to overcome. We commit ourselves to God to grow in grace and knowledge and the power of the Holy Spirit to cast down all of these strongholds, as we will see, to get rid of the way of sin that is in us.

Now, Romans 7:7. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?” A lot of people think the law is sin, but it’s not. Sin is defined by the law, but the law itself is not sin. “MAY IT NEVER BE!” Or as the King James says, “God forbid.” “But, I had not known sin, except through the law. Furthermore, I would not have been conscious of lust, except the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, having grasped an opportunity by the commandment, worked out within me every kind of lust; because apart from law, sin was dead” (Rom. 7:7-8, AT). Now that’s when God begins to deal with you so that you understand how sinful that you really are. How sinful that I really am. And it’s only through the grace of God and the forgiveness of Christ that we have remission of sins, remember.

Verse 9, “For I was alive without law once; but after the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Now how did he die? If he died a physical death, he wouldn’t be able to write this, would he? This means the death of baptism, as we read in chapter 6. “And the commandment, which was meant to result in life, was found to be unto death for me; because sin, having taken opportunity by the commandment, deceived me, and it killed me” (vs. 9-11, AT). That’s why we are dead in our sins and trespasses automatically through the nature that we receive from Adam and Eve. It killed them.

Now then, we look at the law in an entirely different way. The law did not cause the problem. Sin, or the transgression of the law caused the problem. Verse 12 now. “Therefore, the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good.” Isn’t that something? Yes, it is. “Now then, did that which is good become death unto me? MAY IT NEVER BE! But sin,…” (vs. 12-13, AT). Now God wants you to understand the depths of how bad sin is. That’s why, after you are converted, you find that you have this great battle within your mind to overcome sin. Now remember, you never had that before you were called and converted. Now you have that. Now why do you have that? So that you can overcome. So that you can desire the righteousness of God. So that you can desire the nature of God. So that you can desire more the grace of God to help you grow and change and overcome. That’s why. It doesn’t happen to people out in the world. They don’t know. They are blinded. They have no understanding at all whatsoever.

Now notice what happens. “But sin, in order that it might be truly exposed as sin in me by that which is good, was actually working out death; so that by the means of the commandment, sin might accordingly become exceeding sinful” (vs. 13, AT). Just like Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said in the past, you shall not commit adultery. I say to you, whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her in his heart has committed adultery already.” Exceeding sinful. And it is the Spirit of God that is revealing that to you so that you can repent. So that you can abhor it. So that you can get it out of your system. You can get it out of your heart and your mind through Christ. We’ll see, that’s what Paul says here.

Verse 14, “For I know the law is spiritual [which it is]; but I am carnal, having been sold as a slave under sin; because what I am working out myself, I do not know [or that is, I do not understand].” Isn’t it true? How many times have you sinned and done something and you say, “Well, I didn’t know that.” That’s right. “For what I desire to do…”, and everyone intends to do good. “For what I desire not to do…” You don’t want to do it because you intend to do good, but it doesn’t happen. “…Moreover, what I hate, this is what I practice” (vs. 14-15, AT). Now remember Paul, who had been an apostle for some 15-20 years here at this point, was saying he had this battle. So we need to understand that if he had the battle being an apostle, we have the same battle. This is why we go through what we go through. And remember there’s the prince of the power of the air, as we read earlier, that is out there trying to put these thoughts and things into your mind. That’s why when we come out of the world we have to come out of the world and not let the world affect us. We have to get away from those things which bring us back into this kind of bondage.

Verse 16, “But if I am practicing what I desire not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.” There’s nothing wrong with the law. The law is good because the law is saying this is sin. “So then, I am no longer working it out myself; rather, it is the sin that is dwelling within me;…” (vs. 16-17, AT). Every human being has sin dwelling within them. As we will see, he calls it the law of sin and death. And that’s what we have to overcome. That’s why we go through the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread every year.

Now, verse 18. “Because I fully understand that there is not dwelling within me…” Now do you understand that yourself? “…That is, within my fleshly being--any good.” Now remember when the young man came to Christ and said, “Good Master, what good thing should I do to have eternal life?” And Jesus said, “Why do you call Me good? There’s only one good, and that is God.” Because you see, while Christ was on the earth God the Father was in heaven above. He had human nature within Him. He could not be called good, because He had not yet completely overcome human nature. He had not yet gone through the whole ordeal of the crucifixion and died the death for all sin so that He could be resurrected and again proclaimed good. Not many people really understand that.

Now notice, “For the desire to do good is present within me; but how to work out that which is good, I do not find:…” Isn’t that the way it is with human nature? “And the good that I desire to do, I am not practicing; and the evil that I do not desire to do, this I am doing. And if I practice what I do not desire to do, I am no longer working it out myself, but sin that is dwelling in me.” Now he says it twice. Sin is dwelling in me. “Consequently, I find the law, that when I desire to practice the good, evil is present with me: for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man;…” Oh yes, we can say, yes, God is right, God is good, God is true, laws, commandments are good. Yes, we delight in that. That’s fine. “But I see another law within my very own being, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me to the captivity to the law of sin that is within my very own being” (vs. 19-23, AT). And every one of us have this. So that’s why it’s such a great and a marvelous thing, brethren, to when we come to God we have our sins forgiven, we are justified before Christ, we receive the grace of God. We always are in an attitude of repentance, as the apostle Paul is describing here in Romans 7. Always in an attitude of overcoming sin. Always in an attitude of growing and changing. Therefore the grace of God covers us and we stand before God pure as Christ. That is truly the complete state of being unleavened in Christ. So there’s that war.

“…Leading me captivity to the law of sin, which is in my very own being. O wretched man. What a wretched man I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This is the dilemma. And you see only if you understand the truth of God’s word, and only if you have the Holy Spirit of God, and only if you are keeping the commandments of God do you understand that. “I thank God for His deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this, on the one hand I myself serve the law of God, but on the other hand with the flesh, the law of sin” (vs. 23-25, AT). So here’s this great struggle going on. And that’s why we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so we can realize the more of Christ we put in, the more power we have to overcome. The more of Christ that we put in, the more that we are delivered from this.

Now there’s another blessing that goes with this, brethren, which you need to understand. It’s very profound. This is why you need to go before God in great confidence and in great thanksgiving, and in great joy for the things that He has done. Now look at this, in spite of all of going through this, in spite of going through these things which come against us, notice what Paul says, Romans 8:1. “Consequently, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit;…” Now if you’re walking according to the Spirit, by seeing the sin from within and overcoming, and repenting, and asking God to take it away from you, you’re walking in the Spirit.

Now notice verse 2, “Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has delivered me from the law of sin and death.” It hasn’t been taken out of you, but you have been delivered from it as long as you stand in the grace of God, and as long as you yield to God, and as long as you are overcoming. “For what was impossible for the law to do, in that it was weak through the flesh [God knew that], having sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;…” (vs. 2-3, AT). Now that’s a profound statement. That covers a whole chapter in the Passover book. Marvelous thing that God did. God has condemned sin in the flesh.

Now notice, here’s the key. “In order that the righteousness of the law should be fulfilled in us, who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit:…” (vs. 4, AT). Now how does God view you, brethren? He doesn’t condemn you because you’re overcoming. Now we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. Now how is that? That’s because we are minding things of the Spirit by growing and changing and overcoming. That’s how we’re in the Spirit.

Now let’s come down here to verse 9. “However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God is indeed dwelling within you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” He’s none of His. “Now if Christ be within you, the body is indeed dead because of sin [because it was buried in baptism]; however, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” That He has given these things that ordained for to good works that we are to walk in, the righteousness of Christ. “Now if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you [which it is], He who raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken [or that is, make alive] your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh [though we have to overcome]; because if you live according to the flesh, you shall die; but if you by the Spirit [here is the key, right here] are putting to death the deeds of the body, you shall live” (vs. 9-13, AT). There’s the whole process of overcoming.

Now let’s come to Colossians 1 and let’s see the process of how Paul explained it here in Colossians 1, because this shows the whole working and the operation of what God has done. Now in this it takes effort. In this, it takes the Spirit of God. In this, it takes endurance, it takes perseverance, it takes overcoming. And yes, as we go along we’re going to have some failures. God understands that. Paul had failures, didn’t he? He said he did the things that he hated. But did he overcome? Yes, he did. How did he overcome? He overcame through Christ Jesus.

Now here in Colossians 1:9, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;…” That’s what God wants to happen during the Feast of Unleavened Bread for you. But not just during the Feast of Unleavened Bread alone, but so that the Feast of Unleavened Bread becomes that which carries us on in to the future, to continue to live that way. To live it spiritually, you see. “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;…” That’s what God wants. “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;…” (Col. 1:9-11, KJV). So Christ is there to strengthen you. That’s why we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And that’s why it symbolizes when we eat the bread of Christ we live by Christ, you see.

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us [qualified] meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath [transferred] translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son:…” You have been redeemed from the world. We have to live in the world, but we’re not of the world. “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins:…” (vs. 12-14). Now that’s quite a thing.

Now how are we to live our lives? Let’s look here in Philippians 3. How is it that we are to live our lives? How do we count the things that happen to us when we find that we sin, when we find that even the things that we are doing are not right, and we repent, and we change, and we ask God to help us to overcome, and we grow in grace and knowledge?

Now let’s come here to verse 7. This is very important. This is the attitude that we need to have, that Paul had. “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” Yes, we died the death in baptism, and every thing that we have in this world no longer counts. “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things,…” And boy, Paul really went through it. So if you think you’ve really gone through it, read through and study 2 Corinthians and all the things that he went through, and all the things that he suffered. And yet, God used him mightily because he counted all those things but loss. “…And do count them but dung,…” Is that the way you view the world? As a big heap of manure out there? That’s what it ought to be. “…That I may win Christ. “And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:…” (Phil. 3:7-9). That we have that imputed to us and it becomes part of our very being. That’s why God gives it to us.

“That I may know Him [and we will know Him at the resurrection], and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” That is the goal, brethren. That’s why we go through what we go through. That’s why we have to examine our lives continually before Christ. That’s why we need the Spirit of God, the love of God, the faith of God, and all of these things. To know to attain to the resurrection of the dead. “Not as though I had already attained,…” And every year that we come to the Feast of Unleavened Bread we realized we haven’t already attained, neither were perfect. We have a long ways to go. Notice what Paul did, “…But I follow after,…” Meaning he never gives up. “..If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,…” And this is the one goal of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is the one thing that we need to constantly be doing. “…Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (vs. 10-14). That’s what we need to be doing. And so let’s take this Feast of Unleavened Bread to make it a rededication to God to live His way, to keep His commandments, to grow in grace and knowledge, to have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and put forth our own effort and let God bless us with His spiritual power and grace and might to accomplish what He desires to do in us.