It seems strange—incongruous.
God and the Word were filled with love. These two eternally living beings yearned to build a family together. For countless millennia, they thought about it and planned out to the detail the greatest possible expansion of this wonderful and beautiful thing called life.
But before they could ever have something so magnificent as a family, there would first have to be a death—that of the Word made flesh.
But wait—doesn’t life come only from life?
Yes—but in fact, there are many cases in God’s plan where death must precede life.
This truth is established by the first two festivals in God’s holy day plan.
Sin and Death
The spring holy days focus on sin and its companion, death.
On Passover, we memorialize the death of Jesus Christ. We don’t celebrate His birth or His resurrection; we remember His death. This festival powerfully reveals how our sins put Jesus Christ to death.
Then follow the Days of Unleavened Bread, which depict our putting to death the sinful old man within each of us.
These two festivals show us that sin kills. It follows that if we are to live beyond this short human existence, we must kill sin.
Yes—true Christians are in a life-and-death, kill-or-be-killed struggle with sin.
Death is the reward, or the just compensation, we receive when we sin (Romans 6:23). That is all any of us deserve. Christ was beaten and executed in order to pay the penalty for sin in our stead. But did you realize God still requires that we die? Let me explain.
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death …” (verses 3-4). When we are baptized, we are putting something to death!
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him [Christ ], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (verse 6). Paul says part of you is crucified with Christ. Verse 2 says we are “dead to sin.”
Isn’t all this talk about death rather depressing? Not if we view the issue as God does.
A “Man of War”
The major Old Testament stories that center around the Days of Unleavened Bread all culminate in a massive amount of death. This gives us an idea of how God views sin.
God recognizes better than anyone what sin does. He typifies it by the oppression of slavery the Israelites endured in ancient Egypt. “[T]o whom ye yield yourselves servants [bondservants or slaves ] to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (verse 16). When you are a slave of sin, it owns you and you must be saved—ransomed.
This is God’s view of sin! It is bondage unto death, pure and simple. Our carnal minds can view sin in a positive light; Hebrews 11:25 mentions the “pleasures of sin.” But that pleasure is fleeting—and the price is bondage unto death. Sin kills.
How did the Israelites break free of that bondage? They kept the Passover. Every family was personally involved in shedding the blood of the Passover lamb. That blood protected them from death. Then they were able to experience freedom from bondage—a type of forgiveness of sin.
Millions of Israelites left Egypt with a high hand and journeyed six days to the Red Sea. When Pharaoh pursued them with his massive army, God delivered the Israelites by miraculously providing them safe passage through the sea. After they crossed on dry ground, the waters collapsed and buried the Egyptians alive in a watery grave! Pharaoh was killed, and not a single soldier in his army remained—not even a messenger to go back and tell the Egyptians what had happened!
Read the Song of Moses in Exodus 15, which celebrates God’s complete and miraculous victory over the Egyptians. Notice especially verse 3: “The Lord is a man of war.”
What is God’s attitude toward sin? God is a “man of war” over it! And we can thank God for that: He completely drowns our sins in the baptismal waters; when we repent, He removes them from us as far as east is from west (Psalms 103:12). Surely the Israelites were very thankful that God is a man of war over sin: That army, representing bondage in Egypt, was about to slay them, but God crushed it!
When God deals with sin, He completely destroys it—sends it to the depths of the sea!
Consider another example: Sodom and Gomorrah. These twin cities were full of sin, like Egypt. The Bible offers evidence that their fall also occurred during the Days of Unleavened Bread (Genesis 19:3).
God sent angels to rescue Lot and his family, and “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground” (verses 24‑25). Complete destruction! That shows God’s attitude toward sin. He hates it so much that He destroys it—buries it—drowns it—burns it!
The battle of Jericho repeats the same message. Joshua 5:10 supplies the time frame: again, during the spring holy days. According to God’s instruction, on each of the seven days of Unleavened Bread the Israelites marched once around the city, and on the seventh day they marched around seven times (Joshua 6:2-5). The priests blew trumpets, and the mighty fortress city tumbled flat! (verses 20-21). The Israelites rushed in, killed everything inside and burned the city (verse 24).
Again, these major historical accounts that center around the Days of Unleavened Bread all culminate in mass death!
This is the message of the Days of Unleavened Bread. This is how we must wage our personal war on sin. We must use overwhelming force. God wants us to be eager to fight this battle.
Passover shows what sin did to Jesus Christ. We could view the Days of Unleavened Bread as God’s counterattack against sin.
Kill Sin
God is serious about purging sin from our lives. He wants us to overcome it just as decisively as He overcame the Egyptians, and Sodom and Gomorrah, and Jericho.
Jesus Christ said even looking upon a woman lustfully is adultery. He advocated figuratively plucking out our eye if that is what it would take to overcome this insidious sin! (Matthew 5:27-30). Overcoming sin can require extreme measures. God wants us to do whatever it takes. Our pastor general once said that if we cannot stay away from Internet pornography, we should get rid of the computer!
How can you kill off the sin in your life? Are you willing to do whatever it takes?
The late Tim Thompson once quoted author Earl D. Wilson as saying, “In general, obsessions [lusts] are best overcome by starvation. When a person stops feeding them, they die …” (Royal Vision, March-April 1999).
What does your “old man” always try to get you to do? What do you personally struggle with? Perhaps a weak prayer life. Not giving God your best time—or not enough time—every day. Not being in love with God’s Word. Lack of motivation to study the Bible. Complacency about applying the sermon each week, or about Church literature, or new revelation. Lack of love within your family, or for the brethren. Selfishness. Harshness. Lack of faith. Resistance to government. Emotional immaturity. Manipulating others to get your way. Self-righteousness. Vanity. Materialism. Entertainment. Food. We all have a different set of sins that our “old man” drives us into.
Be honest with yourself. How serious are you about putting that sin to death—no matter how many times it resurfaces? Are you resolved in your mind to do that? Or does part of you want to hold on to that sin? Is part of you unwilling to give it up completely? Perhaps you think, Well, it’s not that serious. Is that true, or are you compromising with sin?
What is your battle plan to conquer that sin? Ask yourself, Am I really willing to do whatever I need to—give up whatever I must—to eliminate my pet sins?
The old man never stays down for long; he keeps trying to come back up out of that watery grave! And generally, no matter how many times you have “conquered” a sin, if you let that carnal mind back in, you are going to be dealing with exactly the same sin yet again. In that sense the “old man” is very predictable. He keeps emerging, and we have to keep putting him back under. That will be the reality of our war against sin as long as we are in the flesh.
As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I diedaily”!
War in the Mind
Battling sin requires daily putting it to death. Though it isn’t a physical war, it is war just the same (2 Corinthians 10:3).
But God gives us plenty of firepower to fight and win: “[T]he weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (verse 4, Revised Standard Version). Several commentaries say this scripture alludes to the fall of Jericho. Yes, like the Israelites, with God’s help we are able to destroy mighty cities and fortresses!
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (verse 5). As Romans 6:16 says, you are captive of whomever you obey—God, or sin. There is no such thing as freedom as this world defines it: being able to do whatever you want without consequences. You are either a slave of sin, or you’re a slave of God, bringing every thought into captivity.
Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “Do you realize that if it is wrong to do a certain thing, it is wrong to harbor thoughts of that thing in your mind? …
“The temptation is in the mind. When you think about the thing that tempts you—let your mind dwell on it—turn it over in your mind—whether it be a desire to go someplace, to do something or to have something you know is wrong—that thinking about it finally conceives—leads to action—and breeds sin” (Good News, June-July 1983).
That phrase in verse 5 “bringing into captivity” is derived from the Greek word for a prisoner of war. There is a war being waged in your mind, and the selfish, sinful, lustful, ugly thoughts that come from your old man are enemies that must be captured before they bring you down! We must attack those thoughts on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis, time after time after time.
New Life
Of course, in God’s plan, death is not the goal. God is a “man of war” over sin, but war is not an end in itself, but a necessary step toward peace.
Israel’s miraculous delivery was a type of baptism and death—but it was also a type of new life. The story of the Passover is one of death, but also of renewal. Christ was put to death because of sin, but He didn’t remain in the grave: He was resurrected—renewed—revived!
We likewise do not remain buried in the baptismal waters. After the death comes a renewal. Just as Christ died and was then resurrected, so must we live anew.
Much of Protestantism says our sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ so we don’t have to keep God’s law. Paul said, No— I was nailed to the stake with Christ! The only reason I’m here is that Christ is now living in me!However, Paul didn’t say, “I was crucified with Christ.” He said “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). We must continually crucify our wicked selves again and let Christ live His life in us. This is a daily, ongoing process of killing off that old man so that this new life can prevail!
Crucifixion is about the slowest, most agonizing death there is. That is how it is to put sin to death, but we must do it if we are to truly live.
God designed this principle to function throughout creation: Within this physical realm, we see constant cycles of death and renewal. Even the spring holy days are timed just as we come out of the dead of winter. The whole creation experiences a rebirth every spring.
Elsewhere, Paul said, “[M]y interest in all the attractive things of the world was killed long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead” (Galatians 6:14, Living Bible). Have we, like Paul, killed off our interest in this world’s distractions? What really matters, as Paul goes on to state in the next verse, is becoming a “new creature.”
Daily Renewal
Paul had been put through the ringer. “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” he wrote (verse 17). He had suffered many trials during his service to Christ, and he had the scars to prove it. He had the marks from being stoned, beaten and scourged. The word marks comes from the Greek stigma, meaning a mark incised or punched for recognition of ownership. This was the mark a slave would receive to identify who owned him. Paul was proud that he had the scars of service to his Lord and Master Jesus Christ!
What about you and me? What are we willing to do to show ourselves crucified to this world? Does your life bear evidence that you are owned by God? It should! If you are locked in serious spiritual warfare with sin, then after years of killing off sin—of burying that old man—of living in service to Christ—the evidence will be there.
Paul wrote that he wanted to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings—even to be made conformable unto His death (Philippians 3:10). If Christ suffered, Paul figured it must not be so bad to suffer; in fact, he considered it an honor! “I bear about, wheresoever I go, an image of the Savior, whose sojourn in the flesh was a continual dying, of which the consummation was His crucifixion,” he wrote (2 Corinthians 4:10, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary).
Yes—serving God is a continual dying of the old man—but it is also a continual renewal of the new man!
1 Corinthians 15:31 says, “… I die daily.” But 2 Corinthians 4:16 adds, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” That is the Christian walk: daily death—daily renewal.
This must be a day by day process. It is difficult to die continually, but God only asks you to do it for one day: today. There is only one moment we have to worry about conquering sin—the present moment! And as you draw on His power, God will renew you with Christ’s life in you—for today.
Moment by moment, we must become very sensitive to whether our thoughts are coming from our old man, or from Christ living in us. Can you tell the difference? How much do you allow that old man into your thoughts? How skilled are you at putting him to death so new life can fill his place?
When you fail—when you stumble and sin—then seal off the next moment. Dale Carnegie advocated living in “day-tight compartments”—like a great ship with water-tight compartments that lock down when one section floods in order to prevent the ship from sinking. If you find yourself sinning, then do what you must to immediately seal off the iron doors in your mind to prevent that sin from flooding you! Don’t allow it to spread.
Mr. Armstrong encouraged replacing that sinful thought with something positive. “The way to put a thing out of the mind is to put an opposite thought in the mind. … Open your Bible. Put the study of some spiritual subject in your mind. Next time you are tempted, try it. Pray over it. Ask God to help you. See how rapidly you begin to win the victory over temptation and sin, and how marvelous will be your spiritual and character growth” (Good News, June-July 1983). Kill off the bad by replacing it with the good.
Can you see how death is a necessary step toward real, everlasting life?
Eternal Life
Christ understood this principle perfectly. As He sojourned in the flesh, He could recall the glory of being with His Father as a spirit being. He recognized in an exceptional way that this little life is so fragile, so short, so hollow—so worth giving up, compared to what is to follow. He knew that whatever “pleasures” sin might afford were nothing compared to the pleasures of righteousness!
Christ made this profound statement: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies,it bears much fruit” (John 12:24, rsv). Christ’s life was a continual dying, never succumbing to the temptations of the flesh. But ultimately, after conquering His flesh perfectly, and then dying as a martyr and being buried—the grave couldn’t hold Him! After He died, He was resurrected—as a glorious God Being!
The same is true of us. If we die, we, too, will bear much fruit: First, in baptism—rising from the waters as a new creature; second, every day of our lives—as we die every day, every moment, and kill off that old man, then God can continually renew and revive that inner man; and finally, when we are glorified, just as Jesus Christ was!
“… What you sow does not come to life unless it dies” (1 Corinthians 15:36, rsv). Your physical life will amount to nothing more than a dry little seed unless you are buried in those baptismal waters and rise a new creature. It will amount to nothing unless you die daily, and that inner man is renewed day by day. It will amount to nothing unless you prepare yourself spiritually for the day when you can let go of this short little vapor of a life and be raised up as an eternal God being possessing real life!
“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (verses 42-43). Those saints who have concluded their lives as frail shells, battling horrible illness—while waxing strong in the faith of God—in their next waking moment will be radiant beings—shining like the sun, clothed like king-priests—full of life! Out of the death of a sickly physical body will spring forth and blossom a glorious and beautiful spirit being, ready to marry Jesus Christ!
We all have to die. But in God’s plan for us, death is a necessary step toward renewal—and life!
Can we see this? Can we retain this magnificent vision in our minds?
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (verse 50). The corruption within us will not inherit the Kingdom—we must kill it off. And also, this fleshly body will not inherit the Kingdom—it is going to have to die.
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (verses 51‑52). God’s whole purpose for creating us is to give us the same awesome, inherent, eternal life that He Himself has—as part of His Spirit-born Family.
“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (verse 54). Death was just a step—a necessary step—but it will be swallowed up as we are renewed and given real life!
Remember this lesson throughout these Days of Unleavened Bread. Be serious about putting that body of sin to death—daily. Be serious about being inwardly renewed—daily. Use these festivals to propel your spiritual life forward! We must strive together in earnest in our remaining days in this life, preparing for our physical death—and our renewal, our new life, our resurrection to real life: our transformation into Spirit-born sons of God.