Our leading elder preached on Romans 3:27-31 which begins, “Where then is boasting?” Because God authored and executes every detail of salvation, there is no room for boasting. Any work of man, including production of faith, nullifies salvation by grace alone. The sermon encouraged my heart, and it caused me to reflect on a passage that I had read only the other day that contained the word boasting.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 says, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
First of all, it may seem that the occurrence of “boasting” in this passage is at odds with the one in Romans 3. Afterall, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is distressed over the church’s lack of action in separating from a so-called brother in sin “of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles.” In reality, underneath any kind of boasting is a desire to elevate self, bring down others, and falsely earn credit before God.
Having said that, I have another word in mind which appears in some form seven times in these three short verses: “leaven.” I have always liked play on words, but most usually we think of puns which are intended to be humorous. I speak instead of a polysemic (1) use of a word in this passage. Taking them in order, “leaven” is a symbol for sin. “Leavens” is a process of infecting the bread dough with yeast or person with sin or unholiness. “Old leaven” is the old ways of doing things promoted by the sin nature. Next, “Christ is our Passover” reminds us of two meanings. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 the great transaction and transfer takes place. Christ takes our sin (leaven) and gives us His purity (unleavened character and record). Then, Passover harkens back to the unleavened bread made and eaten in haste as God was rescuing His people. It is a picture of what Christ did. “Let us celebrate the feast” means that removal of the “old leaven” and use of “the unleavened bread” refers both to the Lord’s Supper and the believer’s life with others. Besides seven “leavens”, I count seven meanings, all closely related but still distinct. In its most simple form, it means to me “you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) God has made me anew (unleavened), so now I should act like (by His enabling grace of course (2)).
- Polysemy vs. Homonyms
- Romans 8:3-4
