We’ve passed Resurrection Sunday (Passover). Pentecost is on the way. The 49 days between these two high holy days marks the time in which Jesus revealed to His disciples all that the scriptures spoke about Him (Luke 24:27). The first Passover to Pentecost celebrated the journey of the Jews from Egypt to Mount Sinai.

At Sinai, trumpets blasted as God descended on the mountain. (Exodus 19:16). Similarly, on Pentecost, there erupted a noise like a violent rushing wind (Acts 2:2). At Sinai, flashes of lightning and fire surrounded the mountain. (Exodus 19:16). On Pentecost, a fire appeared above each of the disciples. Finally, at Sinai, the moral law was given to guide the Children of Israel. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given to empower the nature of each believer to live free from sin.

The moral law, given by Moses, set the boundaries of a relationship between God and men. However, because Israel, and all of humanity by implication, could not keep the moral law to attain righteousness, the law proved to be the means of condemnation. Or as Paul wrote, “And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” (Romans 7:10).

What does this mean? The moral law revealed the requirements need to access God, but in the same insight unveiled our inability to fulfill the requirements of the law.

On Pentecost, after Jesus atoned for the brokenness of our humanity, the moral law was made powerless to condemn the sinner. Not only did Jesus remove the law’s power to condemn, but He made a way for us to keep the law by virtue of our nature being filled with His Spirit. God put in each believer His righteous nature by placing Himself in them. We are righteous before God because of His identity in us.

How do we receive this? We only need to ask and believe we can receive the Holy Spirit. In this hope of His life fusing with our own, there is the expected surrender of our life. Because He lives in us, we cannot live for ourselves. (John 14:19) This surrender of our life is not a momentary commitment shrouded with emotional fervor. No, it is t the daily choice to listen and obey the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost celebrates the union of God’s Spirit with our own. It’s easy to reduce this day to a mere moment in which the first disciples demonstrated the gift of speaking in tongues, but the history of this day beckons us to much more. It calls us to realize our need to be infused with God’s Spirit. We, the Church, were endowed with His power on the first Pentecost. As God’s Spirit works in us, it is for one ultimate purpose – to show men and women that desire to live in us and through us. In these few weeks before us, set your sites on this one desire. You need to be filled with God’s Spirit each morning. You need the Holy Spirit to reveal to you who He is and His desire to work through you.