2011-06-17
Good Morning Dear Ones,
In the course of examining this “God is Faithful” part of “Our Covenant,” we have seen a profile on Simeon, the godly man who gave the Christ child His blessing [LK 2: 27-32]. This blessing, for all intent and purposes, announces that He is the Messiah, the Savior of mankind from their sins. This was a great honor for Simeon and an indication that God esteemed him. We also learned that Christ’s saving grace was that He alone could abolish spiritual death. HE 2: 14-15, “Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Now, we need to fast forward temporarily to examine Christ’s last Passover and its significance to us for a deeper understanding of the issue of a covenant relationship.
Whenever Communion is taken in a Christian church, it is the custom to for the leader to recite 1 COR 11: 23-26, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it in remembrance of Me.’ For whenever you eat this bread or drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” I remember the first time I was admitted to the Communion rail and how it felt. I really understood that I was saved, but now, I was in a covenant relationship, something very sacred, serious, and important to me-for the rest of my life! This was no small occasion, as I was an adult at the time-old enough to really understand the commitment I had made. Afterward, the Lord put it on my heart to meditate over this passage time and time again, each time with something new to learn about it. Forevermore, I would be able to confess my sin with the assurance that as long as I stopped whatever it was and it wasn’t heinous, I would be forgiven. Furthermore, I had access to inner peace as never before.
There are lots of different ways to interpret this passage, as far as the actual bread/host wafer and wine/grape juice are concerned. The Roman Catholics believe in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine actually convert to the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. The Presbyterians say that these are taken “in memory of” but refute transubstantiation. The Lutherans say that there is some “mysterious change” in the elements that takes place, which is not really understood, something that make the taking of Communion the most intimate contact that we have with the Lord on this earth. The hermeneutics of this isn’t really the issue. As a Messianic Jew, all I can witness to is the amazing peace and completion that I feel when I take Communion. Believe what you will; know that doing this of central importance to the faith of a believer.
From a historical point of view, Christ’s body was indeed broken for us. Without His death, taking on the sins of the world, there would be no chance of salvation, no escape from spiritual death for us. There would be reason enough to fear physical death without His Atonement, and no reason to fear it with His amazing sacrifice. 1 COR 15 : 56-57, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The matter of the wine represents His blood shed for us, and even more to the point the initiation of the new covenant, the Covenant of Grace.
Nothing is more important emotionally and spiritually than this, because it means that the Father has found the way to release us from the marketplace of slavery to sin [RO 6: 16] and to give us the assurance of eternal life when we live according to His teaching. Very purposely, that last sentence is not just an event, but an event that is followed by continuing action on our part and on Christ’s. For such a thing, He still lives. For such a thing, we are called to live according to His direction found in the Scriptures, understanding God’s part in the circumstances of our lives, and through prayer. MT 26: 26-28 sheds further illumination on this important topic. “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, saying, ‘Take and eat, this is My body. Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Yes, Dear Ones, the eternal forgiveness of sins! That is why we can now read HE 8: 12 with greater appreciation. “For I will forgive the wickedness of their sins and will remember their sins no more.” We can realize that unlike forgiveness on the part of a human who always remembers our wrongdoing, the Lord is forgetting it forever, once and for all, as we have confessed and stopped sinning. He is forever granting us forgiveness. PS 32: 1, “Oh, what joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!”
PRAYER: O Lord, You have made the most unselfish of all sacrifices, that of Your only begotten Son on the cross, so that Your human creation could have the opportunity to escape the inheritance of sin and his own sinfulness once and for all. HE 10: 9-10, “Then He [Christ] said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do Your will.’ He sets aside the first [animal sacrifices] to establish the second [Christ as the Propitiation]; and by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (We remember that a propitiation is an acceptable substitute-sacrifice for our sins here). That Christ’s death on the cross is a “once for all time” sacrifice tells us just how powerful a victory over the evil one and spiritual death this Atonement really is. Lord, we understand that it gives a believer precious privileges that are barred from any other Source-eternal forgiveness [HE 8: 12], justification [RO 4 :3], the gift of the Holy Spirit [JN 14: 16-18], adoption into Your family as Your child [RO 8: 14-16], and true salvation- victory over spiritual death [JN 3: 16; HE 2: 14-15]. Never before has there been a god like You! Never before has a god reached down to his people first, as You have! JN 15: 16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask for in My name.” Imagine that! You are willing to give us whatever we ask for!??? Dearest Abba, we pledge You our loyalty and efforts to be faithfully obedient to You. We thank and praise You for all You are and all You do. We will do whatever we can to make Your agenda our own. We are forever grateful for all the gifts You give us mentioned above and more. We dedicate these prayerful words to You in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Savior. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Before we leave the subject of Communion, it is necessary to examine JN 3: 16 and RO 6: 23 to hover over it a little longer. We need to even have a deeper understanding of the Lord Jesus and what He brings to the life of a believer. I must admit that books have been written on this subject, and as long as I live, I doubt I’ll be an expert on it. God always has something new to teach us, which is why I take such great pleasure in being a believer. Boredom is not an option! J We’ll probably be learners as long as our days on earth are in progress, because our Lord has that much and more to teach us. He does this through study of His word [2 TIM 3: 16-17], prayer [PS 86: 7, 11], and the circumstances of our lives. As far as sin is concerned, we can always sin, but with faith in the Son, we are given the choice to stop sinning and to confess. That’s a choice we didn’t have before. Our Lord is capable of understanding this, because while He didn’t sin, He experienced all the same pains, temptations, and other trials of this world that we have while He was on earth [HE 4: 15]. That gives Him empathy for our turmoil and patience (with limits) while He waits for us to engage in self-discovery and take action to expunge the sin from our lives. His compassion can be seen in 2 PET 3: 9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, for not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Our Lord has told us through John, in 1 JN 4: 4, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them [the spirits of the world], because the One Who is in you [the Holy Spirit] is greater than the one who is in the world.” With that kind of reconnaissance, we can know we are on the team that wins in the end, God’s team! Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15