1Cor 11.24-26 “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat:this is my body, which is broken for you:this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood:this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till come.”
The Bible is unmistakably clear about two fundamental spiritual realities:
- First, all human beings are sinners, in fact so hopelessly sinful, so inexcusably guilty and helplessly corrupt, as to be spiritually dead.
- Second, Jesus Christ, because of what he has done in his life, death, and resurrection, is the only Savior of sinners able to deliver us from our sin and its consequences. He and he alone is able to make us spiritually alive and sound.
No one has ever come to Christ by his own intelligence, will power, or good works. If you are a Christian, it is not because you thought through all of the options and due to your superior intelli- gence and high moral standards, you decided to follow Jesus. Rather, the Bible indicts us all (Rom. 3:10-18):
As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
If you’re thinking, “Well, that may describe others, but it doesn’t describe me,” then you do not understand God’s grace in the gospel. Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners like me to repentance.
Beware of cultural Christianity, where you assume that you’re a Christian because you live in a Christian country and attend a Christian church! You are not a Christian unless you know the life-transforming power of God in your heart!
“Take, … eat,…drink,” said Jesus.
- Eating the bread and drinking the cup is personal. No one can eat and drink for you, and no one can have a relationship with Jesus on your behalf.
- Eating and drinking is symbolic of something that is deeper and inward. It does no good to just be around food or drink. It is of no value at all to rub food or drink on the outside of your body – you must take it in. We must take Jesus unto ourselves inwardly, not merely in an external way.
Reader, have you taken Christ into your life as Lord?
