One of the glories of the new covenant is that we get to eat and drink our salvation. In the Garden of Eden, our first parents were privileged to eat their communion with God in the tree of life. And after our fall into sin, it is significant that the gospel is presented to us as a restoration to that same tree of life.
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2).
But how do we eat this salvation? How do we bite, chew, taste, and swallow? How is that done? The biblical answer is that we do all this by believing. We do this by faith.
As Jesus introduces His discussion of what the manna in the wilderness represented, which was the bread of life that Jesus Himself was, He said this. “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29).
Biting, chewing, tasting and swallowing are the work of God. And how do we do this work of God? We believe in Jesus. How can we do that? We cannot do that unless God gives us the gift of faith. Faith is not something we can generate on our own steam. Faith is not something we can pull up by some kind of self-effort. Faith is grace. You eat grace, and you eat by grace. And this is why we say grace. Come, and welcome.