Empowered, Enlightened, Enlivened

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This meal is not a propitiatory sacrifice. We are not offering Christ to God—rather, God is offering Christ to us. He is able to do this because Christ’s blood was spilled in the crucifixion, and applied to the heavenly altar in the Ascension. The offering of Christ to God was a singular event, and in the words of Hebrews it was “once for all.” It does not need to be repeated, and indeed, in the very nature of the case, it cannot be repeated.

But Christ can be offered to sinners as long as we still have sinners—and we still do. They are being born all the time. We are still needy. We are still broken. We are still in need of being grown up into the perfect man. Christ need never again be offered to the Father. Christ must be offered to the world until the world is remade in Him, and is fit to be offered to the Father. Christ was offered to the Father once for all. Christ is offered to the world repeatedly.

Christ is offered to His people in the church repeatedly, multiple times. We hear the Word of God read in this service, we pray the Word of God in this service, we sing the Word of God in this service, and we hear the Word of God proclaimed in this service. In the Supper we have the privilege of sealing all of that by eating and drinking the very Wisdom of God.

As we do so, we are being transformed, from one degree of glory to another. We are empowered by it, we are enlightened by it, and we are enlivened by it. None of this happens because we simply go through the motions, but when we come to this Table in a lively and evangelical faith, it does happen. Christ is offered to us, again and again, and we receive Him again and again. We don’t receive Him as though we never had Him; we receive Him in His fullness because we already have His fullness. We receive Him, all of Him, more and more.

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.

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