Christ is Your Christ

This is, of course, a covenant meal. This is the cup of the new covenant. Christ is the covenant, and this is His body, and this is His blood.

But the word covenant is not just an all-purpose religious word, signifying something vaguely spiritual. A covenant is form by an oath, a bond, between persons. This participation in this meal is a renewal of that oath, a renewal of that bond.

The covenant is renewed weekly, not because it was going to expire, like a lease, but because it is a form of life that is renewed by nourishment, by food. But as a covenant form of life, part of this nourishment is the renewal of the promises—again, not because the promises were going to expire, but rather because the promises and our faith in the promises need to be fed.

So as we eat and drink, God is undertaking to be our God. As we eat and drink, we are undertaking to be His people. We are doing so, not on the basis of law, but in a thorough-going dependence upon His grace. How do we receive that grace? By faith, by believing. Here is one of the places where God calls us to this faith, to this belief.

Take and receive. God is your God. Eat and drink. Christ is your Christ. Join together with all God’s people. You are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Commit yourself entirely, body and soul, into the care of the God who receives you so kindly. Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.