We are gathered at this Table in a world that has been fundamentally transformed by the resurrection of Jesus. The world can never be the same as it was before because this is a world in which a man has come back from the dead. And so we believe in the resurrection, we declare and preach it, and we number it as being among the things that are of first importance.
But at this weekly meal, we commemorate and memorialize the death of Jesus. This is His body, broken on the cross. This is His blood, shed on the cross. And Paul tells us that as often as we eat and drink, we declare the Lord’s death until He comes.
In this meal, we participate in a living Christ, an alive Christ, a resurrected Christ. He would be no Savior at all had He not risen, and if He were not at the right hand of the Father. We ascend to Him there, in the power of the Spirit, as we partake of Christ. But it is the very fact of this life that enables us to extend the power of His death, the efficacy of His death, and offer it to a defiled world.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Jesus died once in history, and we can say that He died once for all because He is risen. Because He is risen, He can apply the potency of His blood to those who were not to be born for two thousand years after the death of Jesus. That death, two thousand years ago, is applied to you, here, now, because He has given gifts to men. One of those gifts is His Spirit, and He is the one who applies that remedy to your sore.
Because He bled, He can stop your bleeding. Because He was broken, He can bind up what is broken in you. Because He died, He is the remedy. Because He lives, He can apply it.
So come . . . in faith. Come, in gratitude. Come, with as many needs as you might have. So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.
I’m the first to reply to this post? Where’s the emotion? Where’s the anger, the gasps? Not a peep from friend or foe of Wilson?
Of all your posts over the past few weeks, hands down, this is the most controversial and not a word. This is a scandalous article. Grace, so unequivocally scandalous. It’s what makes Jesus so great. Perhaps the silence is fitting. Thanks for stating what needs to be stated every day. “Because he bled”
Why is it so scandalous? Because it sounds non-Calvinist? If you grew up in a non-Calvinist church there’s nothing scandalous about it. But having finally grown up, I would say blood doesn’t wash anything — it makes dirty. If blood washes away sins, why are people always dogging on the Jews for supposedly saying “His blood be on us and on our children” — that would mean all the Jews are cleansed of sin! Aren’t you saying the same thing every time you claim to be washed in the blood? Its really Christians who are guilty of crying “let his… Read more »