Part 3
The bible is a spiritual book, and must be understood with a spiritual mind, or it will not be understood at all. Much of what is written is symbolic and meant to be understood spiritually. But it is often interpreted literally by carnal thinking, and thereby distorted until the meaning is lost in ritualistic performance. There are many examples in Scripture where the ritual replaced the symbol.The Jewish nation was immersed in symbolic laws and ceremony given to them by God as a shadow of the promise to come. The tabernacle, sacrifices, and the Sabbath day. The feasts, the offerings, the celebrations, and much more. Each one carefully detailed, and enacted with precision to preserve a constant daily remembrance of God’s relationship with man, which was broken by sin, and His promise of a Savior who would bring reconciliation.
However the Jews emphasized the shadow, and rejected the substance. They got so caught up in the detail performance of ritual and duty, that they rejected the very One for Whom it foretold. By the time Jesus began His ministry, the Jews had so distorted the truth and purpose of all that they did, that they did not recognize the fulfillment of it all standing in their midst. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." (John 1:11).
Jesus is the express image of the invisible God. He was the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. All of Jewish history, all of their laws, all of their sacrifices, culminated in the life of Jesus here on earth. Jesus lived His life in perfect submission and obedience to the Father. He was the substance of their shadow. He was the fulfillment of all that the law and the prophets foretold, and yet they missed it.
The church system is not so unlike this today. One of the great ordinances for the church is that of the Lord’s Supper, or what is also known as communion; rich with meaning and truth. Each denomination has taken on their own particular method, and style of celebrating this Holy and symbolic occasion. For some it is a part of every service. For others it is celebrated one service a month. For some churches, each participant partakes of a piece of cracker, and a small cup of grape juice. For others, like the Catholic church, it is the eating of a leaven wafer. This wafer that has been blessed by the priest, is said to literally turn into the Body of Christ by a method called transubstantiation. While there are some churches that have done away with communion altogether, still there are other gatherings where the members have chosen to use real bread and wine as part of their custom.
So we see, that while the methods may change from place to place the Lord’s supper is still widely practiced throughout most of Christendom. Yet like most symbolic rituals; it is not unusual over time for any procedure to become routine. The purpose gets lost in the pomp. The symbol gets hidden in the system. The message is covered by the method. The reason for doing it becomes forgotten, and we continue only because we have always done it that way before. Somewhere along the way we lost the meaning the symbol is supposed to represent, and got caught up in performing the ritual for the sake of ritual.
The apostle Paul gives us insight into the meaning of the body of Christ in chapters 11, and 12 of I Corinthians. There he ties together the meaning of the Lord’s supper with what is the substance of Christ’s body shown in the supper symbolism. To miss what Paul is teaching, is to miss a great Truth and a great mystery of Scripture.
"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." (I Cor. 11:24). There is much that can be said here, but the first of two things I want to take note of is the obvious symbolism. Jesus was holding bread and saying it was His body. He was not promoting cannibalism. He was not saying every time you eat bread, or take communion He would come inside you. He was using the bread in almost a parabolic fashion, which leads to the second point.
When Jesus broke the bread He said it was His body broken for us. We know His body was never broken, so what could He mean? His body on this earth was no longer limited to the flesh of one man. He was saying that as the bread was in each of the disciples, He would be in each of them. All the pieces of bread together make up the whole. The whole is the sum of all of its parts, and is divided among each member that partakes of its substance. Now he was to become a many membered body. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.. For the body is not one member, but many." (I Cor. 12:12,14) Christ is a many membered body, and Jesus is the head of that body. God is now represented on this earth in a corporate, many membered body which is Christ. One body, many members, and the Head of this many membered corporate body is Jesus.
When we are born again, we are born into a spiritual union with God; we are born into the nature and substance of God. This does not mean that we all will think alike. It does not mean that we all will act alike. It does not mean we will all have the same interests. It does not mean we will all have the same desires, nor view point, nor beliefs. But we will be joined together in unity. We will be joined together in love. We will be joined together in Christ. "But now hath God set the members everyone of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body." (I Cor. 12:18-20). So that though we remain an individual we are joint members of one body. That body is Christ, and Jesus is the head. "and He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence." (Col. 1:18). It is only through the body’s connection with the head that life can exist. It is only through our connection with the body that we can grow. "..holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." (Col. 2:19).
We have become so joined to Christ Jesus, that all He accomplished; all He is, we are part of. He overcame the world, we are overcomers. He conquered sin and the grave and death and hell. "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." (Rom. 8:37). He is seated at the right hand of the Father, "(Jesus) hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:6). Through Christ, and our union in Him we "are the children of God: and if children, the heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." (Rom. 8:16,17). He is the Son of God; we are sons.
The list can be endless of all that God has provided for us through Christ. Yet it is not so that we will just sit and wait to enter experientially into the Spirit. We are saved to serve. "He has given us all things that pertains to life and Godliness." (II Pet. 1:3). God has equipped us for service, and now we are to walk it out in the power of His Spirit, showing the Life of Christ in our lives, and proclaiming reconciliation unto all men. "As He is, so are we in this world." (I John 4:17). Jesus left a directive to His disciples, and it applies as much to us as it did to them: "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." (John 20:21).
If we have the same commission from Jesus as Jesus received from the Father, it only stands to reason we should consider what that commission was. Jesus said he finished the work He was sent to do, that He did all the Father gave Him to do. Now He sends us. If we don’t know what His mission was, how will we know what ours is? We know that He was sent as an offering for sin. Jesus was the Lamb of God slain from before the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8) There is no more need for a sacrifice for sin; His sacrifice was sufficient for all sin, for all men, for all time. But that was not His only purpose, it is much more than that.
Jesus came to prove that God so loves the world. "No greater love can a man have than this, that he lay down his life for another." His whole life was a life laid down in submission to the Father for others. We are called to no less service. As God has show His love toward us through Jesus Christ, so also ought we to show God’s love to the world. "By this shall all men know you are my disciples that you love one another." As we have been forgiven, so also ought we to forgive. As God has been gracious, and merciful, and faithful, and kind toward us, so also ought we to show His nature to the world at work in our lives. Jesus was the express image of the invisible God. God became flesh in the person of Jesus, and manifested Himself to the world. God wants to still manifest His nature to the world through our flesh.
It has been said, people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care! The only Jesus, the only Gospel, the only idea about the Character of God that some in this world will ever know is by how we live our lives. The Scriptures are God’s love letter to man. We are living letters born of God, and read of men! What Gospel are those we work with; go to school with; do business with; or socialize with reading in your life?
Whether it is the feasts, the offerings, or the celebrations; whether it is the institution of marriage, the command of baptism, or the ordinance of communion, each is filled with symbolic meaning, rich with Truth, and purposed to deepen our walk with the Lord. Let us therefore, not participate with a natural mind and carnal thinking. Let us not participate in ritual for the sake of ritual. Rather let us understand: "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come." (I Cor.11:26).
AMEN.
