What does it look like a new
life in Christ Jesus the Lord? Definitely, it is not difficult to think that it
is not the same as the past. One example would be exclusionism. How hard is it
to bear differences each other? History says that humans are having a
tremendous difficulty and trouble each other on all sorts of matters like how
to talk, how to wear, how to behave, how to drive, etc. All is eccentric even
if there are seven billion people living in the earth. Read the newspapers!
Fights, quarrels, killings, vengeance, hatred, murder, divisions, dissensions
have visibly been manifested and displayed to our eyes and ears everyday. The
world says, “Do whatever you want!” Cain protested brazenly when asked of the
whereabouts of his brother Abel, saying “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In fact, he
was, but refused to listen to God, murdering his brother. How attractive and enticing
it is to cluster together with those whose outlooks and interests are the same
or at least similar! There are so many country clubs around the world, even the
secret societies. Not so in church, the body of Christ! Do not succumb to the
temptations of being selfish and going a broad way as believers in Christ, say
the Scriptures. Rather, deny ourselves and take up the cross for the cause of
Christ, and follow the Lord daily. Our Lord Christ descended and bled and died
and was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day and ascended into
the highest heaven and sat down until he has put all his enemies under his
feet. We have been called and justified and glorified in Christ, so that a way
to follow him is open for us. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new
creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Christ in you, the hope of glory! We no longer live for our own interests, but
for the sake of Christ because we have been freely redeemed through the faith in
him. We have been made new in our Lord Jesus Christ, so we may able to live a
new life in Christ selflessly now and forevermore.
“In the following directives I
have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first
place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions
among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be
differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when
you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are
eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one
person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and
drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have
nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this
matter! For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord
Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks,
he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in
remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This
cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in
remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So then, whoever eats the bread or
drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning
against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves
before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and
drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on
themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you
have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we
would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this
way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally
condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to
eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at
home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I
come I will give further directions.” (1 Corinthians 11:17-34)
The way of the cross is the way
to live for all Christians. But church in Corinth exercised something significantly
flawed and directly against the way of the cross. There are divisions among the
church members. In the love feast occasion, they are supposed to share joy and
gratitude in the Lord by comforting and mutually caring each other. This holy
congregation gathering should not exclude anyone behind but embrace everyone in
the fullness and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, the Corinthians do
not exercise and demonstrate the love and joy of the Lord that some are drunk
and others are left hungry. It happened in the most holy gathering, the Lord’s
Supper. It is unworthy manner to eat the Lord’s Supper because it is humiliating
those who have nothing. They have home to eat and drink, rebukes Apostle Paul.
Why is it unworthy to eat the
Lord’s Supper that way in divisions? Because eating the Lord’s Supper means proclaiming
the Lord’s death. Christ was crucified in our place for the sin of the world. Proclaiming
the Lord’s death means the acceptance of our death with Christ on that cross. Apostle
Paul sorts out what it exactly means by it, saying “For through the law I died
to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians
2:19-20) In the Epistle of Romans, Paul details what had truly happened when we
accepted Christ by faith. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so
that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how
can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore
buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new
life.” (Romans 6:1-4) Our old self called the flesh died and was buried with
Christ for it was no value at all before God. Then we were raised with Christ
on the day of his resurrection from the dead. That is a new life given from
heaven above for us to live in Christ.
A new life in Christ is no
longer operated by the old way of life in Adam. Exclusionism, for example, is
no longer acceptable because we died to it in Christ. Since we died to
exclusionism, how can we live in it any longer? Apostle John says bluntly that
we cannot continue to sin if we have been genuinely born again by the grace of
God in Christ. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s
seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of
God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of
the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is
anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” (1 John 3:9-10) Exclusionism
is evil no matter whatever cause. It is not permissible any longer in the life
of believer in Christ. It is true that we struggle and stumble many times,
failing to loving and accepting our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord
knows!
“For I received from the Lord
what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed,
took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my
body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper
he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this,
whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1
Corinthians 11:23-26)
In the holy of holies, the last
supper, our Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples to take the bread as his
body and to drink the cup of the new covenant as his blood, in remembrance of
him. In Christ, we have been given a completely new way of living, so
revolutionary that it is almost unbelievable to be true. In Adam, we cannot
love each other no matter what, but in Christ we can do not by might, not by
power, but by spirit. What Jesus is saying is stunningly challenging and unorthodox
that people at his hearing were offended and left away from him. Jesus Christ
the Son of Man says, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and
drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” (John 6:53-56) By the grace of
God, we have been made and put to live under the new covenant. Eating his body
and drinking his blood are not literal but figurative language that we live in
him and on him and by him and through him. We are in Christ and he in us. We
have been united with Christ through the faith in the Lord God. Since we have
been united with Christ, we live in him, completely depending on him. We live
now his life, not our old lives any longer.
“So then, whoever eats the
bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine
themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who
eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on
themselves.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)
We ought to examine ourselves
whether we live on the new covenant that we love each other just as our Lord
Jesus Christ did while we were still sinners, the enemies of God. The salvation
we have been given is not without price but with that of the Son of Man’s life.
We were bought and redeemed at the price of Jesus’ suffering and death. Christ
is our eternal ransom sacrifice to defend ourselves before God, so that we may
stand in the holy throne of grace with confidence. “Such confidence we have
through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim
anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us
competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit;
for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6) Therefore,
we ought to examine ourselves daily and remind that we have been made and put
under the new covenant living. If not, the consequence follows. “That is why
many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.” (1
Corinthians 11:30) As God intended us to be mature men and women in Christ, we
shall grow by being nurtured and equipped with the word of truth.
“So Christ himself gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his
people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until
we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and
become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians
4:11-13)
August 29, 2017
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2015-2017 David Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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