Communion pt. 2

WARNING: GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS AHEAD

At the end of the finale of this past season on Game of Thrones, Jon Snow got stabbed. A lot. All the major sources are saying, "Yes, he's dead. As sure as Winter is coming, he is dead." Everyone is freaking out, thinking that the true hero is gone, but throughout the show we've seen resurrection. 

A note that I've made on some forums about Jon Snow's death is this: You cannot have resurrection without death. This I got from 2 Corinthians 4.10: Always carrying in [our] body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

We carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that we can carry his life as well. But how can we carry both life and death? Doesn't death come after life and death is final? No. Because we have the resurrection. And you cannot have resurrection, a permanent state, without death, turned from a permanent state into an non-permanent state because of the resurrection.

What does this have to do with communion?

Monday we looked at where Communion came from, and we ended with Paul writing in 1 Corinthians 11.26: For as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Connecting this back to what was said on Monday, We proclaim the death of an innocent, a firstborn, we remember the sacrifice made, so that we could have life and freedom from slavery. 

But it's more than that. The Passover celebration is a meal, a feast! Think Thanksgiving for Jews, but kosher, and with lamb. For the Jew's it's a time of celebration and anticipation; celebrating their deliverance, but also looking forward to the coming Messiah. For us, Christians, we take part in the feast every week now, and it's an act of remembrance of the sacrifice made for our deliverance, but ti's also a victory meal, still looking back at our deliverance and Jesus' triumph over sin!

So while we proclaim his death each time we take communion, we also celebrate his resurrection and his victory. Today I read 1 Corinthians 15. There are four distinct passages there. Three over resurrection proving that one, Christ is risen, we too shall rise with him, and that we will be given new bodies that will not perish. The final passage is about the victory over sin and death, which comes from the resurrection, from Christ's resurrection. If you truly believe in the Risen Christ then this is a cause for celebration! If you truly believe that you were completely condemned to death because of your sin this is cause for celebration! The resurrection of Christ opened the door for us to life! 

And this is what we proclaim every time we take communion. 

We remember where we were in our slavery to sin. We remember the sacrifice and death of Christ, which we proclaim by taking the bread which was broken like his body, and drinking the juice which was poured out like his blood. But we also celebrate the resurrection of Christ, which brings new life to us.

Romans 8 part 1

Read Romans 8.1-11

So this is a bit late in coming, busy doing work for school lately trying to do a theology based on Amos which is fun but time consuming. Anyways, let's get started. Romans 8 is one of the deepest chapters we can read. I know I said something similar about Romans 6, an while chapter 6 is difficult, chapter 8 is deep. So let's dive in.

We left off with Romans 7 in which Paul gets horrible confusing, but ultimately says, "Even though we're saved and know what sin is, we're still going to sin because we know what sin is." Paul ended 7 on a fairly depressing note, but chapter 8 begins with one of the greatest phrases we may ever hear, and it truly speaks grace in it's entirety.

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

What Paul says here is, "Yes, we are still sinners, and yes, sin still leads to death. But, though we are still sinners there is no condemnation against us because we are in Christ Jesus!" The Law has been fulfilled in Jesus, and we have died with him and have come alive with him as well. By dying on the cross Jesus had confined sin to the flesh, and we who have died with him are no longer considered according to the flesh but instead by the Spirit, and the Spirit which resides in us now is the Spirit of God himself. But having the Holy Spirit in us, we are then in Jesus. And by being in Jesus we are free from the law of sin and death. 

What this leads to then is that we ourselves fulfill the Law. We are righteous. Not by our own works though, but because we are in Jesus who has already fulfilled the Law. Confusing? Let's think about this.

When I was in Cleveland my parents came up once to visit. One day for lunch we go out to eat with the people that I was staying with. We sat around, ate, talked, got to know each other, and by this point I had lived with these people for a month or two. Afterwards my parents leave and I get a ride back with the people I was staying with. We get back to the house, are sitting around and the wife looks at me and says, "You and your dad have a lot of the same mannerisms." I never noticed before, but how could I? I'm a part of it. An egg never looks around and says, "I'm a part of this balanced breakfast." I couldn't look around and say, "I'm a lot like my dad in actions and speech." But by spending 20 years around my dad, I became like him. In the same way, by being in Christ we grow to be like him without thinking about. But that is only if we are truly in Jesus. 

What I mean by that last statement is this. As Paul writes in Romans 6.1, "Should we continue in sin so that grace may increase? No!" If we continue to purposefully sin trying to please only ourselves then we have not really been saved, we don't know the weight of sin, and we don't have the mind of God with us. But we realize what our vices are, we open ourselves up to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, allowing them to flow through us. We imitate Christ in all we do. We live as if we are saved. This is what it means to truly be in Jesus. 

And by imitating Jesus, we, like him fulfill the Law. But it is not us, as Paul writes in chapter 7, but the Spirit of God working in us. Verse 5 tells us that if we have our mind on things of the flesh: material possessions, sex, money, mind altering substances, etc. then we are still in the flesh. But if we are in the Spirit then our minds are on the things of the Spirit: righteousness, worship, God, the spread of the gospel, the caring to those around us. So I have to ask you this: Are you in the Spirit or the flesh? Lie to yourself if you wish, that's your call. God knows and will judge accordingly. I'm just here to get you to think about it. 

We see in the next verse, 6, that to set our mind on the flesh is death, where as setting our mind on the Spirit is life and peace with God. This is because in the Spirit we may please God, but in the flesh we cannot. 

9-11 ends with us reading that God dwells in us, making us the temple (1 Corinthians 3). If we do not have the Spirit, then we don't belong to God. We're not his children, heirs, disciples, or followers. We are his enemies at that point. But if we are in Christ, then even though our body is dead because of sin, our spirit is alive because of the righteousness of Christ which is given to us. And if we have the Spirit of God in us, then that spirit, which raised Jesus, shall raise us as well.