God Without Religion_ Can It Really Be This Simple_ - Andrew Farley [58]
We conduct the entire celebration in remembrance of Jesus. But with all of today’s distortions of the celebration, we find it necessary to remind each other that it’s not about us. It’s not about our track record or some cleansing ritual. Instead, it’s about what Jesus did for us. It should be more like a party than a funeral. And we should walk away feeling great, not guilty.
The Whole Point
The point of the Lord’s Supper is to remind us how clean and how close to our God we really are. The work was entirely Jesus Christ’s. He did a fantastic job of obliterating any record of our sins. God remembers our sins no more. So the Lord’s Supper celebration is the last place we should be remembering them.
Are we really allowed to make it all about him and not about us? Yes! It’s the only way to truly celebrate.
It’s communion without religion.
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So to sum this up—am I saying there’s nothing for us Christians to do to get more forgiven, to get more cleansed, to get right for communion, or to remain in right standing with God?
Yes, I am.
But hang on a second before you slam this book shut.
Even though we don’t confess our sins or ask for forgiveness in order to be forgiven and cleansed, we’ll still find ourselves sorrowful after sinning. There’s a godly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10) we experience, because we’ve been re-created by God for good works. Our sorrow is not just regret that we didn’t allow the Spirit to express himself through us (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19). It’s also from our own human spirit that cries out to be an expression of Christ on this side of heaven (Rom. 8:23). We’ll never be satisfied with sinning. We’re made for something greater.
We’re designed to express God’s life.
“Tell Me What to Do!”
So what are we to do when we sin? We agree with God about our wrong choice. We thank God that this sin is one among the billions that were already taken away by Jesus’s blood. We turn 180 degrees away from our sin (Rom. 6:12). We depend on God’s Spirit for genuine change. If our sinful activity has left damage behind, we repair the damage if possible (Rom. 12:18). But we don’t have to ask or wait or hope for forgiveness to come our way, since this is equivalent to asking Christ to die all over again.
Here’s a practical example from Scripture. Some believers in the church in Ephesus were stealing, and the apostle Paul’s advice was this:
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. (Eph. 4:28)
Seems like pretty practical advice, doesn’t it? Did you notice how future-focused Paul was? He wasn’t trying to get them to dim the lights and obsess over each and every theft. He wasn’t looking for them to submit to some guilt trip over the whole thing. The apostle was essentially saying, “Spare yourself the fear and consequences from committing crimes. Get a job, have some respect for who you are, and do what’s fitting for saints—share with those in need.”
Paul’s advice would be the same for us today. Rather than drumming up our past, he’d point us toward a future that is more fulfilling and more hopeful. He’d remind us that our destiny is expressing Jesus Christ in everything.
So here’s the bottom line. Yes, we should agree with God that our sinful behavior is senseless. Yes, we turn from every sin we commit. And yes, we are to be honest and open with God and with others who will pray for us (James 5:16). But we should also move forward in confidence concerning what the blood of Jesus accomplished. We possess an unconditional, irrevocable, one-time cleansing from all our sins!
Secret in the Slammer
Rick had committed murder and gotten away with it. He sat in his prison cell day after day, holding