Why are we, as saved sinners, given the privilege of feasting at the Communion table before a holy God? Because He has provided an atonement for our rebellion! In his sermon “The Lamb of God,” Alistair traces man’s search for a substitutionary sacrifice throughout Scripture, starting with Isaac, who asks his father, “Where is the lamb?” The ultimate answer, of course, comes centuries later, when John the Baptist introduces Jesus as the unblemished Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. By becoming sin for us on the cross, Christ Jesus provides perfect redemption—and perfect communion—for all who believe.
Upon the cross of Jesus
Mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of one
Who suffered there for me.1
It’s here, at the cross, that Jesus has dealt with sin—all of my disobedience completely covered over by Christ’s obedience; the word is expiation. It is here at the cross that God’s wrath is settled; the word is propitiation. Because our predicament before God outside of Christ is twofold: we are separated from Him on account of our rebellion against Him and He from us on account of His wrath towards our sin. Therefore, if we are ever to know God savingly, then our rebellion needs to be dealt with, and so does His wrath. Where is it dealt with? That’s right: at the cross. It’s at the cross that we’re reconciled to God.
The wonder of it is that God the Father didn’t just send Jesus to us. He sent Jesus for us. For us! That before the foundation of the world… Jesus came and died in order that He might bear your sin—not just sin, not just an amorphous mass of sin, but bear my sin, my rebellion, my disobedience, whatever it might be. He came purposefully for you. No wonder they call it a Eucharist, a thanksgiving! “Thank you, Lord!”
In His mercy—in His mercy—He hasn’t left us to the consequences of our choices. How about that? If He had let us do more of the dumb stuff that we were thinking of doing and left us to the consequences, we certainly wouldn’t be here. He doesn’t require us to repair what we have ruined, because He who knew no sin became sin for us in order that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.
And where there is that sacrifice for sin, that once-for-all, settled… In Christ, God has nothing against you tonight. Do you understand that? That’s the amazing thing about Hebrews 10. It says, “And the Holy Spirit also says…” And when it says, “The Holy Spirit also says,” what does he say? He quotes the Bible! The Holy Spirit quotes the Scriptures: “Your sins and your lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
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Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane, “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” (1868). ↩︎
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