Revisiting the Lord's Supper Part 12 Giving (cont.)

[HKHaugan]

Revisiting the Lord’s Supper  Part 12  Giving (cont.) 

We want to make very clear that salvation is not something you earn by being good.  It was earned for us.  All the work of salvation was done by Jesus on the Cross.  He earned salvation for us by being a perfect sacrifice for sin. 

 Does the word salvation sound too religious?  Sometimes we need to take long standing words like that and make sure we understand what they mean, salvation being one of them.

Recovered, reinstated, restored, returned to a right and eternal relationship with the Lord God, they describe salvation.  There is no way anyone can work for, deserve or earn a right relationship with God due to the sin-drenched self-centered fear and guilt we inherited from Adam.   Jesus made that possible through His Cross and Resurrection.  When we received Him, we became His younger brothers and sisters. 

 But, in the world around us, the horizontal platform we live on, performance is everything.  You work for and earn acceptance socially and economically.  The problem, the fly in the ointment of our heart, is being born spiritually imperfect, alone, fearful and separated from God.  No amount of arduous work, being good on our own, even having good intentions, can satisfy our deepest spiritual, relational and emotional needs.   Counting on good performance and human ideas of sacrifice to gain acceptance doesn’t work with God.  The Lord’s Supper has a way of keeping us honest and dependent on the Lord about that very issue especially when you read His words about it.  He is the true source of goodness and our work is the work of faith to subscribe to it.  Paul says it clearly, “That which does not proceed from faith is sin (Rom.14:23).”

 So, again, the grace and love of God provides someone who can restore us to the Father, His perfect Son, Jesus who died in our place for us and rose from the dead to make Himself available to have a relationship with each of us by faith.  That relationship is our salvation, our eternal restoration to God to be His child.  Salvation, our relationship with the Lord Jesus, is the base of operations in our spiritual life that governs everything in our relational life wherever we are.  Salvation is the shape of our heart’s headquarters which sends us out into the world of people to give and share what we have been given.  The Lord’s Supper feeds the needs to plant the seeds to do good deeds.  Good deeds are faith deeds.  They arrive as a result of trusting Jesus. 

 So, what does a disciple of Jesus give?  Basically, one’s self to another’s needs, which means, sharing the truth of God as it applies to the moment (Jn.14:6), sharing the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal.5:22) and sharing the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Rom.12, 1Cor.12, Eph.4).  Each of these can be the calling of the moment.  What you are really offering is faith in Jesus Christ by doing what He says at the moment you perceive the leading of the Spirit.  It’s giving creatively based on the need of the moment.  Everyone is unique and has personal ways of responding as a result of the Spirit’s nudging.  That’s what ministry is all about, being uniquely individual in how you respond.  That’s how Jesus dealt with everyone.  His uniqueness given according to their uniqueness.   The Lord’s Supper keeps us humble before God in the presence of others which gives us the opportunity to think spiritually, wait on the Spirit and react not from self but from Him.

 The Lord’s Supper feeds our faith.  The Lord’s Supper nourishes our spiritual lifestyle.  The Lord’s Supper feeds our basic hunger for the Lord’s pleasure.  We do things not because we think they’re good but because God thinks they’re good.  When you have a relationship, you want it to grow and to thrive.  Just the desire to please the Lord because of what He has done for us makes us hungry to do more for Him.  It’s the attitude of Jesus, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work (John 4:34).”  When you see Jesus, you see the Father.  Hopefully, when people see us in action, we hope they see something of the attitude of Jesus.