In Christ Alone;Lord’s Supper Reflection

In Christ Alone;Lord’s Supper Reflection

“In Christ Alone’”

(2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

Lord’s Supper

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

  • Take your Bibles and join me this morning in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5.  We’ll be looking at verses 18-21 and then, as we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper, we’ll focus our attention on the last verse, verse 21.  

While you’re finding 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I want you to know that I will be available to you after the service this morning in the Response Room.  If you have spiritual questions, questions namely about being saved and baptized or questions about joining the church, come to the Response Room after the service and I’ll meet you there.   Right out here there is a sign, “Response Room,” and follow the sign to the room.

The context of this passage is the Christian’s reconciliation with God.  To reconcile is to bring together two things that are separated.  In accounting terms, many of you know that reconciliation of financial accounts is to bring together accounts that are at odds with one another.  And reconciliation occurs when the accounts are “in agreement” or in “balance” or “in harmony.”  Reconciliation.  

Applied spiritually and relationally, reconciling is the bringing together of two parties who are “at odds” or are not “in harmony” with one another.  Perhaps a son or daughter is separated from his or her parents for wrong behavior.  And through forgiveness is then reconciled with mom and dad.  No longer “at odds.”  Now “in harmony.”  Think, for example, of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, once separated from his father and then reconciled–brought back–to his father and now in agreement.

The word “reconcile” or “reconciliation” occurs no fewer than five times in these four verses.  Listen for the word as I read the passage and we hear how the Apostle Paul describes God’s reconciling of believers to Himself through Jesus Christ.

  • Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,  

19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing

 their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  

20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  

21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

  • Pray: “Good Father, help us by way of Your Holy Spirit to better understand the Lord’s Supper.  Help us especially to understand what Your Son Jesus Christ asked of us when He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.  We pray this in His name, amen.”

Introduction:

When I was in high school, the church I attended observed the Lord’s Supper once a month.  At the time I didn’t care much for it because it was observed at the exclusion of the regular preaching of the Bible and it just seemed to be this thing we all did that had very little meaning to me.  Little Chiclet-sized pieces of chewy bread and a small, shot-glass of grape juice, that’s the way I saw it and I just never got it.

Later, when I attended another church, it was much the same.  The Supper was observed quarterly as we do here and there was a sermon preached, but it usually didn’t have any connection to the Supper itself.  And it really seemed to me that the Lord’s Supper was just some disparate event that we did once a quarter to say that we did it; to “get it done” or “out of the way” so that we could get on with other things.

So we gather this morning to observe the Lord’s Supper and we want to feel that we are worshiping Christ and we want to avoid thinking of the Supper as something we do to just “get it done” or “out of the way.” 

The Lord’s Supper is about worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is specifically, as the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11, a time to remember Him.  Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me (1 Corinthians 11:24-25).”

Remembering Christ leads to worshiping Christ.  So in a moment we will focus like a laser beam upon verse 21, and note some reasons why Christians worship Jesus, remembering Him in the Supper, but before we do that, let’s be sure we are “rightly dividing the Word of truth,” rightly interpreting the Bible, by considering the biblical context of this passage.

So back up to verse 18 and the first part there where Paul writes, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.”

The words “all things” there in verse 18.  Do you see that?  Verse 18, “Now all things are of God.”  What does Paul mean by “all things.”  What are the “all things?”  so we back up to verse 17 and we read a concluding statement about the Christian’s salvation, something Paul has been writing about throughout the chapter.  Specifically, in verse 17 Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  All things have become new.  Old things–the Christian’s former life, old things–the Christian’s former alienation and separation from a holy God because of our sin–all these old things have become new.  

Because we are sinners by nature and by choice we are in a state of alienation and separation from a holy God.  We have rebelled against the Creator of the universe.  Our sin separates us from this holy God.  But through Christ, the Christian is reconciled–brought back to a state of favor and agreement, brought back to balance–with a holy God.  All things have become new.

Then Paul writes in verse 18, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ,”  All things are of God.  That is, God alone has made the old new.  God alone has brought sinful people back to a state of agreement with Himself.  God alone has accomplished the Christian’s regeneration, justification, in a word salvation.  God alone has done this, reconciling us to Himself.  “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.”  God alone through Christ alone.

And the application of this work of reconciliation for the Christian is to be used of God in the reconciling of others to God, our friends and co-workers.  So Paul writes in the second part of verse 18 that God, “has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”  He adds in verse 19 and following that:

19 …God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing

 their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  

20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  

And that is our message this week as “ambassadors for Christ.”  God has “committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  God has entrusted to us the stewardship of the Gospel.

We share the Good News of the Gospel this evening in our outreach fellowships, we share the Good News of the Gospel this week with our neighbor and with our friends and our family and our fellow students and coworkers, the server today, sales clerk tomorrow, the grocer.  God is “pleading through us.”  That is, we share the Good News of the Gospel from the Word and therefore God Himself pleads through us to our friends and neighbors, classmates, employees, and so on.  By the way, that is a very liberating, very freeing truth, isn’t it?  We don’t do the work.  God does the work through us, pleading through us.

And the message we share is summed up in the last four words of verse 20, “Be reconciled to God.”  God desires sinners be “brought back” to Himself, “in harmony” with Him, no longer “at odds” but back together in balance with God.  God desires that sinful people be brought up close and personal to a holy God.  

How is that possible?  How is it possible that sinful people may be brought back–reconciled–to a holy God, a God without sin?  How can sin and holiness dwell together?  There is no room for sin in heaven.  There is no place for sin and holiness.  Like oil and water, you cannot mix the two.  They remain separated.  It seems impossible for sinful people to be placed in right standing with a holy God.  But as Jesus says elsewhere, “What is impossible with man is possible with God (Luke 18:27).”  God makes the impossible possible.

And the answer is found in verse 21:

Verse 21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

This truth is encapsulated in the chorus we sang just a moment ago:

This the power of the cross

Christ became sin for us

Took the blame, bore the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross

So what I’d like to do now is place a magnifying glass above that verse—verse 21—and examine the verse really closely and see all the wonder that is in verse 21 insofar as it helps us worship Jesus Christ in the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me” and verse 21 will help us recall, remember, and rejoice in what Jesus did for those who believe, for Christians. 

The verse divides into three parts.  First thing, number one:

  1. Recall His Sinlessness as the Christ

Praise Him for His sinlessness as the Christ.  Remember that, “Christ” is not the last name of Jesus, it is a title.  It is a Greek word that translates the Hebrew Word, “Messiah.”  It means the, “Anointed One,” the promised coming One who would be our Deliverer; Jesus, the Christ; Jesus the Messiah; Jesus our Deliverer.

Now Paul describes Jesus in the first part of verse 21 as one who, “knew no sin.”  The first pronoun in verse 21 refers to God the Father.  “He–God the Father–made Him–Jesus Christ–who knew no sin, to be sin for us.”  He made Him who knew no sin.

The sinlessness of Christ.  Jesus Christ never once sinned.  Never once in the Gospels do we read of Christ’s having sinned.  Some people believe when Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple that He sinned.  But this is not sin.  This is holy anger.  While anger may lead to sinful actions, anger itself is not sin.  The Bible says in Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry and do not sin.”  Jesus never once sinned.  Here are a few references you may wish to write down:

John 8:46.  Jesus asks His accusers, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?”

Hebrews 4:15.  The writer of Hebrews says of Jesus that “He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  

1 Peter 2:22.  The Apostle Peter describes Jesus as the One “Who did no sin, neither was guile (or deception) found in his mouth…”

1 John 3:5.  The Apostle John says, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.

Why does this matter?  Well, the eternal Son of God comes to us in the flesh as Jesus Christ.  And God lives the perfect sinless life we ourselves could not live.  Christ fulfills all the commands of the Bible perfectly.  He’s the only one who has ever kept the Old Testament Law perfectly.  So He keeps the Law perfectly.  He lives a life we could not live.  We would have to be perfect to be reconciled to God, totally without sin.  Anyone in the room so brazen as to say, “I’ve never sinned!”  

Remember what James says in James 2:10: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Jesus lives a life we could not live.  He lives a life of perfect righteousness so that we may receive credit for it.  

So worship Jesus as you Recall His Sinlessness as the Christ.  Related to this first point is the second:

  1. Remember His Suffering on the Cross

Verse 21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.”

On the cross Christ did not become a sinner, He became sin.  And He became sin “for us.”  That is, on the cross, God the Father thought of our sins as belonging to Christ.

God sacrificed His Son on the cross to take upon Himself the punishment we deserved.  He suffered in our place.  He suffered “for us.”

So Christ is without sin, but when He died on Calvary’s Cross, God regarded Christ and treated Christ “as sin,” a sin offering.  Christ did not become a sinner.  You must never say that!  Christ did not become a sinner.  Christ became sin.  He was regarded and treated as sin.  He took our sins upon Himself.  He died for our sins.  He took our place.  As our substitute, He took our place and took our punishment by dying for our sins.

That punishment, by the way, goes all the way back to the second chapter of the entire Bible.  God said to Adam and Eve that the consequence of eating from the forbidden fruit in the Garden was, Genesis 2:17, “…in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Jesus took our blame and bore God’s wrath when He died on the cross, paying the penalty we deserved.  

This, the power of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

To become sin, to bear God’s wrath rightly directed to us because of our sin and rebellion against our Creator was immense suffering for the Lord Jesus.

You might review Isaiah 53 later.  700 years before Christ, God speaks through the Prophet Isaiah, prophetically stating what would take place on the cross 700 years later, this prophecy before the inception of Roman crucifixion.  Isaiah says, for example:

Isaiah 53:4, “surely He has born our griefs…and we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Isaiah 53:5, “He was wounded (or crushed) for our iniquities”

Isaiah 53:6, “And the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.”

Pretty specific prophecy, isn’t it?  He took upon Himself our sin and suffering.  

Recall His Sinlessness as the Christ, Remember His Suffering on the Cross, and thirdly:

3) Rejoice in His Salvation for the Christian

Verse 21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Rejoice in His salvation for the Christian!  Remember Paul is writing to believers.  It is only those who believe who enjoy the benefits of the atonement.  This is not a universal atonement automatically cleansing all people regardless of faith.  No!  The application of the atonement extends to and is enjoyed by only those who believe, by Christians.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  

This is the other half of what is often referred to as “The Great Exchange.”  The great exchange is a way to describe the effects of Christ’s death on the cross.  Theologically, exactly what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross for us as our substitute?

Well, what happened is, “God the Father made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Put another way, God transferred our sin to Christ and transferred Christ’s righteousness to us.  Or, God charged Christ with our sin or imputed our sin to Christ and credited us with His righteousness. 

In a sense, Christians can say, “We gave to Him what was ours—sin—and He gives to us what is His—righteousness.”  And because we give to Him what is ours—sin—and He gives to us what is His—righteousness—then on the cross God treats Christ as we deserved to be treated, and He treats us as Christ deserved to be treated.  

This is the essence of our salvation.  God thinks of our sins as belonging to Christ and He thinks of Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us.  He was covered in shame so that we may be covered in glory. 

It’s one of my favorite hymns by John Newton:

O LORD, from Whom there’s naught concealed,

Who sees my inward frame; to Thee I always stand revealed exactly as I am.

Since I, at times, can hardly bear what in myself I see;

How vile and foul must I appear most holy God to Thee.

But since my Savior stands between, Who shed His precious blood,

‘tis He, instead of me is seen when I approach to God.

Thus, though a sinner, I am safe;

He pleads before the throne His life and death on my behalf and calls my sins His own.

What wondrous love, what mysteries, In this appointment shine!  

My breaches of the law are His and His obedience mine.

In the Old Testament, in Leviticus, we read of God’s people approaching God through the sacrifices.  We reviewed much of that in our study in Hebrews.  God initiated this worshiping through the sacrifices so that sinful men may approach a holy God.  Apart from the sacrifices men and women of the Old Testament are separated from God because of sin.  They are sinful and He is holy.  At the same time, this holy and loving God seeks reconciliation with sinful humanity.  So worship through the sacrifices is how God taught the need for reconciliation.

It’s not that the sacrifices themselves made men holy but that, as the New Testament clarifies, those animal sacrifices pointed forward to the coming of the great and final sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ.  So people of the Old Testament were saved the same way believers in the New Testament are saved today, by faith–by trusting–trusting in the sacrifices of God which are ultimately fulfilled in the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

So if you can imagine in the Old Testament days a small child talking with his father who returned from worshiping God in the tabernacle.  The conversation would have gone something like this: What were you doing today father?  I was worshiping the holy God at the tabernacle.  Was God there at the tabernacle?  Well, in one sense, yes, but you see because I am a sinner I approached this holy God by trusting in the sacrifices.  So the sacrifices make it possible for you to approach this holy God?  Yes, that’s right.  And how do you know that this holy God accepts you?  Because I was trusting in the sacrifices which make reconciliation with God possible.  He accepts me because I was trusting in the sacrifices.

And the conversation today in the New Testament days is similar.  A child talks to his father after worshiping one Sunday morning.  What is all this about, the church worshiping?  It is about worshiping this holy God.  Is God there at the church building?  Well, in one sense, yes, but you see because we are sinners we approach this holy God by trusting in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.  So the sacrifice of God’s Son makes it possible for you to approach this holy God?  Yes, that’s right.  And how do you know that this holy God accepts you?  Because I was trusting in the sacrifice which makes reconciliation with God possible.  He accepts me because I was trusting in the sacrifice, the sacrifice of His Son, the Lamb of God who takes away my sin.

People of the Old Testament days were saved by grace through faith, looking forward to the Christ who would come; people of the New Testament days are also saved by grace through faith, looking back to the Christ who has come.

So we worship Him for the salvation He provides the Christian.  His sacrifice that we remember in the Lord’s Supper is the remembering of a substitionary death, a death and resurrection that leads to the death and resurrection of ourselves.  That is, God gave His life to us that He might take our lives from us and live His life through us.  

God gave His life to us that He might take our lives from us and live His life through us.  

All of this is possible because Jesus lived a perfect life for us and died a perfect death for us.  He did this for us.  Our substitute.  In our place.  

Ernest Gordon wrote a book about World War II called, Miracle on the River Kwai.  In the book, Gordon writes about something that happened to a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway:

At the end of each day the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it. He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. “All die! All die!” he shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently [at] attention. When [the men] returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing (after all).

Out of love one man steps forward to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others.  One dies that others may live.  This, is the Lord Jesus Christ.


Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

  • Let’s pray.  “Thank You Jesus for being our substitute.  Help us now, we pray, to further recall Your sinlessness, to remember Your suffering, that we may rejoice in Your salvation.  Amen.”

We’re now going to enter into our time of partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Our deacons will come and prepare to serve this family meal.  The deacons serve you because that’s what their name means.  Deacon.  It’s a title.  It means to serve.  These men are good men, godly men, servant leaders of the church. They serve largely through the deacon family ministry, serving you by being your family’s deacon, on call, ready to visit and pray.  So they are serving you this morning.

I’m going to pray in a moment and then we’re going to worship in song, another wonderful hymn that encourages us to recall, remember, and rejoice. While our deacons serve you the bread and the cup, we’ll sing about Jesus, in Christ alone our hope is found, preparing to eat the bread—the symbol of Christ’s body, and preparing to drink of the cup—the symbol of Christ’s blood.

After we sing and everyone is served, I’ll lead you in taking the elements, eating the bread, drinking the cup. Let’s pray.

Pray: “Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ, the one who died for us, gave His life for us, the One who is coming back to us. We thank you that because of Jesus we can be forgiven of our sin and live in a way that draws people closer to You. Forgive us for our sins. We repent. We love You and we thank You for the hope we have in Christ alone. In His name we pray, amen.”

While the deacons serve you, remain seated, and sing this great hymn together:

1

“In Christ alone my hope is found;

He is my light, my strength, my song;

This cornerstone, this solid ground,

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My comforter, my all in all—

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

2

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe!

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save.

Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied;

For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—

Here in the death of Christ I live.

3

There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain;

Then bursting forth in glorious day,

Up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory,

Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;

For I am His and He is mine—

Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

“The Bible says that on the same night in which Jesus was betrayed, that He took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24).

[Eat bread]

“Then the Bible says that in the same manner, Jesus also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25-26).

[Drink cup]

Amen. Stand now and let’s sing the final verse, No guilt in life, no fear in death…

4

No guilt in life, no fear in death—

This is the pow’r of Christ in me;

From life’s first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands my destiny.

No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home—

Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.

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