Incarnation and Crucifixion Visualized in the Lord’s Supper

Let’s begin this morning by reading once again from Galatians 4.4 [Read]

God has commanded us to often gather around the Lord’s Table in order to remember Jesus our Lord and to proclaim His death until He comes. This morning as we gather around the Lord’s Table I want us to first remember that “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law”. The bread, which represents the body of Christ, reminds us of the birth and sinless life Jesus lived on earth. Had Jesus not come to earth and lived as a son of Adam he could not have been a sacrifice who died for our sins. Had Jesus not lived a sinless life before God while on earth he would not have been an eligible sacrifice for sin. So God sent His Son into time and history to be born of a woman and to live a sinless life, that Jesus might be an acceptable sacrifice before God for the sin of mankind.

In Hebrews 10.5 we read, “When Christ came into the world he said, …a body have you prepared for me”. This body was conceived by the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary and developed in Mary’s womb (Luke 1.31, 35). Jesus was not a heavenly being that appeared to be a man. Jesus was born fully human and to this very day retains a physical body and will keep that body for all eternity.

One thing Jesus did not receive at his birth was the sinful nature of Adam. Romans 8.3 says that God sent His Son, “in the likeness of sinful flesh”. Luke writes that as a result of being conceived by the power of the Most High “the child to be born will be called holy”. Hebrews states that Jesus was tempted in every respect as we are, “yet without sin” (Hebrews 4.15). So Jesus lived a real human live but never sinned.

We read in the NT that Jesus was born the son of Abraham and the son of David and we have two genealogies of Jesus that trace back his human ancestry to David, Abraham and Adam (Matthew 1; Luke 3). Yet we are told very clearly in Philippians 2.6-7 that Jesus was in the form of God and equal to God before he came to earth but was willing to humble himself and obey God as a servant and was born in the likeness of men. Matthew 1.23 states that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. The incarnation was God coming to earth, conceived from one of Mary’s eggs, born a real human baby with a family tree, who became a growing, learning boy with brothers and sisters, who grew into a young man, who eventually became a carpenter and then a preacher and teacher. Jesus lived a real human life and yet without sin.

Somehow, in our familiarity with these truths we are not gripped with the awe of the incarnation as we should be. Paul writes, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3.16).

John the apostle, who wrote his Gospel and letters later than the other Gospels, seems to have taken 50 years to just shake his head in unbelief that God would come to earth and take a human body and live among us. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. …And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1.1-2, 14). “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.” (1 John 1.1-2).

Would that we might have the same sense of awe and worship as John and Paul, and be humbled all the more by the truth that God sent His Son to be born of a woman and that God lived on earth as one of us yet without sin.

Let us partake of the Lord’s Supper as we remember the life of Jesus through the symbol of the bread.

*Remember Jesus who was sent from the Father, willingly obeyed, was conceived by God, was born of a virgin, lived without sin, and who was God with us.

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Let’s continue this morning, reading once again from Galatians 4.5 [Read]

I began this morning by reading to you Hebrews 10.5 where Christ says, “a body you have prepared for me”. Now let me read Hebrews 10.5-10 which gives us the purpose for the human body that God prepared for Christ [Read]

God’s purpose was to have His Son, Jesus Christ, take a human body and live as a man, and then to offer that sinless body as an offering for sin to make many people holy. We are told the same truth in Hebrews 2.14-17. [Read]

Philippians 2.8 says, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Not only was the child born to Mary to be called Immanuel which means God with us, but the son was to be called Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1.21)

God the Father and all of heaven acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the only acceptable sacrifice for sins and the only way for a person to come to God. “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests for to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5.9-10)

We are made righteous through the offering of the body of Christ. “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many will be made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5.19)

Now each one of us who are trusting in Jesus Christ for our salvation “have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only but also for the sins of the whole world”. (1 John 2.1-2)

Finally, Christ is able to completely save those who draw near to Him because He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7.25)

With these thoughts in our minds I would like to invite you to partake of the Lord’s Supper as we remember the crucifixion of Jesus through the symbol of the cup.

*Remember Jesus who gave his life as a ransom so that many sinners could become righteous before God and receive eternal life.