Dear Family at Christ Community,

   This Sunday we have the joy of partaking of the Lord’s Supper together. Our time in worship will deal with how the Fall affects our lives in terms of the work-Sabbath rhythm and yet does not have the final say. The bread and cup serve to remind us that Christ’s redemptive work is finished granting Him rest at the right hand of the Father. The elements of grace also declare that He is recreating us into His image to be fruitful in making disciples and to subdue and have dominion in the Spirit as we await the coming eternal Sabbath rest. Bruce Waltke in Genesis: A Commentary with Cathi J. Fredricks expresses the heart of this when he writes:

“The image is not erased after the Fall but continues seminally to every individual. However, after the Fall the first Adam (and all of humanity) can only partially fulfill the cultural mandate: procreating and subduing in sorrowful toil. Only Christ, the Second Adam, can completely fulfill the regent function of the image. The One who is uniquely the express image of God’s person, the heavenly Son of Man and Rider of the Clouds, is the true Image and so God’s true King on earth. He brings salvation to fallen humanity. He completes perfectly humanity’s twofold function. He makes the church his bride and fills the earth with spiritual children. He blesses his disciples and fills them with the Spirit of life. He brings everything under his dominion, including Satan and evil, and enters into the rest of God.”

   This means that Christ has performed the work and granted the eternal Sabbath rest that we could not do or gain, thus, we can only join Him in both by faith alone in His finished work alone based on God’s grace alone. What an amazing gift worthy of our consideration and celebration!

   As you take time to examine and prepare yourself this week, give thanks to God for Jesus being the perfect Psalm 8 man as declared in Hebrews 2 so that we could be transformed into His image. Consider how your work and rest reflect this redeemed reality in Christ recognizing that the broken bread and offered cup nourish and strengthen you to grow in this truth. Repent of the ways in which you take this for granted and fail to display the glory of God in how you work and practice the Sabbath in Christ. Pray for those you know who continue to toil under the vain weight of the distorted image.

   Seek forgiveness where needed so that you may rest and they may rest from carrying that burden.

In Christ,

Cameron