Dear Family at Christ Community,

     On Sunday, we have the blessed opportunity to come to the Lord’s Table to be nourished by Christ in the Spirit for our earthly pilgrimage. Paul from Romans 6:1-4 is going to call us to remember our justification through the death of Christ and challenge us to walk in newness of life as we are sanctified in the resurrection of Christ. As a helpful ongoing reminder, he will remind us of these formative realities through our baptisms. We must remember that we come to the Lord’s Table as baptized ones who have had our sinful flesh put to death in Christ’s death who have been raised to newness of life by the power of Christ’s resurrection. Francis A. Schaeffer in The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8 helpfully describes this death/justification, resurrected life/sanctification dynamic in the Christian life:

“Jesus didn’t die on the cross just to die on the cross. Jesus died on the cross in order that we might be redeemed. Likewise, we are not called upon to die daily just in order to be dead; we are called upon to die daily in order that we might experience the reality of being alive with Christ. Jesus has risen from the dead in space and time and history and now we, on the basis of this, having been baptized into His death, may walk in newness of life in space and time and history. This is the key to the Christian life.”

     As you come to the Lord’s Table this Sunday, come with great joy in your freedom from death and the slavery of sin through Christ’s death as represented by the broken bread! Come with a growing hope in your freedom to walk in newness of life that is pleasing to the Lord by Christ’s resurrection as signified in the overflowing cup! Pray for the Spirit to nourish you in the glory of your justification and the unfolding beauty of your sanctification in union with Christ! 

In Christ,
Cameron