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Softpill June 22, 2003 - August 5, 2010 Engineering Holiness The Lord's Table
If there is anything simple in all of Christianity, it is the Ordinances, which make the faith accessible to all. A classic example of a new believer is my uncle who is well past the age of reading books. He longs to know what is next, after receiving Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. After being born-again, what? This article was developed from a letter i wrote him. At the outset, one must remember that we are not translated to heaven after we are born again --justified or treated just as if we have never sinned, by grace through faith, which is a boastless work of belief (John 6:29) in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. "By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy" (Hebrews 10:14). We remain in this "tent" during a period of grace for the purpose of qualifying for heaven having got the title to it. But we need to "continue in faith" (Colossians 1:21-23). The faith that enabled us to believe at the time of being born again should manifest/show during the grace period with works of love until we are entirely sanctified (1 Thessalonians 5:23), which can happen within our life-time. And only thereafter we would be considered as "Chosen." Many are called but only a few are chosen. Only our former sins, up until the time we have been born-again were washed away (2 Peter 1:9; Romans 3:25). We still have the predisposition to sin and many a time we yield to it after our conversion/born-again experience. How does God remove this predisposition from us and make us holy? How do we get to cooperate with God who wants to make us holy? That is, how does God engineer our sanctification or holiness? During our spiritual pilgrimage, when we inadvertently commit sins of omission and commission, we need to wash, as it were, our feet, before partaking in the Communion, which is holy. "He who has bathed (Greek: Louo) needs only to wash (Greek: Nipto) his feet, but is completely clean;" Speaking indeed of spiritual cleanliness of those who are born-again of the water and the Spirit (John 3:5) except for Judas Iscariot , Jesus adds, "you are clean, but not all of you" (John 13:10 NASB). As our feet are being washed, we receive forgiveness for accumulated sins since last washing; unlike in baptism when we were washed as a total sinner. Every time we are washed, we are being justified--treated just as if we have not sinned. This takes place until Christ sees His reflection in us. In 1 Peter 3:21 we note that Water Baptism saves us. Similarly, Foot-washing! Just as Water Baptism represents the complete cleansing that one receives when one is presented the Gospel (Good News), Feet-washing represents the washing that one receives by the Word of God when it is ministered concerning any specific sin still lingering in a person. In Bible phraseology, this is "cleansing her (Church) with the washing of water by the word" (Ephesians 5:26 NKJV). This is the pattern that Jesus prepared for us to walk in, so as to engineer our sanctification step by step. The aspect of foot-washing works even for the one who washes. Jesus chose Foot-washing as one of the Ordinances because it has the idea of humility inbuilt in it. If a person can wash someone's feet then it would not be too difficult for him to serve any other menial task that would be called of him for that person, or for that matter, any other person! As for who pays for this, it is that part of Christ's body that remains on earth. That part of Christ's body like Apostle Paul (Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 6:17; Philippians 2:17) could pay for it after due confession, praying and washing of the feet of the needy as long as it is not wilful sin for which "no more sacrifice for sins is left but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of fire" (Hebrews 10:26-29). Those who have committed wilful sin have got their "garments spotted with the flesh"/world/devil. These need to be "snatched out of the fire" like Joshua (Zechariah 3:1-8; Jude 23). Hence the Precursor to the Fire Baptism. Then the "garments" (works) themselves need to be washed (Greek: Pluno), so to speak, "in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). We were saved! We are being saved! We will be saved! But what does it mean to be Holy? To be holy means to respond appropriately to the love of God who gave up His Son so that we may have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will obey My Commandments" (John 14:15, 21, 23; 1 John 2:3-6). This principle holds good with our heavenly Father as well. He has given us the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-17) for us to obey. Our Lord Jesus Christ summarized those Ten and said, "Love one another, even as i have loved you, love one another" (John 13:34). When we keep John 13:34, we will in effect keep the Ten Commandments because the first four Commandments of the Ten pertain to the love of God, and the next six pertain to the love of our other close neighbours, God Himself being the foremost neighbour. If being holy means loving, how can we love the most? To my question, "what is the best way we can love our neighbour or the greatest dhanam (alms) we can give our neighbour," my uncle said, "Annadhanam (Rice Alms) because it is life giving." I told him that his motive is excellent because there is nothing more greater than life giving food that we can offer someone. But the dhanam too can be most excellent if it gives not just life but eternal life! What is the best gift of love we can give someone? Jesus said, "my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink"(John 6:55). Why is this food real food and real drink? The answer: because it gives real life--eternal life! This fact is underscored three times in John 6:51,53,54. Does this mean we should become some kind of cannibals and eat the flesh of man and drink his blood? Does the ordinance practiced in the Church even remotely refer to the eating of man's flesh and drinking his blood? Or is there anything supernatural about it? Not at all! But rather, when Jesus Christ laid down His life for us on the stake at Calvary, we have received eternal life at the expense of His life, so to speak, at the expense of breaking or decomposition of His body --His own flesh and blood. In effect therefore, we are living on His flesh and blood. Therefore the ordinance of Communion is symbolic. It serves as a memory/cognitive device to engineer our holiness by not only reminding us of our very current sins for which Christ paid with His life and continues to pay through the "living and holy sacrifices" (Romans 12:1) of the saints, it also serves as a tangible way of proclaiming His death till He comes. Is this a one time event? It would have been, if we never sin again. But since we accumulate sins and thus become subject to death again as we pass through time, we have to "eat" His flesh and "drink" His blood on a regular basis. What's more, the life that i live is eternal life and therefore the food that i pray and eat to live, is His flesh and blood. This is because my self has died with Christ on the stake at Calvary and the life that i now live is Christ's because He lives in me. It is no more i who live but Christ (Galatians 2:20). To put it simply, when we hand out to someone the Good News that Jesus Christ died for him or her, through a clear presentation, we have in effect given them the dhanam (alms) of eternal-life-giving-food. For, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1,14). And Jesus--that Flesh--said, "I am the Bread of life" (John 6:48). To mark the occasion of having received that food (Word), we partake of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ (Eucharist/Communion/Table), symbolically. Though this ordinance is symbolic, it must be obeyed at the individual, family, church, regional and corporate Church levels for engineering the holiness of the whole Bride until we are all "perfected together in unity" (Hebrews 11:39-40). By obeying, we proclaim the Lord's death till He comes (1 Corinthians 11:23-34). By obeying in eating and drinking the elements, we show that we receive the spiritual food (that is, the Word--flesh and blood) that has been preached to us and that we are willing to repent. As said earlier, there are however necessary prerequisites before partaking in the Eucharist as this is a coming into union with a Holy God--the Holy Communion. The prerequisite is that we should wash ourselves. In other words, we must purify ourselves. If we have not had a "bath" at all, we must take Baptism--a full bath. If we have already taken Baptism, we need to take only a "foot-wash," as the rest of the body is clean. This is again only symbolic, referring here to the Word which cleanses us from all sin, as in Baptism, and the accumulated sin, since the last washing, as in Foot-washing. But we know that unless it is given from heaven, we cannot receive it (John 3:27). Therefore, Baptism must be administered by a duly commissioned Servant/Priest of God. But Foot-washing may be administered by any lay-priest (born-again) to another lay-priest in need. Thus, the Word 1) gives life (just as food and drink, which is symbolized by the Eucharist), and 2) cleanses us (just as water cleanses us, which is symbolized by Baptism and Foot-washing). For further reading, refer: 1 Corinthians 11:23-34; John 13:1-17; Ephesians 5:26.
Copyright © 2010 Caleb Motupalli |
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