(Part 1 of a 3 Part Series on Holy Communion)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And He made man in His image; perfect in every way. God also gave man the gift of free will. Free to choose for himself what he wants, what he does and who he loves.
When man chooses to love and obey God, then it really means something to Him. Who wants a fleet of robots doing their bidding and saying in a pre-programmed voice “I love you”? That would be empty.
The first two people alive, we know them as Adam and Eve, had everything; including a deep personal connection with God. Then they messed it all up by choosing to be selfish and believe the lies of God’s enemy.
When that happened, their close relationship with God was damaged and it changed. The result of their sin was a spiritual separation from God; not only themselves but all their children too.
Since Adam and Eve did not have any children at the time when this change in relationship happened, the repercussion of their sin, this spiritual separation, was passed down to all mankind.
But God was determined fix it. He promised them that someday in the future a person would be born who would right their wrong and save everyone from this terrible situation. This person is known as the Messiah.
In the mean time, while all humanity was waiting for their Messiah, God put a band-aid on the problem by allowing people to atone for their sins by sacrificing an innocent animal.
Since the punishment for sin is death, God made it available for something else to take the punishment and die in place of the sinner. Sounds strange and barbaric, but this is the mess that man got himself into.
Flash forward about 2000 years, God made a covenant (also known as a solemn promise) with a man named Abram, whom God later renamed Abraham. God told him that the promised Messiah will be born in his lineage. God sealed His promise in blood.
A blood covenant is the greatest promise a person can make. The terms of the agreement are that whoever breaks the promise first, must die. So by entering into a blood covenant both parties are putting up their own lives as a guarantee that they will up hold their end of the bargain.
God offered up certain animals of His choosing, and Abraham gave up his foreskin, the top part of the most precious and closely guarded part of a man’s body; a very personal blood covenant indeed.
About 500 years later God put over 600 laws into effect to make sure Abraham’s children stayed on track with the covenant.
Flash forward again about 1500 years; the promised Messiah was born in a little town called Bethlehem and grew up in another town called Nazareth. His primary function was to be the ultimate sacrifice for all of Adam and Eve’s children. That’s why the Messiah is referred to as the “Lamb of God”.
According to the laws God set forth, a sacrifice must be perfect, unblemished and pure in every way in order for God to accept its death in a sinners place.
The Messiah HAD TO, by his own choice, live his live perfect, unblemished and pure so that when it came time for him to die, then God would accept that sacrifice as payment in full for the sin that separated Adam and Eve and all their children from God.
The Messiah born that lived perfect and who died in our place thereby fulfilling God’s promise to fix Adam’s mistake, and fulfilled God’s blood covenant with Abraham, is named Jesus. Although Jesus’ primary function as Messiah was to allow his own innocent blood to be shed for us as a perfect sacrifice, there was much more to it than that.
Our Messiah paved the way as our guide showing all mankind how to be with God once again. What Adam lost, Jesus our Messiah restored, and he is our roadmap to finding it.
Since the fall of Adam, man could no longer be with God. God could be with man, but not the other way around. Without Jesus, you can not be with God the way Adam was; the way God originally intended it to be. The best you could hope for, under the law, was that God might be with you.
Continue on to Part 2 - Truth vs. Tradition: What Jesus Really Meant at the Last Supper
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About Daniel Sweet, Minister of Christ:
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Daniel Sweet is an ordained minister of Christ, a world renowned author on the subject of Leadership and very well versed in bible history. He is an avid dirt biking enthusiast who makes the bible easy for everyone to understand by using humor and fun personal stories from his own life experiences. Daniel enjoys sharing with others how to gain strength through the knowledge and truth of God’s Word. |
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