“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).
It should not be strange for Christians to talk about death. Every week as we celebrate this meal, I read the words from Paul, that as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show the Lord’s death until He comes. But communion with God at this table should also be a great encouragement as we prepare to go to be with Him.
God has determined the exact number of our days from before the foundation of the world. That number cannot budge, and that number is exquisitely good. And we are confident of the fact that when our body fails, we will be present with the Lord. Not only that, but we are well-pleased with this. It is our great hope. It is our glorious plan to die, and yet not really die, but live forever with Christ.
We sometimes say that dying, for a Christian, is going home, and this is right and good. But say it with full faith and assurance and joy. Say it and believe it. Say it and love it. We get to go home, to meet our Maker, the Desire of all Nations, and see our Savior Jesus face to face. To say that you believe in God is to say that there is nothing better in all the universe, and therefore you long to be with Him.
To be a Christian is to have already died, to have died to self, to have died to this world, to have died to sin, to have died to reputation and temporary pleasures. And to be a Christian is to have already come alive again, alive to Christ, alive to good works, alive to infinite joy, alive to eternal pleasure.
And so what is this table, except another place to practice, to remember, to celebrate not only our Lord’s death for us, but also the fact that we have already died in Him and now we no longer live, but He lives in us. And therefore, though these temporary bodies grow weak and fail, God is preparing new bodies for each of us. He is preparing wedding garments that will never fade away. He is preparing a place for us, so that where He is, we may be also.
So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ.
Photo by Aaron Andrew Ang on Unsplash
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