Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
That last meal that Jesus ate with His disciples ("the Lord's Supper," to many) illustrates the idea of "substitution" that the New Testament teaches (yes, and the Old Testament too), a shared experience with Him.
Jesus did not say to his disciples, I am eating this Bread instead of you, nor did He say, I am drinking from this cup instead of you. He ate with them, He drank with them; they ate and drank with Him. Using the clearest illustration possible of intimate oneness He represented His believers as "drinking My blood, eating My body." "Abide in Me, and I in you," He pleads. I am the Vine, you are branches (John 15:4, 5). "Ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." In sending the Holy Spirit to dwell with those who believe in Him, Jesus represents Himself as not leaving them orphans, "I will come to you" (14:18). Open your heart, receive His Spirit; you receive Him.
"Take, eat," He says in that last supper; "this is My body which is broken for you." And then in the same way, "He took the cup," and said, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:26-28, 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
The idea again is intimate one-ness. Jesus does not want us to think of Him as separate from us, doing everything "instead of us," while we look on in childish wonder, uncomprehending. He did indeed die instead of us, He died our second death so we don't have to die our own second death--that is all true; but it is only part of the truth He obviously wants us to understand and experience. He wants intimate oneness with us where we enter into His feelings and His experience as a branch enters into the life processes of the Vine.
And then coming down to the last days of history just before Christ's return, Revelation introduces us to a oneness with Him even more intimate, even closer to our human understanding. We see how He wants us to sense an even deeper identification with Himself--a Bride's nearness to her Husband. Here is a shared experience with Him, one in which human pride can have no place. When "I am crucified with Christ," all my "glory" is laid in the dust forever.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 10, 2002.
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