Sermon theme: our primary identity as in Christ
In this meal, we are communing with Christ. The benefits of being united with Him sum up our whole salvation. Only in Christ are we justified. Only in Christ are we sanctified. Only in Christ are we glorified. And this meal represents and seals our union with Him, by which the Spirit applies all these blessings to us. He does this when we trust in Jesus Christ’s obedience and death to satisfy God’s standard of righteousness and His penalty of death for sin.
In this meal, we are communing with Christ, and with His Body. That means with Newport News Lutherans, Williamsburg Baptists, Richmond Assemblies of God, Mississippi Presbyterians, Brazilian Methodists, African Anglicans, European evangelicals, Roman Catholic believers, Russian Orthodox believers, Myanmar CREC, and the Chinese underground church. And we also worship Christ with and commune with, the souls of just men made perfect, like Abraham, Moses, David, Ezra, Mary, Paul, Onesimus, Ignatius, Augustine, Gustavus Adolphus, Aquinas, Anselm, Wycliffe, Hus, Erasmus, Luther, Anne Askew, Wesley, Whitefield, David Livingstone, Jim Eliot.
Now the tie that binds us is not that they were all smart and super-spiritual, and so are we. No, the point is not to pride ourselves on our great heritage. The unifying point is not that we all have the same theology on every point. The center that holds us all together, in whom all things consist, is Christ.
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