At Hope City, we took communion on July 4 this year. When we take communion, we get a great reminder of what was done for us through Jesus on the Cross. And although we celebrate our country’s Independence Day on July 4, when we take communion we look back and remember our true Independence Day.
“When we take communion, we look back and remember our true Independence Day.”
The United States isn’t yet 250 years old, but our true independence came with Jesus on the Cross over 2000 years ago; this is where we were truly set free.
Communion is a time where we honor the price that was paid for us through the Cross. The bread of communion represents not only the body of Jesus, but the damage and destruction that took place to His body so we can have healing and wholeness.
Referring to the crucifixion, Isaiah 52:13-15 (ERV) says, “The Lord says, ‘Look my servant will succeed in what he has to do, and he will be raised to a position of high honor. It is true that many were shocked when they saw him. He was beaten so badly that he no longer looked like a man. But it is also true that many nations will be amazed at him. Kings will look at him and be unable to speak. They will see what they had never been told. They will understand what they had never heard.”
He was Disfigured so We Could Be Re-Formed
When you think about why Jesus was beaten so badly – that he no longer looked like a man – you see a parallel to the beginning of mankind. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden; when they sinned, that sin destroyed humanity so much that man no longer looked like the way God created them to look like (His image).
Jesus had to become disfigured as a man so that we could be reshaped, re-formed and brought back into the image of God so that we could like like Him. Jesus died like we should have died so that we can live like He lives.
In the following chapter in Isaiah (NLT) it reads, “Yet it was our weaknesses that He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (v. 4-5)
We quote 1 Peter 2:24’s “by His stripes we were healed”, but the Good News Bible adds clarity to that truth: “Christ Himself carried our sins in His body to the Cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by His wounds that you have been healed.”
Walking daily as Christians, victory is ours; we just need to step into it. But in saying that, we need to realize that there’s a fight for freedom.
Freedom is never free. There’s a fight for it. Are you willing to fight the good fight of faith to experience the freedom found in God?
One misconception about freedom is that it exists just to make one’s day better. True freedom in Christ is something that makes others’ lives better through us. It’s not for us; it’s for others.
Through Christ Jesus, Christians are already full of freedom; that’s where the stepping into it comes in. But God wants to constantly fill us up to pour us out so He can send us out to make a difference in the world.
The cost that was paid for our freedom was not cheap; it was priceless. One drop of the Blood of Jesus was more than enough for your freedom to be established. Yet, He gave it all. That truth should be settled in our hearts.
We step out into that freedom and experience the love that God has for us so we can become that love and step out for others to see.
To view the enter July 4, 2021 service on which this post is based, CLICK HERE.
