Do We Believe God Regarding Communion: Our Passover!

Hello To All:

"For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."  (1 Corinthians 5:7).

The revelational account: part two.

The apostle Paul, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, made two statements regarding the Lord's Supper, prior to the full revelational account detailed in chapter 11, of the first letter to the Corinthian church. Our opening text is the first of those statements; and it is one of the keys essential to a right understanding of the revelational account of the Lord's Supper; and thus, it is also one of the keys essential to the fullness of our understanding with regards to the "koinonia" and the "remembrance" of the Lord's Supper.

Please note, that the text says: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." This is the King James Version of the original Greek New Testament. (Please see the essay titled: "The King James translation and Victorious Discipleship" - January 30, 2010).  Please, also note, that Paul referenced the past event, of the crucifixion of Christ, in the present tense. By stating Christ's sacrifice, in the present tense, Paul is once again reminding us of the truth that God is not bound by our time-line. Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His work transcends our bondage to the past, present and future realities of our historical time-line.

On November 2, 2011, an essay was posted titled: "I am crucified with Christ." This essay began a series of essays, that is yet to be completed. A pause was made because of our need to comprehend the truths of other portions of the King's Book. This comprehension is essential to our being able to fully understand the realities of being "crucified with Christ."  We are still in the midst of that very long pause. But, because of the importance of those essays, in the midst of this essay, I invite to you to go back and take another look at the series beginning with: "I am crucified with Christ."

Most of our contemporary English translations, of the King's Book, have embraced a rational literalism with regard to verb forms. Our English forms of past, present and future do not adequately translate the meaning of some of the Greek verb forms. Thus, many of the contemporary translations, with their self-imposed rationalism, tell us that "Christ our passover was sacrificed for us" and "I was crucified with Christ." Western rational thinking locks us into a historical time-line that falls short of comprehending the full theological realities of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

If we are to follow the path of victorious discipleship in Jesus Christ, then we must comprehend the ever present reality that: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" and "I am crucified with Christ." Comprehending and embracing this ever present reality of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is an essential first step in recognizing the relationship between the physical realms and the spiritual realms. This is the place where we begin our journey of "Victorious Discipleship in Jesus Christ."

With these realities in mind, let us take a closer look at our opening text, in the full context of chapter five of First Corinthians:

 1. "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife."
 2. "And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you."
 3. "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,"
 4. "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
 5. "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
 6. "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"
 7. "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"
 8. "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
 9. "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:"
10. "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world."
11. "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one not to eat."
12. "For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?"
13. "But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person."

At first reading, we might ask ourselves why is it that Paul, in the middle of a chapter that is very much about judgement work, make this statement: "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us?" This is the only place, where the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, makes reference to "Christ our passover." The question needs to be asked: why here and why only in the context of judgement work? One obvious answer, relates to the reality that Christ's death provides a way for us to escape the judgement of God's wrath against  unrepentant sinners; and this is part of what is happening in chapter five. But, there is something much deeper being revealed in chapter five; and that something is directly related to the ever present truth that: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."

The deeper something is evidenced in verse seven.  In this verse, Paul is reminding the Corinthian church of three things. First: they are contaminated by "old leaven," that must be "purged." Second: in spite of being contaminated with "old leaven," they are rightly declared to be "unleavened." Third: they are rightly declared to be "unleavened," because "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." This points us to this deeper truth that reminds us (and the Corinthian church) that our identity in Christ Jesus is always one of being, from God's perspective, a people who are individually and corporately declared to be "holy;" or, in the case of verse seven: declared to be "unleavened." We have this continuing status of being "unleavened," because of the ever present reality that: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." Can we say thank you Jesus.

We find further evidence of our declared identity in Colossians 1:21-22: "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." From the perspective of God the Father (see verse 19), we are "holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight;" or, in the words of the Corinthian text: "ye are unleavened." In the words of the Colossians text, we have this status, this identity in Christ of being "holy and unblameable and unreproveable," because of "the body of his flesh through death;" or, in the words of the Corinthian text: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."

There is much, from this Corinthian text, that is very relevant to our answering the question: "Do We Believe God Regarding Communion?" But, since there is much, in this essay to consider, we shall wait for the rest, until we next gather.

Until next time, my beloved brethren, in Christ Jesus, I continue to be:

Your servant and your fellow pilgrim,
Elder Theophilus