Our God is a Saviour who saves. And, because our need of salvation is something that is evident in history, our God is a God of saving acts throughout history. God sets up the story, the beginning and then end.
Moreover, God has also written the story in such a way that requires Him to enter in to it.
When God told Noah to build an ark, and told him to retreat with his family into it, that was a saving act. When God intervened with Abraham, and pointed him to the ram in the thicket, that was a saving act.
When God rained down destruction upon Egypt, and then led Israel through the cloud and the sea, that was a saving act. When God took Israel into Babylon for their sins, and brought them back to the land again, that was a saving act.
All these were precursors and types of the ultimate saving act, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is that saving act that is set before us as a memorial as we eat the bread and drink the wine from one Sunday to the next.
As we eat and drink, we are partaking of God’s great saving act through Jesus. And if we do so with genuine and sincere faith, we are also enjoying and benefiting from, that saving act.
And so it follows, that it is not possible to partake with saving faith without being saved.
If you are in the ark, you are not drowning. If you are on the far side of the Red Sea, then you are not under the Red Sea and you are certainly no longer in Egypt.
Your eating and drinking is you sharing in the life of Christ.
This means that when we eat and drink we are sharing in more than just a little ceremony.
Our intent is to gather, as a people overflowing with thankfulness, in order to share in the salvation of the world. When you chew and swallow the bread, that is what the salvation of the world tastes like.
When you drink the wine, what you are tasting is God’s kindness to sinners.
So we do not call God our Saviour because that is a Bible word. We call Him Saviour because He really saves. We call Him our Saviour because we have gathered here to witness in simple bread and tasty wine, the salvation of mankind.
The rebel, the saint and the sinner are commanded to come. Not with a defiant heart, not with an unbelieving mind, but in a sincere faith that the God who saves really has – and does – save. He saves us.
So come to the table this Sunday and know that Jesus welcomes you.
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