Grace, Gratitude, Glory

Grace, Gratitude, Glory - These three words summarize the meaning of the Lord's Supper, the preaching of the Gospel, the message of the Bible.

We live in an age where there is a great call for originality and novelty. Often, people lose their bearings. They don't know what to believe. In such a time as this, we need teaching which is both simple and profound - simple enough to state clearly the message of the Lord's Supper, the Gospel and the Bible; profound in a way that makes us conscious that, in the Lord's Supper, the Gospel and the Bible, we are in contact with Someone greater than ourselves - the God of grace, the God of glory. As we consider this God - the God of grace, the God of glory, we must allow our hearts, and not only our minds, to be deeply affected, so that, from our hearts, there arises a song of thanksgiving.

• We have God's call to thanksgiving.

"Give thanks with a grateful heart, Give thanks to the Holy One, Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son" (Power Praise, 39).

• There is also our response of thanksgiving.

"I'm forever grateful to You, I'm forever grateful for the cross, I'm forever grateful to You, That You came to seek and save the lost" (Power Praise, 195).

Grace, Gratitude Glory

• (1) The first of these words speaks of what God has done. When we gather at the Lord's Table, we remember what the Lord has done for us. When we hear the Gospel, we hear the message: This is what the Lord has done for you. The Gospel is more than a story about a great man. Jesus says, "I have come down from heaven" (John 6:38). When we read the Bible, we read the story of God - "In the beginning, God" (Genesis 1:1). God has taken the initiative. Our first step towards can never be any more than a response: gratitude.
• (2) In grace, He invites us to give thanks. In gratitude, we come to Him and our face is strengthened: "And now let the weak say, 'I am strong', Let the poor say, 'I am rich', Because of what the Lord has done for us" (Power Praise, 39).

How is our faith strengthened as we celebrate the Lord's Supper, reading the Bible, and hearing the preaching of the Gospel? We read John 6:53-55. We ask, "Are we to understand this literally?" No. Just as bread and water is needed to sustain physical life, so Jesus Christ is needed to sustain spiritual life or eternal life - "without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

• (3) Glory: God's ultimate purpose is expressed in john 6:40. we look back to the day of grace - the Cross. We give thanks for the days of gratitude, the many times the Lord has strengthened our faith. We look forward to the day of glory - "the last day": "I will raise him up at the last day" - "He whoo eats this bread (Christ) will live forever" (John 6:58).