Sanctified by the Offering
For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. Hab 10:10
God wanted us to be made holy, so that we can approach Him. Jesus became our sin offering, His body a sacrifice unto God, in order to achieve this.
Now step back in time with me – in the Old Testament times, priests had to be sanctified (made holy) in order to serve in the tabernacle and temple, and to approach God. Part of this sanctification process was to eat sin offerings brought by the people for the forgiveness of their sin. In other words, the priests had to eat food which had been made holy by being sacrificed as a sin offering:
The priest who offers the sacrifice as a sin offering must eat his portion in a sacred place within the courtyard of the Tabernacle. Anyone or anything that touches the sacrificial meat will become holy….
Lev 6:26-27
With this in mind, think again about what Jesus meant when He said:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
John 6:51
Is this not what we do when we take communion? As New Testament priests, (which we are according to 1 Pet 2:9), eating the bread during communion signifies eating His body – eating the sacrificial sin offering – which now becomes a reminder of our sanctification process!
Points to Ponder
Does partaking of communion bring me to a place where I think about whether my life journey is leading me to a holier lifestyle?
