Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Reading of the Last Will & Testament


In the same way also the cup after supper, saying: This cup is the new testament in my blood; keep doing this, as often as you drink it in my memory.
1 Corinthians 11:26








The reading of someone's last will and testament. What an exciting and often tense moment for those involved. Did the deceased leave anything of value to me? If so, what? How much? A multitude of thoughts could be pouring through one who is anxiously waiting for such a reading of the will might be experiencing. Did I do enough to merit anything of importance; what did the deceased really think of me and our relationship.

Apply this to our Lord's Last Will and Testament. I was encouraged by one of my Seminary Professors to say the Consecration of the Communion Wine this way, since some of the listeners are not knowledgeable about just what "testament" means as they are "will."

Michael Horton in his excellent new book:
The Gospel-Driven Life, brought to my attention the thought that each and every week we who speak for Christ (in this "last will and testament" since, His attorneys) read this last will and testament each week in church. It is so broad and rich that a lifetime of reading does not exhaust all of its abundant blessings. The biblical word "grace" speaks of this. One way of defining "grace" is by using each letter:
God's Riches At Christ's Expense. His body and blood were given into death sacrificially for our spiritual poverty so that through His becoming poor for our sakes (crucified for our sins) we inherit His riches. In fact, 2 Corinthians 8:9 states this very fact: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Horton in his new
book puts this continuing encounter with the reading of Jesus' last will and testament in its proper function: "We must renounce the contracts we have entered that promised to make our life meaningful and say "Amen!" to the will as it is read to us."







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