{"id":500,"date":"2009-03-02T19:39:28","date_gmt":"2009-03-03T00:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/daily\/?p=121"},"modified":"2009-03-02T19:39:28","modified_gmt":"2009-03-03T00:39:28","slug":"absolute-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/?p=500","title":{"rendered":"Absolute Security"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An<\/a>
What does communion have to do with security?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My Lord is so constantly good to me that I take it for granted. I’m thinking today that when I get to heaven, I’ll fall and worship as I become aware of all the ways that my wondrous Savior protected and delivered me while I blissfully went about my oft self-centered life.<\/p>\n

As the popular song goes, “I can only imagine…”<\/p>\n

I was struck anew by the depth of my Savior’s love for me as I thought about “covenant” this weekend. I was reading 1 Samuel 18-20, where David is in such trouble. God delivers him time after time, but it seems like David’s always getting away from Saul by the skin of his teeth. (Do teeth have skin? I guess that’s probably the point.)<\/p>\n

So David turns to the one he can absolutely trust: Jonathan.<\/p>\n

Why could he trust Jonathan? 1 Samuel 20:8 tells us, as David says, “Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you.”<\/p>\n

David knew he could absolutely trust Jonathan, because of the depth of covenant faithfulness. Jonathan’s covenant (a covenant before God) meant David had one person he could absolutely trust.<\/p>\n

When circumstances are going haywire, when the world seems against me, when other friends seem distant, when there’s nowhere else to go… David knew where to go. To the one he had a covenant with.<\/p>\n

I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to see that the text in 1 Samuel is pointing us to the security of a true covenant.<\/p>\n

As a New Testament believer, I know that I have this kind of relationship with someone. A covenant relationship. The word is used 33 times in the New Testament, particularly to refer to what Jesus Christ has done.<\/p>\n

Jesus Christ is “the guarantee of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22). Jesus is the “mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 9:15), a covenant that the only true God makes with those who put their faith in Christ (Hebrews 10:16-23).<\/p>\n

There is a depth of faithfulness, not by me, but for me. Because the covenant giver promises steadfast love to the receiver of that covenant. And we have received a new covenant from God himself.<\/p>\n

So no matter what I’ve done, no matter what scrape I’m in, no matter how frightened I’ve allowed myself to be in this world, I know where to go for help. For faithful love. For merciful care. For security. I go to the one true God, through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Because of the covenant He has extended to me.<\/p>\n

This steadfast faithfulness of God toward me is something I’m so prone to forget. So I have to remind myself all the time. God is so gracious to me, not because of my adequacy, but because of His covenant (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).<\/p>\n

Thankfully, God knows that I am prone to discount His faithfulness. So He’s given me, us, a constant reminder. It’s called communion.<\/p>\n

Look at what communion is a reminder of:<\/p>\n

Luke 22:20: “And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, \u2018This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.'”<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 11:25: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.”<\/p>\n

When I remember the blood of Christ, I’m remembering the new covenant. I’m remembering that God himself has declared covenant faithfulness to me. I can trust in His loving care. I can rest in His fantastic mercy.<\/p>\n

O, the depths of the riches and the kindness of God. How unsearchable His ways! How wondrous is His grace!<\/p>\n

In the words of D. Ralph Davis, a commentator on 1 Samuel,
\n“Security is an eight-letter word. It is spelled C-O-V-E-N-A-N-T.”<\/p>\n

Praise be to the mediator of the New Covenant!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Lord is so constantly good to me that I take it for granted. I’m thinking today that when I get to heaven, I’ll fall and worship as I become aware of all the ways that my wondrous Savior protected and delivered me while I blissfully went about my oft self-centered life. As the popular … Continue reading Absolute Security<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,32,33],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grace","tag-1-samuel-208","tag-covenant","tag-hebrews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.practicalgrace.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}