Each day I eat and drink from a never-ending supply of spiritual bread and wine, yet I often do not pay mind to the wonders that I taste. I have the best food and drink of all people, but I have been so spoiled that I often overlook it. I have seemed to forget the poverty I lived in before this time. I had never-ceasing pains of hunger. To my shame, I admit that many days I live as if I were still poor. I have much food and drink at my table, but I get so busy with my own cares that I neglect the banquet that sits before me, and it is not until my stomach turns in pain that I decide to fill myself.
The bread I speak of is Christ, who is the Bread of Life, and the wine is His blood of the covenant that offers forgiveness of sins (John. 6:35) (Matt. 26:28). These blessings are mine, and they are glorious. But, as I said, I often forget how wonderful they are and live as one unacquainted with splendors. Daily, I am reminded of Him and His sacrifice through Scripture readings and various other means. This is good, but it’s not enough to merely read the words God has written. I must feast on them. Not just I, but this is the duty of all the saints. So let us first consider the wonders we taste yet overlook.
Firstly, if our Lord is the Bread of Life, then in Him, we find a source of nourishment that only He gives. Further, He says, His blood is wine that is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, this bread and wine are different from ordinary food and drink, as they only help sustain life but do not grant life. However, our Lord, the Bread of Life, looked upon us when we were dead in our sins and pitied us. So He fed us and gave us drink, thus granting us everlasting life.
Indeed, He invited us to feast with Him. He does not wish that any of His own live as poor beggars. Rather, He desires to give His people that which is most satisfying. Therefore, He has granted numerous blessings to His people. This was His plan before the creation of the world. He chose a people for Himself that they may forever be full. The Scripture testifies to this saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3). In the following verses, the author explains the magnificent gifts the saints receive. These blessings should strip us of any desire to live as we did when we lacked spiritual nourishment. I will sum them up, but as we read these things, let us beg our Lord to make us in such awe of these truths that we cannot contain our excitement.
Our Lord has spoken to us. In this chapter, we are told, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him”(Eph. 1:4a). Indeed, before He created anything, He predestined children for adoption, and all of this He did in love. He also did it according to the purpose of His will and to the praise of His glorious grace. This grace He has blessed us with in the Beloved. Now we may ask, "But if we were children of wrath, as Ephesians 2:3 says, how could He adopt us? And how did He give grace?”. The following verses answer this question, but before the author gets there, I believe he wants the reader to be sure of some things. He wants the reader to know that God has done what man cannot. As he said, this all happened before the foundation of the world. These words should make us feel our smallness. More than this, these words should make us feel the infinite love the Father had for us before anything existed but Himself. As a result of this, we should draw closer to the banquet table and long for more bread and wine.
Now, we will look at how God adopted His children. This is where we see the picture of wine in Scripture–the blood of the covenant. Later in the chapter, we are told that Christ redeemed His people through the blood of the cross, thus offering forgiveness of sins. He lavished His grace upon His children and granted them the seal of the Spirit that is their inheritance. These truths are the nourishment for our bodies. Without them, we have no strength. And if we do not consider them often, we will live as hungry people. Let us not do this, for Christ was crucified for us so we would not go back to our old ways when we lived in poverty.
Lastly, as we think on the spiritual blessings our Lord has given us (predestination, adoption, love, grace, redemption, forgiveness of sins, the seal of the Spirit, and an eternal inheritance), let us not forget the Giver of these blessings. For if we do not think on the character of our Lord, we will not desire to feast with Him. The spiritual blessings He has granted us will appear ordinary. However, if we recall our blessed God and Father, we will despise the hunger we once lived in, and instead, we will delight in our Lord, who is our nourishment. Therefore, let us says with the Psalmist, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot” (Ps. 16:5).
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