God’s Complete Forgiveness | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

I’ve recorded another meditation from the Gospel of Matthew. Do click on the link below to listen.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”              Matthew 26:27

The night before Christ was unjustly killed, he gave an

inexhaustible inheritance to his friends, and to all who’d

later believe in him–his words, his Spirit. Himself.  “Drink

from it, all of you,” he said, giving them symbolic wine.

“This is my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” 

God, “the judge of all the earth,” Scripture calls him,

appeared to Moses as flames of fire. But our hearts have

darkness too, and ice. God’s fire would consume us.

For the iron law of the physical or moral universe is

Sowing and reaping. The poisoned seeds we sow become

a dark, barren forest, blocking out God’s life-giving light.

But Christ says, “Father, forgive them. I like them, so in

your just cosmic court in which dark deeds have eternal

ripples, I will be the infinite lamb slain, to atone for and

bear the consequences of their wilful failures. Let my shed

blood wash away the guilt of every sin, past and future, of

all who put their faith in me and surrender to me as Lord

of their lives. As they kneel in repentance at my cross, let

them step into its perpetual waterfall of cleansing and power.

And now, Father, accept these believers, covered by my blood,

as your children, just as you accept me.” And God does so.

And now, that Christ was crucified, died, but rose again,

His Spirit, no longer contained within his earthly body, is

poured out like living water onto all humans, at our request.

The Spirit pours the love of God into us as he reminds us

of the words of Jesus, and slowly writes Christ’s sweet law

on our hearts. This transfusion of grace helps us do hard

things we previously couldn’t do. Our dance with the Spirit

gradually breaks the power of sin over us; it transforms us.

Now we, the forgiven, protected by the blood of Jesus

poured out over us, and filled with His Spirit, who sings

within us, Abba, Father, are adopted by God as his children

in his joyful new covenant. We are cells grafted into the vine

of our new family–Father, Son, Spirit—who now live in us

as we live in them. As we choose by our thoughts and actions

to continue living in the vine of Jesus, their energy pulsing

through us makes us fruitful. And now, all our prayers which

flow in the river of God’s good purposes are kindly heard.

Waves of love and power flood from the cross. Thank you!