Forgetting on Memorial Day?

[Jonathan Poland]

Tomorrow is Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is a day when we as Americans are supposed to remember ("memorial") all the brave men and women who have willingly sacrificed their lives for freedom. We are to pause and think about all the freedoms we have and enjoy in this country, that of religion, of speech, of assembly, of inquiry, of petition, of education, of press etcetera, and to express our gratitude for these men and women who "purchased" these freedoms for us, and to consider whether we are (as we know we ought to be) willing to die also so that others might be free as we are. Despite this awesome and sobering thought, many people in America would not notice the passing of this day if they were not excused from work. Seven years after our 9/11 wake up call we are still taking our freedom in this country for granted.

But what about in the church? What about Christians? Are we taking the freedom that Christ died to give us for granted? How can we tell if we are?

Gal 5:1, 13-14 (ESV), "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
"For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.""

Jesus Christ our Lord gave us a sort of "Memorial Day" tradition the night before he went to the cross. He took bread, and after he gave thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying to them, "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me" (1Cor 11:24).
Then he took a cup of wine in like manner and said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me" (1Cor 11:25).

I have heard it said in my church that we are taking our freedom in Christ for granted, and the way we can tell is that we are not experiencing any apparent miracles. If we did know how to believe God for miracles, then they would be a regular occurrence in our lives, and unbelievers all around us would believe that Jesus Christ is real and get saved on the spot.
Furthermore, it has been taught that the reason why we cannot believe God for miracles is that we do not know who we are in Christ. We are insecure about our own identities, and that is why we are not confident that God will do great things for us. We don't know our own righteousness in Christ. We don't know that God loves and accepts us just as we are, and if we only believed these things about ourselves God would move on our behalf.
But, in order to do this we must see ourselves as God sees us--already righteous and sinless in Him. This is done through eliminating your "sin-consciousness," or your awareness of your own guilt. Your goal is to forget about your own sins, since God has already forgotten them (Jer 31:34b), and think as though you are righteous. The idea is that if you change your thinking you will also change your behavior, because your behavior follows your thinking. "The reason why you sin," they say, "is not because you actually are a sinner (you are not), but because you think of yourself as a sinner. You need to think God's thoughts about you. You have to love yourself."
If then I am able to do this, to change my negative thinking about myself, and to think of myself as righteous in Christ, then I will actually behave righteously and I will have the confidence to believe God for miracles. This is a message that I hear in Church quite often.

But I also began to notice something else about my church. We never celebrated the Lord's supper.

That was not all. Not only did we never take the bread and the wine, but it became increasingly obvious to me that there was never a clear preaching of the gospel. When I say "gospel" I do not mean our own righteousness in Christ, but I mean the righteous Christ crucified in the place of guilty sinners. I mean that which the Lord's supper shows us, namely that his body was broken and his blood was poured out. I mean that Christ suffered and died for our sins. Whenever "the cross" was preached it was always in reference to the cross that I must bear for Christ, but the cross that Christ bore for me was hardly ever mentioned and never preached. Why?

There was an assumption among us that we "already knew those things," and our goal was to "graduate" beyond them and go the next level. The cross was not enough for us; we wanted to get to the "resurrection!" We didn't just want to be saved; we wanted to get all that God had for us.
But in doing so we depreciated our own salvation, and the fruit of this was that our zeal for evangelizing the lost had all but vanished. We became self-centered.

Let me ask you something: Why do you suppose that Christ instituted the Lord's supper and instructed us to perform it "in remembrance of" him? Here is what I think: I think it is because he knows that our tendency is to forget.

But why would we want to forget the cross? Why would we want to forget what our precious Lord did to save us? Very simply because Christ dying on the cross reminds us of our sins! It is for our sins that he died! The cross says to you among other things, "You are a sinner, and you deserve to die a horrible and painful death."

It seemed to escape everyone's notice in my church (including mine) that if you try hard enough to not think about your own sins, you naturally end up not thinking about the cross either, because the cross was the payment for your sins. They go together, and you cannot get rid of one without getting rid of the other. Think about it: If I have no sins, then there was no cross necessary for my salvation, for I am intrinsically righteous myself. If then I forget my sins, I must forget the cross and be eternally ungrateful for the work of Christ! If God absolutely forgets my sins (in the sense that they no longer exist in his mind in any way), then God must forget the work of his Son! The holes in Jesus' hands and feet will never allow this--they are eternal reminders to me of my sins and the suffering that my God endured on my behalf.

The Apostle Paul was concerned that those who heard him preach the gospel might forget the gospel, was he not? Listen to what he said,

1Co 15:1-2, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you... By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain."
What is the Apostle doing here? Obviously, he is repeating the gospel (which they have heard before) to them again! See that? Why is he doing this? Perhaps it is because he is concerned that they (like the Galatians, see Gal 1:6; 3:1) will forget it, as it is their evil propensity to do. Therefore he severely warns them, "Keep in memory [the gospel... or else] you have believed in vain!" Is it possible to believe the gospel in vain? It is if you believe and then forget. Paul is clear, they will not be saved who do this.

The Apostle Peter shared this sentiment,

2Pe 1:11 (KJV), "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins."
Now let me ask: How am I to remember that I was purged from my old sins, if I forget my old sins?

v. 12-13 (GNB), "And so I will always remind you of these matters, even though you already know them and are firmly grounded in the truth you have received.
"I think it only right for me to stir up your memory of these matters as long as I am still alive."

As we can see, he was not in any way hesitant to remind us of things we already know. He endeavored to do so as long as he lived. Why? Because, as he said before, we are prone to "forget that we were purged from our old sins!" Is this not so of us?

Likewise the Apostle John was not negligent to remind us of what we know already,

1Jn 2:21, 24, "I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth...
"Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father."
I think Scripture has spoken sufficiently on this matter.

Finally,
How do we tell if we are failing to remember the cross? How can we see if we are taking his death for granted? Is it that we are not seeing miracles? I think the emphasis in Scripture is elsewhere,

1Jn 3:16, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1Jn 4:10-11, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

Are you laying down your life for others? Are you going out of your way and emptying yourself so that others may know Christ? Are you taking risks? Are you sacrificing your own conveniences, luxuries, and possessions to serve your brothers? Are you too afraid of rejection to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost? With your family? With your co-workers? With strangers? Are you willing to speak the truth to them in love, or are you concerned about your own reputation? What is your life? Christ laid down his life for you, and if you are not willing to lay down yours for your neighbor (for Christ's sake) then you might be guilty of not remembering him.

The goal of the Christian life, and the solution to our problems, is not to focus on ourselves. It is not to try and see ourselves differently, perceive ourselves as righteous, or to think better of ourselves. Instead, it is to see God differently, perceive Christ as righteous, and to think better of him! It is to redirect our attention away from ourselves and to focus on the grace & mercy of God in Christ and on the need of others around us to focus on the same. Our thinking about God is what has to change! The truth is that the Bible never tells us to think more of ourselves, but it is constantly admonishing us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Rom 12:3; 1Cor 4:6), but rather to esteem others better than we esteem ourselves (Ph 2:3), to confess our sins (1Jn 1:8-10), and to humble ourselves (Luke 18:14). In Jas 4:9-10 it is written, "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." I imagine the emphasis is on he! He shall lift you up! Those who lift up themselves shall be abased, and you, Christian, have no business there.

My encouragement therefore is that we would all take the time this Memorial Day to truly humble ourselves and remember! Remember the holes in his hands and feet! Remember the blood and the tears! Remember the thorny crown and the shame of his nakedness! Remember the scourging and the beating, the mocking and the spitting! Remember that your Lord was crucified! Most of all, remember your sins! Don't forget them! Remember that you rejected him! Remember that you cried out, "Crucify him!", before you ever dreamed of crying out, "Abba Father." Remember that he was bruised for your iniquities and crushed for your transgressions. It is through his wounds (and no other means) that you are healed! "God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). This is the way that you know God's love for you. The truth is, you cannot know God's love for you while you are persuaded that you deserve it, because what makes his love for you so amazing is precisely that you do not deserve it.

Psa 106:7 "Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea."

Christ our passover lamb has been sacrificed for us (1Cor 5:7), and our God has delivered us from bondage. But the Hebrews forgot about that at the Red sea, and then forgot the Red sea when they were hungry, and then forgot the Manna when they were afraid of the Canaanites, and then... God swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest because of their unbelief (Heb 3:8-19). At every step it started by forgetting Christ (1Cor 10:1-16). May we take our opportunity this Memorial Day to not be like them.

Take communion if you must. That would be a fine and appropriate way to celebrate Memorial Day.

Remembering with you,

Jonathan.