God promises to meet us here in this meal, enabling us to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Note that we chew and swallow by faith, and the blessing that comes to us is in accordance with our faith. Grace comes to us through means, means like bread and wine, but the catalytic means for us in this is our faith. Grace does not come into us as though we were filling up a little bucket with a garden hose. Two men can come and receive the same amount of bread and the same amount of wine, and yet be strengthened in varying degrees.
This is because the Bible teaches that faith is variable. It is possible to have little faith, weak faith, and it is possible to have more faith than Jesus saw anywhere else in Israel.
Now how does faith relate to the Supper? This is a Table laden with promises, and different kinds of faith react differently to promises. Strong faith feeds on promises, and weak faith staggers under them. The promises that are present here are enormous, and it is God’s intention to feed our faith with them so that our faith may grow and feed even more.
The body of Christ is life for the world. The death of Jesus is forgiveness for the world. The blood of Jesus is cleansing for the world. The resurrection of Jesus is justification for the world. And the church of Jesus Christ is the place where these realities are enacted, and where these promises are believed and set forth so that the world may come to them.
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Is your faith weak, then? Pray that the Lord of the Table would strengthen you, so that you do not stagger. Is your faith strong? Then trust God to make it stronger. But in either case, come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.