We partake of this Supper every week. But we do not do this because we have some superstitious attachment to it. We do not believe that God wants us to shuffle along, looking down, our sight rising no higher than the lip of the Table. No, we are Christians, and we are called to set our minds and hearts in the heavenly places, where Christ is.
We do not partake of a dead Christ with a dead faith, in a dead ritual. No—the Spirit has gathered all of us up, and He has lifted us up into the heavenly places. We partake of a living and glorified Christ, and we do so with a faith that is living, just as He is living. The mouth that receives Christ is the mouth of faith, not the mouth that unbelievers have together with you.
But if it is the mouth of faith, and if it is the Spirit who takes us up into the heavens, then . . . the question might arise . . . why do we need the bread and wine. Why gather at a Table if faith enables us to gather in Heaven? Well, remember that faith is not an active agent all by itself. Faith responds to what God has said. Faith believes it, going beyond the appearances.
And God has said that we are to meet Him by remembering the sacrifice of Jesus through the instruments of bread and wine. To say that faith doesn’t need these things is to say that because faith is faith it doesn’t need to believe, which is absurd. In order to be true evangelical faith, we must not fall short of what God has declared, and we must not overshoot it in our own carnal zeal. So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.