We serve the living God. We are a people who have been ushered into new life. We have heard the word of life declared. This is the bread of life; this is living wine. Life is a mystery, and only the dead think they understand it. Life is glory; life is movement; life is joy; …
Go, Eat Your Bread
In this Supper, all the benefits of Christ’s death are sealed for those who partake in faith. This includes everything He has done for us: forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, and infinitely more. We have our conversions renewed and ratified before God as we partake. We have our covenant relation to God renewed as we partake. This …
Not That Kind of Fabric
The Christian Church is a commonwealth. One of the great things that we have in common is our access to this Table. It is a tremendous privilege, and we are not worthy of it in one sense. But in another sense, we are commanded to walk in a manner that is worthy of it. This …
Close Friends, Not Adversaries
You are accustomed to hear two words paired, and those words are Word and sacrament. The two do go together, and are not in the slightest degree at odds with one another. But in the minds of some, they are at odds, and sides are chosen. Some choose a rationalistic service, where the Word is …
And This is Odd Too
One of the central things we learn as we come to this Table is the nature of our triune God, and consequently the nature of the world He created. Many of the disputes between Christians about what happens at this Table is the result of their secret agreement about the rest of the world. The …
A Sacrificial Meal
The Lord’s Supper is a sacrificial meal, which is not the same thing as a sacrifice. The Lord Jesus offered Himself on the cross two thousand years ago, and when He ascended into heaven some weeks afterward, at that time He presented His sacrifice in the heavenly places, in the ultimate Holy of Holies. His …
What Did He Sing?
The Scriptures tell us that after He instituted the Supper, our Lord Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples and then they went out. We know that the psalms sung at the conclusion of the Passover meal were the Hallel Psalms, 114-118. So what did our Lord sing when He was facing death of an …
Attraction and Communion
The world is a place governed by covenants. Covenantal law is present everywhere in a similar way to what we call the law of gravity. And as long as we understand gravity as a personal thing, the law of covenants is like it, and is made evident in a powerful attraction. As we have frequently …
No Such Thing As Nor Partaking
Most of our difficulties with understanding the Supper of the Lord stem from philosophical assumptions that we all carry about with us. One of the principal culprits has been the division of the world we inhabit into two parts—the spiritual and mental, the material and physical. But the world is not to be divided up …
In Person
We too often fall into the trap of thinking that a description is the same thing as an explanation. If confronted with the inadequacy of our description, we resort (oddly) to a more detailed and “scientific” description. But this makes no sense. When we let go of an object, we readily assume that our scientific …