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 noted, in the last analysis, there are only two tables in the world, and the law of each table is contrary to the other one. This means, in principle, that we can only eat from one. Out and out pagans eat from their table of demons and seek to rejoice in it. They defy the God of heaven. Faithful Christians look forward to participation and fellowship in this Table, and seek to order the rest of their lives accordingly. They sin and stumble, but do not let this prevent them from coming—it is for them additional evidence of how much they need to come. But they come, as sinners, to one Table. They do not come here seeking to keep their name card reserved at the other table.
And this reveals the third option, which is not truly a third option at all. Attempts to eat from both tables simultaneously are simply attempts to disguise the fact that one’s allegiance is with the rebellious. Both tables exert a powerful gravitational pull. People who eat at one table have a deep bond, instinctively understood, with anyone else at the same table. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us.
In a comparable way, anyone who has a grievance against God instinctively recoils from His gracious invitation to eat with the Lord Jesus here, and he instinctively seeks out, and is attracted to, anyone else who is recoiling in a similar way. It is a mysterious phenomenon, and yet can be observed as clearly as objects falling down when dropped. Joyful, forgiven Christians cluster together.
All this testifies to the power of what Scripture says in this regard. The power of participation, of fellowship, of koinonia, is much more profound than a simple register of individual choices.