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November 27                                   Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 8-10

“The Lord’s Table”

1 Corinthians 10:21

 

Let us take a few moments today to prepare our hearts for the Lord’s Supper. May God the Holy Ghost ever make the observance of this blessed gospel ordinance sweet to or souls.

            Every Lord’s Day evening we gather around the Lord’s Table to celebrate our redemption by Christ exactly as he commanded us, eating the unleavened bread that represents his holy humanity and drinking the cup of wine which represents his precious blood. This is a highly symbolic ordinance, full of instruction for all who behold it, delightful to all who participate in it properly, and honoring to our Redeemer. It has absolutely no saving merit or efficacy. It has no mystical power. It is not a sacrament (a means of grace), but an ordinance to be observed by those who have experienced grace. The table is an ordinary wooden table, not an altar. The bread is ordinary unleavened bread, not the body of Christ, except in symbol. The wine is ordinary grape wine, not the blood of Christ, except in symbol. Yet, the ordinance is highly significant.

 

Christ’s Death

It symbolizes our Savior’s death as our Substitute (1 Corinthians 11:26). The broken bread portrays his body, crushed to death under the wrath of God for us. The cup of wine represents his blood, poured out unto death at Calvary for the remission of our sins, securing for God’s elect all the blessings of the covenant of grace forever.

 

Faith in Christ

This ordinance is a declaration of our faith (1 Corinthians 10:16). Eating and drinking the wine, we profess to all our faith in and dependence upon Christ’s finished work for the pardon of our sins and righteousness with God.

 

Grateful Remembrance

Observing the ordinance is an act of grateful remembrance (1 Corinthians 11:25). It is an ordinance that can only be properly observed when it is observed in remembrance of Christ. It is meaningful only as it reminds us of who he is and what he has done for us.

 

Spiritual Union

The Lord’s Table is a symbol of our union with one another in Christ (1 Corinthians 10:17). As the bread is one loaf, so all true believers are one body in Christ, because all are partakers of him.

 

Prophetic Picture

The Lord’s Table is also a prophetic ordinance. It is the showing forth of the Lord’s death “till he come” (1 Corinthians 11:26). As the Jews of old ate the Passover with their staff in their hands, their shoes on their feet, and their coats on their backs, so we must ever keep this ordinance in anticipation of that great day when Christ shall come again and feast with us in his Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29).

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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