Fellowship and Communion

I have been preoccupied of late with the concept of Christian fellowship.  This Sunday, like every first Sunday of the month, we will share in the Lord’s Supper at Grace Church.  And there is nothing more symbolic of Christian fellowship than in participating in Communion.  

Remember that Christian fellowship flows two ways: First, God has enabled us to be in fellowship with him by sending his Son to die on the cross for the atonement of our sins.  A just and holy God could not be in relationship with sinful man without that atoning act.  Second, because of God’s love for us as demonstrated by what he has done for us, we are compelled to love our fellow believer, and if we love our fellow believer, we want to be in fellowship with him or her.  1 Cor. 6:17; John 14:23; 1 John 1:7 and 4:19-21.  

So how is the partaking of the Lord’s Supper symbolic of this Christian fellowship?  John MacArthur puts it this way:  “Communion visualizes our fellowship.  Christ is the head; we are all members of His body, all equally redeemed by Him.  We all share His life, we are all sustained by that life.  The Lord’s Table humbles us.  The Lord’s Table levels us.  The Lord’s table call us to self-examination.  Paul says, ‘Don’t come unless you examine yourself.’  The Lord’s table vividly celebrates our reconciliation to God through Christ and His cross.  We are united by the body and blood of Christ visibly at that Table.”  The apostle Paul says this, “Is not the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”  I Cor. 10:16-17. 

I can get easily distracted by the nuances between various Reformed beliefs as to the Lord’s Supper.  But this I know: I am no closer to my Maker than when I am partaking in the Lord’s Supper, and as a consequence, I am no nearer to my fellow sister and brother in Christ.  Nothing demonstrates the basis for, and the outward reflection of, our Christian fellowship more clearly than our sharing of the Lord’s Supper.  At the Lord’s Table, we all come together to the foot of the cross—it is there that we are drawn together because of our shared experience. We all come as forgiven sinners.  And we all come as one with Christ and as one with each other as one body in Christ.

Carter