The invitation to the Lord's Table is the most exclusive invitation you'll ever receive.
1 Peter 1:21-25 (NIV)
21 Through him [Christ] you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 35: The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
We believe and confess
that our Savior Jesus Christ
has ordained and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Supper
to nourish and sustain those
who are already born again and ingrafted
into his family:
his church.
Now those who are born again have two lives in them.
The one is physical and temporal—
they have it from the moment of their first birth,
and it is common to all.
The other is spiritual and heavenly,
and is given them in their second birth;
it comes through the Word of the gospel
in the communion of the body of Christ;
and this life is common to God’s elect only.
Thus, to support the physical and earthly life
God has prescribed for us
an appropriate earthly and material bread,
which is as common to all
as life itself also is.
But to maintain the spiritual and heavenly life
that belongs to believers
he has sent a living bread
that came down from heaven:
namely Jesus Christ,
who nourishes and maintains
the spiritual life of believers
when eaten—that is, when appropriated
and received spiritually
by faith.
To represent to us
this spiritual and heavenly bread
Christ has instituted
an earthly and visible bread as the sacrament of his body
and wine as the sacrament of his blood.
He did this to testify to us that
just as truly as we take and hold the sacraments in our hands
and eat and drink it in our mouths,
by which our life is then sustained,
so truly we receive into our souls,
for our spiritual life,
the true body and true blood of Christ,
our only Savior.
We receive these by faith,
which is the hand and mouth of our souls.
Now it is certain
that Jesus Christ did not prescribe
his sacraments for us in vain,
since he works in us all he represents
by these holy signs,
although the manner in which he does it
goes beyond our understanding
and is incomprehensible to us,
just as the operation of God’s Spirit
is hidden and incomprehensible.
Summary
Peter makes an astonishing connection to begin today's passage. Way back at the start of this year as we began working through our Confession, one of the first things we learned was that creation itself testifies to God's existence, so that all men - whether they've ever read the Bible or not - have no excuse for not knowing there is a God who created, orders and continues to provide for all that we see around us.
But our ability to see God through what he's made has been marred by sin, which has impaired our ability to think clearly and correctly. So while everyone ought to know there is a God, Peter informs us that it's only through Christ that you believe in God. Peter here isn't pitting the work of Jesus against the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, who turned your unbelieving heart of stone into a heart of flesh in which the imperishable seed has taken root. Rather, Peter's point is that your faith and hope are in God because God raised Christ from the dead and glorified Him.
But what really grabs our attention today as we come to this passage in the context of the Lord's Supper is how the Holy Spirit plants this imperishable seed which is made possible because of Christ's resurrection and ascension: He does it through the living and enduring Word of God. Whereas people are like withering grass and falling flowers, the Word of the LORD endures forever (Isaiah 40:6-8).
So if you're wondering why your pastor spends so much time communicating God's Word to you, this is why. It is the primary means by which the Holy Spirit brings you to Christ, and it's through Christ that you believe in God.
Dig Deeper
Most churches want as many people as possible to come to our services, to join God's people in songs of praises, and especially to hear the preached Word, which Peter reminds us is so powerful. All sorts of evangelistic efforts are made in order to boost attendance. We want the whole community there!
But participation in the Lord's Supper is different. It's exclusive. It's only for those who are already born again. Maybe that hits you as being overly harsh, especially because it seems so contrary to our zeal for evangelism, but it only makes sense. Those who only have a physical and temporal life, the life that is common to all, have no need for a meal meant to nourish a spiritual and heavenly life, which is only given to people in their second birth.
Paul makes clear in the eleventh chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians that improperly participating at the Lord's table can be deadly serious. Before you join yourself to the very body and blood of Jesus, you need to have purified yourself, and Peter explains here that you do that by obeying the truth - fully believing in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and the God who made that all happen (v21).
This good news has been preached to you through the living and enduring Word of God. The continued growth of this imperishable seed happens as its nourished by your ongoing participation in Christ's body and blood, which you receive from the Lord's Table.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who raised Jesus from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will continue to remain obedient to the truth;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 Thessalonians 1
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