Showing posts with label Table of the Lord. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Table of the Lord. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Table of Covenant Revelation

Praying in the psalms this morning, as is my habit, this passage became my meditation as I went to the Table of the Lord.
The LORD is good and upright;
therefore He shows sinners the way.
He leads the humble in what is right
and teaches them His way.

All the LORD’s ways [show] faithful love and truth
to those who keep His covenant and decrees.
Because of Your name, LORD,
forgive my sin, for it is great.

Who is the person who fears the LORD?
He will show him the way he should choose.
He will live a good life,
and his descendants will inherit the land.

The secret counsel of the LORD is for those who fear Him,
and He reveals His covenant to them.
My eyes are always on the LORD,
for He will pull my feet out of the net.
(Psalm 25:8-15 HCSB)
First, notice that it is out of His goodness that the Lord shows us His way. Being a sinner does not disqualify anyone from receiving it (or else we would all be in trouble). The real qualification is the humility of faith — believing God. Those who are humble are teachable, but pride and arrogance keep one from being able to receive anything from the Lord.

God entered into covenant with Israel, offering them many wonderful promises and benefits (see Deuteronomy 28:1-14). All who kept that covenant — the way of the Lord — would enjoy those promises and benefits. For God always keeps His word, and when He commits Himself, as He does in covenant, to show His “faithful love” (Hebrew, hesed, steadfast love and mercy — covenant love!), He will move heaven and earth to reveal it. It is out of this great love and mercy that He forgives sin.

Who is the person who “fears the Lord?” To fear the Lord is to live in awe of Him, to love and trust Him with all our hearts. To honor what He honors and hate what He hates, to treasure His favor above all things and avoid His displeasure at all costs, to take pleasure in His word, His will, His ways and His works. (Psalm1is another way of describing this, and its benefits; see Two Paths.)

To those who fear the Lord, He will reveal the path they should choose, the one that will lead to a good life, and their descendants will inherit the earth, the blessing of peace and prosperity in the land. He will reveal His secrets to them and they will see His covenant promises fulfilled on their behalf.

Israel was meant to receive all these blessings and benefits, not only to enjoy for themselves, but to reveal and extend the salvation of God to all the world. The problem, though, was that she kept turning away from God and needed to be delivered from the terrible exile she had brought upon herself.

That was a big problem, but God had a big solution. Very early on in the story, God promised a Messiah, an Anointed King who would come and not only rescue Israel but also gather in all the nations as well to enjoy the pleasures of God. This Messiah was revealed, historically, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only one who ever faithfully fulfilled every obligation of God’s covenant with Israel. By His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, He destroyed the works of the devil and defeated every power that stands against humanity — not only for the Jews, but for all the nations of the world. It is not only the taking away of sin but also deliverance from the power of sin, and from every enemy of spirit, soul and body.

It is that victory we find portrayed in the Table of the Lord. Jesus’ body was given and His blood shed on our behalf and for our benefit. In it, the new covenant between God and His people, foretold in the Old Testament (see Jeremiah 31:31-34), was instituted.

At the Table of the Lord, our eyes are always on the Lord Jesus the Messiah, who has pulled our feet out of the net. The secret counsels of God and the new covenant He has instituted with us are revealed in the signs of the body and blood of King Jesus.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Table of Zion

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels in festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to God who is the judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, to Jesus (mediator of a new covenant), and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24 HCSB)
When we come to the Table of the Lord:
  • We have come to Mount Zion. This is in contrast to Mount Sinai, the place where the Law of Moses was given, the law that inevitably led to condemnation (see Romans 7 for Paul’s experience on that). Mount Zion, however, was the place where God chose to dwell and manifest His presence among His people. This is not natural geography but spiritual reality.
  • We have come to the city of the living God. In the natural, Mount Zion was the city of God, the place of His temple, His habitation. The spiritual reality is that which Abraham sought, “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews11:10). Indeed, of all the saints of the old covenant, it is said, “But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:16). But now we have come to that city and Paul reminds us, “You are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16).
  • We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. Earthly Jerusalem, situated on Mount Zion, was a type, or shadow, of heavenly Jerusalem. Heavenly Jerusalem speaks of a higher realm and in the Jewish mind represented the hope of a future age. Now we have come to that city and the reality of heaven is breaking into the world. It is just as Jesus taught us to pray, “Kingdom of God, keep coming! Will of God, keep being done on earth as it in heaven” (that is the sense of the Greek verbs). It is not a singular event but a continuous action, already begun, and will ultimately align earth with the reality of heaven.
  • We have come to myriads of angels in festive gathering. The angels of God are not gathered together to execute judgment on us but to celebrate Jesus, who endured God’s judgment in our place. It is a joyful convocation, a festival of praise, and Revelation 5:11-12 gives us a glimpse:
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
  • We have come to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven. “Firstborn” shows that we have a Father, who is God. It speaks of the “double portion” we receive of Him, the very best of inheritances. Paul says that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). “Joint heirs” means that everything the Lord Jesus receives from the Father we receive also. As David declared, “O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance.” (Psalm 16:5-6). Not only are we heirs of God, our names are written on the citizen rolls of heaven. Paul says, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”: (Ephesians 2:19). “Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). This citizenship we have received gives us every blessing and benefit heaven has to offer. We can now live out of that higher reality.
  • We have come to God who is the judge of all. “Judge” speaks of God’s sovereign rule and authority over everyone. He is the one who sets all things right. His judgment on our sin was poured out on the Lord Jesus. As Paul says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “The chastisement for our peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53:5).
  • We have come to the spirits of righteous people made perfect. This speaks of communion, connection stronger than death, with those who have gone before us and no longer walk this planet. While we are still in the process of reckoning ourselves dead to sin but alive to God, they are experiencing, thoroughly and completely, all the perfection we have in Christ. “Perfected at last!” is the sense of the text. It is a perfection that is received only in Jesus Christ, through faith in Him.
  • We have come to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant. Jesus is the reason for all our coming, and all the blessing is summed up in the new covenant, of which He is the mediator. “Now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). What could not be accomplished by the old covenant of law, and all our striving, is fulfilled by the Lord Jesus in the new and better covenant.
  • We have come to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel. This is the heart of the covenant. In the Bible, no covenant was made without the shedding of blood, which demonstrated the surety of the promise. In this new covenant of grace, Jesus is the sacrifice — He gives us Himself. On the night before He was crucified, He took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). This covenant, and the blood by which in which it was cut, speaks incomparable things for us than any other blood ever could. The blood of Abel cried out for revenge. The blood of Jesus declares our redemption, reconciliation, restoration, freedom, victory, preservation and prosperity.
The Table of the Lord is the Table of Zion, city of the Living God, heavenly Jerusalem coming down with all its blessings.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

The Table of Testimony

And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you. (Exodus 25:16)

Do this in remembrance of Me. (Luke 22:19)
The essence of testimony is remembrance. The Hebrew word for “testimony” means to duplicate or repeat. Its purpose is to bring something back to mind, to represent (re-present) an experience, to stir up a heart of faith.

Testimony is a powerful thing. It can not only bring something back to your mind but also back to your heart. It can recreate the emotions, the sense of the experience of that to which it testifies. For example, have you ever heard an old song on the radio that reminded you of the days when you first heard that song? It can make you think of old friends and places and the way you felt back then. It is amazing how a song can bring them again to you in such an emotionally powerful way. When a song triggers a memory like that, people even say, “Oh, that takes me back.” And in a way, it does take them back to that time and place, and those old friends. That song has become a testimony to them, a witness of things past but which still have great significance for the present.

That is what the Ark of the Testimony did. It was a witness that spoke of the covenant God made with Israel. Everything about it testified to something in their experience with Him. It showed His presence among them. On top was the mercy-seat, the place of atonement, divine forgiveness. The Testimony that was placed inside was threefold: The Ten Commandments, a jar of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded (Hebrews 9:4).

The testimony of these things was always before them to remind them, not only of who God had been to them in the past, but also who He would continue to be to them in the future. It was a continual witness of God’s saving act on behalf of His people, a sign of His ever present covenant love and mercy.

In the New Testament, Jesus has provided us a testimony that continually speaks to us of His saving act on our behalf. It is the sign of the new covenant God has made with us in Christ. This testimony is the Table of the Lord. The bread and the wine testify to the body and blood of Jesus. They speak of what has been given for us and to us. They represent Jesus Christ to us. In them, we experience anew the reality of His body and blood, and our participation in Him as the body of Christ.

The Table of the Lord is an ark of testimony. It is the witness of what Jesus Christ has done for us at the Cross, the sign of the covenant we have with God today and the promise that He is with us now and forever.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Table of Splendor and Majesty

The Lord’s works are great,
Studied by all who delight in them.
All that He does is splendid and majestic;
His righteousness endures forever.
He has caused His wonderful works to be remembered.
The Lord is gracious and compassionate.
He has provided food for those who fear Him;
He remembers His covenant forever.
(Psalm 111:2-5 HCSB)
The works of the Lord are great. They are studied — earnestly pursued, carefully sought out, diligently researched — by those who desire and take delight in them. For the works of the Lord reveal something about the character of God, what He is like and what He desires.

Those who take delight in His ways study and mediate on them; they understand that, as Spurgeon said, “What God has done once is a prophecy of what He intends to do again (The Story of God’s Mighty Acts). The works of the Lord are not just a testimony of what once way, but also what is now and what shall be, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” Hebrews 13:8).

Everything God does is grand and glorious, full of splendor and majesty. They demonstrate that everything He does is exactly right, just, proper, true and prosperous. These are wonderful works — that is, distinguished and unique, extra-ordinary, surpassing all others — and He has caused them to be remembered by His people, for they do not speak of what He was but what He is. His grace and compassion are just as much for us today as they were for yesterday, and they will be here for us tomorrow as well.

Out of His grace, God has given food to those who fear Him, because He is always remembering His covenant, and He has caused us to remember, too, so that we may draw on His provision for us. In this, we can see the Table of the Lord.
  • It is a table of sustenance. This is the food and drink God has prepared for those who know, love and fear Him. Jesus is the “bread of life … which comes down from heaven. that one may eat of it and not die” (John 6:48, 50). By faith, we eat His body and drink His blood (John 6:53-58) and it is for us spirit and life (John 6:63).
  • It is a table of remembrance. Here we remember the wonderful works of God on our behalf. As Jesus took the bread, blessed it and gave it to the disciples, He said, “This is My body which is given for You; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).
  • It is a table of covenant. Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Jesus, our High Priest, who has offered His own body and blood for our sakes, is now forever seated at the “right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1), that is, the throne of God. He is there as the “Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). If God was faithful to remember His former covenant, how much more will He remember the new and better covenant we have in Jesus Christ, when the one who cut it with His own blood is always seated before Him?
The Table of the Lord is a table of splendor and majesty. It reveals to us the Lord Jesus Christ, brings us again to the reality of what He has done for us, focuses our hearts on the source of all true delight and prophecies the wonderful works God has in store for us today.

Monday, February 16, 2009

The Table of Wonder

I will remember the LORD’s works;
Yes, I will remember Your ancient wonders.
I will reflect on all You have done
And meditate on Your actions.
(Psalm 77:11-12 HCSB)
At the Table of the Lord we remember His works, His ancient wonders. We reflect on all He has done for us and meditate on His actions. The Table speaks of the giving of Himself, His body and of His blood, which is wondrous indeed. Consider:
  • The Wonder of the Incarnation. The eternal Son of God became human flesh. He did not just take it upon Himself as a costume that He cast aside when He was finished with it. No, He became flesh (John 1:14).
  • The Wonder of the Transfiguration. The wonder of Jesus in His humanity was revealed at Mount Tabor, where Peter, James and John saw the glory of God overshadow Him. “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:2). This is the glory God originally intended for Adam, and the glory of which we may all now partake.
  • The Wonder of the Cross. It is a wonder that the Son of God not only became flesh, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). For this reason, God has highly exalted Him and “given Him the name which is above every name” (v. 9). He is exalted, not only in His divinity, but also in His humanity, His flesh.
  • The Wonder of the Resurrection. He was “delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25). “God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power” (1 Corinthians 6:14). “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).
  • The Wonder of the Ascension. God “raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). Jesus, in His humanity—His body—as well as His divinity, sits on the throne of God, where He now rules and reigns forever. And we have been raised up together with Him, and made to sit together with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). This is not future hope but present reality.
The Table of the Lord is where we consider these ancient mysteries and lay hold of these awesome realities. It is a Table of Wonder.

Friday, November 14, 2008

The Table of Considering Him

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. (Hebrews 3:1)
In Hebrew 3, the author compares the Lord Jesus to Moses. Moses was the “apostle” of the Old Testament. The Law and the pattern for the Tabernacle were given through him. As John notes, “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:14). The Lord Jesus is the Apostle of the New Covenant. Not only the Apostle, but also the High Priest, for as the author of Hebrews later tells us, “He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). Indeed, He is the sacrifice on which that covenant is based, as He declared at the Last Supper: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20).

It is this Jesus whom we are called to “consider.” The Greek word speaks of a fixed attention to Him. It is not a passing thought or acknowledgment but a sustained focus. In Him, we are made “holy brethren” (to be holy means to be set apart for God’s will and desire). In Him, we are partakers of the “heavenly calling.” For we were born, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). We belong to Him.

He is called the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. The Greek noun comes from the verb homologeo, which means to speak the “same word.” It is a word of agreement. In this case, it is about agreeing with God about Jesus Christ. Everything He has promised is fulfilled for us in Christ, who is the mediator of the new and better covenant we have with God.

At the Table of the Lord, we focus all our attention on the Lord Jesus, His body and blood given for us, and with it, all the blessing and promise of God. We confess Him, that He is our Lord, our salvation, our resurrection and our life. In Him, we are made holy and called brothers. In Him, we partake of the heavenly calling, which speaks of divine initiative and living life on a new and higher basis — the reality of heaven becomes ours.

Come to the Table of the Lord and consider, in a sustained and sustaining way, the Apostle and High Priest whom we confess as our own.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Table of Divine Forgetting

I, even I, am He who blots our your transgression for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
(Isaiah 43:25)
This is a matter of covenant. “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31). It is a new covenant, and not like the old one He made with Israel, “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers … My covenant which they broke” (v. 32). The old covenant depended upon human behavior and was broken because of Israel’s disobedience. The new covenant is different:
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. (vv. 33-34)
The new covenant is a better one based on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). It is not a law engraved on tables of stone but one implanted in the heart. In this covenant, we can each know God personally and intimately. It is a covenant in which God not only forgives all our iniquity, but also forgets them — He remembers them no more. What He forgives, He forgets, and no longer responds to us according to sin. He does away with it.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
(Psalm 103:10-12)

He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
(Micah 7:19)
God’s forgiveness does not mean that our sin is overlooked, but that it has been dealt with. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, but He did deal with Jesus according to our sins. Jesus lifted them from us and carried them far away. This happened at the cross, where He suffered the cost of our iniquity in our place. There He “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us” and has “taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). He was prosecuted in our place, and the judgment that stood against us because of sin was wiped out and taken out of the way. Gone and forgotten.

When we come to the Table of the Lord, Jesus has no recollection of our sin. He does not rub our noses in the wrongs we have done: “See what put Me on the cross and caused Me to shed My blood.” It does not figure into His thinking. No, His Table is the Table of Divine Forgetting. There we see only Him, and ourselves in Him, and He sees only us, clean and righteous in Him.

As we approach the Table of the Lord, there may be many things that trouble us, and a great awareness of sins we have committed. Confess them to the Lord. That is, agree with Him that they are wrong and ought not to be in our lives. The promise is that He is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Not just forgiven, but also cleansed of it all. Forgotten.

The Table of the Lord is also a place where we learn to forgive and forget those things that have been done against us by others. This is not an option, but a requirement, as the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that our Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25). This may seem a hard thing for many, but if we are in Jesus, and He is in us, then if He can forget, we also can forget.

It is important to forget those things that are behind, whether sins we have committed or wrongs done against us, so that we may move forward into the destiny God has for us. Paul said, “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

The Table of the Lord is the Table of Divine Forgetting.

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Table of Wisdom and Revelation

Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. (Ephesians 1:15-17)
The apostle Paul realized there is much believers need to understand, but as eloquent a teacher as he was, he knew such skills would not be enough. It is one thing to grasp a theological point with the mind, quite another to know a spiritual truth with the heart. It requires wisdom and revelation from God, the Holy Spirit teaching these things to the inner man of the heart. So that is what Paul prayed, that the Father of glory would grant us wisdom and revelation by the Holy Spirit, so that we would know Him more and more, deeply and intimately.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21)
The “eyes of your understanding” refers, not to intellectual knowledge, but an experience of the heart. Some early Greek manuscripts even have the word for “heart,” kardias, here. It is an understanding mediated to our spirit by the Spirit of God. He gives us light so we can see, to know who we are in Jesus Christ and what we have in Him.
  • The Hope of His calling. What it is God has called us to — the positive expectation, the joyful anticipation we have in Him. God reveals a mystery to us, which is Christ in us, the “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
  • The riches of the glory of His inheritance. We are “joint-heirs” with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17). Whatever He receives for the Father, we receive with Him. We have received “every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies” (Ephesians 1:3), which is the basis for every other blessing.
  • The greatness of His mighty power toward us. We have the benefit of God’s power at work on our behalf. This is the same power by which God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies—and us there with Him (Ephesians 2:6) — far above every other power in heaven and earth. God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20). This divine power is now at work in us.
The Table of the Lord is a place where God gives us understanding of these things by His Spirit. It is a revelation of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is the revelation of the wisdom of God. “You are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30). In this Supper, we experience the joyful anticipation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the divine mystery of the glory we have in Him. With the bread and the cup, we partake of the inheritance we have in Him who gave His body and blood for us. Seated at His table, we taste the divine power that raised Him from the dead and seated Him in the heavenlies, and us there with Him. As we come, the Father reveals His glory to us, that we may know Him more and more intimately, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

The Table of the Lord is the Table of Wisdom and Revelation.

Friday, August 22, 2008

The Table of Favor

Remember me, O LORD,
With the favor You have toward Your people.
Oh, visit me with Your salvation,
That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones,
That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
That I may glory with Your inheritance.
(Psalm 106:4-5)
When we take the bread and the cup at the Table of the Lord, it is a sign that God has answered this request. He has remembered us and shown us the favor He has for His people, for Jesus has given His body and shed His blood on our behalf. In Him we have become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). God now looks upon us just as He looks upon Jesus.

Another word for “favor” is “grace.” The Table the Lord Jesus has prepared for us is a deep revelation of His grace. In Him, God comes to us with His “salvation.” The Hebrew word there is yeshuah, which speaks of deliverance, healing, prosperity and victory. The name form of this word is Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus.

At His Table, we can experience the benefit of His chosen ones, the intimacy of His presence. The HCSB has “That I may enjoy the prosperity of Your chosen ones.” This is the prosperity of soul that comes from knowing Him, the prosperity from which all other prosperity comes (3 John 2).

At His Table, we can celebrate with the delirious joy of His people, as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation — His own special people. Once we were not a people; now we are the people of God. Once we did not receive mercy; now we have received the mercy of God (1 Peter 2:9-10).

At His Table, we can glory in the inheritance we have in Him, for we are “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). He has made us partakers of His inheritance with all His people (Colossians 1:12), an inheritance that will never perish or fade away, and cannot be corrupted or defiled (1 Peter 1:4).

The Table of the Lord is the constant sign of the favor God has toward us in Jesus Christ.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Table of Declaration

It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare your lovingkindness in the morning,
And your faithfulness every night.
(Psalm 92:2)
The Hebrew word for “declare” is nagad. It means to report conspicuously, to announce boldly, to declare, proclaim, and make known with certainty. The Hebrew for “lovingkindness” is chesed. It is the steadfast love and mercy of God, which He has promised always to show to His people. The word for “faithfulness” is emunah and is based on the word for “faith.” It speaks of God in His trustworthiness, that He will always keep His Word to us.

The Table of the Lord is a table of declaration. It makes the Lord Jesus Christ known to us. It is, as Paul said, a proclamation. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). It declares His death and affirms that His body and blood were given for us. It announces that He is coming again and promises that He will drink the new wine with us in His Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29).

It boldly affirms His victory over all our enemies, in whose presence it is prepared (Psalm 23:5), and that in Him we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). It drowns out the accusations of the evil one and of all who speak against us, for the blood of Jesus has a voice and it declares loudly on our behalf, speaking better things of us (Hebrews 12:24). It is a banner that loudly announces to all His great love for us (Song of Solomon 2:4). It is a wondrous work that makes conspicuous the nearness of His presence (Psalm 75:1).

When we partake of this table, we also are making declaration. By receiving the bread and the cup, we are announcing that He is our refuge and fortress, our God in whom we trust, and by it, we proclaim His lovingkindness and His faithfulness.

The Table of the Lord is a Table of Declaration.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Table of the Blameless

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Jesus came the first time so that we may be kept completely blameless — spirit, soul and body — when He comes again. He is preparing His Church, His people, as His bride to be holy, set apart for Him and wholly His.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)
When we come to the Table of the Lord, we do not come bearing any sin. Neither does Jesus. He has already borne it all in His body and nailed it to the cross, where He declared “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The Greek word is tetelestai and means “Paid in full!” The transaction has been completed and the promise fulfilled. Everything that stood between us has been nailed to the cross where it was taken care of completely.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)
There may have been a long list of charges against us. They are all gone, and we are now clean before Him.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
Paul tells us that God made Jesus “who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another — to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God” (Romans 7:4).

The author of Hebrews teaches us, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).

With His body and blood, Jesus carried our sins to the cross — and left them there. Now we meet Him at His Table holy and blameless, cleansed of all sin. And as often as we do we proclaim that purifying work until He comes again and presents us to Himself as His glorious Church and spotless Bride.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Table of Divine Partaking

By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 2:4)
Peter reveals a startling truth: In Jesus Christ, we are partakers of the divine nature. One who partakes is one who takes part. The Greek word is koinonia, and refers to partnership, participation, fellowship. See how it is used in the following passage:
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion [koinonia] of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion [koinonia] of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers [koinonos] of the altar? (1 Corinthians 10:16-18)
Here, communion refers, of course, to the Table of the Lord—the bread and the cup. It is the sign of our participation in the body of Christ, our union with the Lord Jesus. We are identified with Him; He is identified with us. We are part of Him; He is part of us, even as the bread and wine we consume at His Table becomes a part of our body and blood.

What does it mean to be a partaker of the divine nature? The Greek word for “divine” is theios, and literally means “god-like.” The early Church understood Peter’s phrase, “partakers of the divine nature” as theosis: deification, being made divine, or “becoming god.” Athanasius of Alexandria, a fourth century Father of the Church, said, “For He has become Man, that He might deify us in Himself … that we may become henceforth a holy race, and ‘partakers of the Divine Nature,’ as blessed Peter wrote.” (Personal Letter 60:4). “For He was made man that we might be made God” (On the Incarnation, chapter 54). “Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us” (Discourse 1 Against the Arians, chapter 11). Ireneaus, an important Christian theologian of the second century, speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, “who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself” (Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface). The Church has long embraced this understanding as part of the orthodox Christian faith.

What does it mean to participate in the divine nature? First, we need to understand that there are some aspects of the divine nature in which we could never share. For example, God is all-powerful, all-knowing and everywhere present. These are attributes which cannot be communicated to us. That is, we are incapable of experiencing them; they belong to God alone. But there are other divine attributes in which we may share with Him. Peter tells us that the divine power of the Lord Jesus Christ has given to us “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). He then lists some of these gifts in verses 5-7: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. Paul offers a similar list, which he calls “the fruit of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are all attributes by which we are participants in the divine nature.

The Incarnation is not just about redemption from sin, and reconciliation with God. It is the restoration and fulfillment of God’s purpose for us in creation, when He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth” (Genesis 1:26). That is why, as Paul says, “the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). “Sons” speaks of like nature. Just as sons of men share in the nature of men, sons of God share in the nature of God.

As we take the bread and the cup at the Table of the Lord, we partake of the divine nature. We partake of Jesus Christ, His body and His blood. As Jesus partook of our human nature, we partake of His divine nature. For we are being conformed to the likeness of Jesus, just as Adam was created in the likeness of God, and we receive His divine spirit, the Holy Spirit, just as Adam received the breath of God.

The Table of the Lord displays the Incarnation of Jesus, His participation in our human nature and our participation in His divine nature, and shows us to be the sons of God. All creation is waiting for this revelation.

Friday, August 8, 2008

The Table of Reconciliation

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. (Colossians 1:19-22)
“It pleased the Father.” What wonderful words! It was the gracious will of God that all His fullness should dwell in the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the mystery of the incarnation—God in human flesh. It was His desire to reconcile everything in heaven and on earth to Himself through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, and it was His pleasure to reconcile us to Himself by the body of Jesus given in sacrifice. This is the mystery of redemption, and it has pleased the Father to do so.

To reconcile means to bring back into alignment, to restore to proper relationship. Eugene Peterson translates it this way in The Message Bible: “All the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe — people and things, animals and atoms — get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the cross” (Colossians 1:20).

Reconciliation requires a settling of accounts, a setting to rights, an atonement. That is why Jesus came. Because of sin, we were once enemies of God, alienated from the Father. But Jesus, Son of God, came in human flesh and offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. In Him, through faith in Him, we are restored to proper relationship with the Father. Now we walk in the newness of life, His life. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10).

By His body, we are presented before God as holy, blameless and faultless. By His blood, we are reconciled with God and have peace with Him. The life we now have is of heaven, though we live it out on earth, for heaven and earth are themselves now reconciled in Jesus Christ. All creation now waits for this to be revealed. It is the revelation of glory Paul talked about in Romans 8:18-21.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The Table of the Lord is a manifestation of this glory, this liberty, this reconciliation. It reveals Jesus is His flesh and His blood, the fullness of God in human form, and us in Him as the children of God restored to fellowship with the Father.

We come to the Table or the Lord as friends, not as enemies, for we have been reconciled to God by the sacrifice of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. Our fellowship with Him at this Table of Reconciliation is the revelation of the glory for which all creation is now waiting.



The Focus of Our Faith
The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Table of Righteousness

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Paul said that Jesus was “made to be sin for us.” He was identified with our sin so thoroughly that it no longer belongs to us. Then He dealt with it at the cross, nailing it in His own body to the tree and cursed the curse of it. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” as Paul says in Galatians 3:13. In his letter to the Colossians, he puts it this way:
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)
The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that a great exchange has taken place: He took our sin upon Himself and gave us His righteousness. This reality changes us, for we not only have our sins taken away, we also receive the righteousness of God. We do not just receive it but, in Paul’s words, we become the righteousness of God.

When we come to the Table of the Lord, we do not come as sinners but as saints. The bread and the cup speak of His body given for us, made to be sin for us, but washed clean by the blood He shed for us. There we fellowship together in His divine righteousness, for the Table of the Lord is the Table of Righteousness.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Table of the Lamb

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!
(Revelation 5:12)
This is the song of the saints and angels in John’s heavenly vision of the throne room of God. In this scene, God has a scroll in His hand, sealed with seven seals. An angel calls out, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” But no one is found until an elder says to John, “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” John looks in the midst of all those who surround the throne and is surprised to see that the Lion is a Lamb “as though it had been slain.” The Lamb takes the scroll out of the right hand of God, for He is worthy.

In the days when this was written, it was a Roman practice to seal important documents such as wills or deeds with seven seals. Many Jews also adopted this custom. These were not to be opened by anyone except those who were worthy, or qualified, to do so. In this divine vision, it was the Lamb who had the right to take the scroll from the hand of God and open the seals, and this was cause for great rejoicing:
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever. (Revelation 5:8-14)
The “four living creatures” are those described in Revelation 4:6-8. They are seraphim, like the ones described in Isaiah 6, who worship God day and night. The twenty-four elders represent the Church ministering and worshipping before the Lord, like the twenty-four divisions of priests in 1 Chronicles 24:7-18 and the twenty-four orders of worship leaders in 1 Chronicles 25:9-31. They fall down before the Lamb bringing songs of worship and the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song concerning redemption and the fulfillment of God’s purpose on the earth.
You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Here is the reason the Lamb is worthy: He was slain for us and has redeemed us by His blood. He bought us out of the marketplace, paying the price of His own blood. He is the Kinsman Redeemer (Hebrew ga’al) who has paid the ransom on our behalf and set us free.
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.
This redemption is not just for Israel but also for the whole world, out of every nation and people. The purpose was to make us both kings and priests before God. The role of kings is to rule and reign with Him. This was God’s original plan when He created man to have dominion over all the earth (Genesis 1:26). It is now fulfilled through Jesus Christ, who has been seated on the throne at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:20-21). We also have been raised up and seated there with Him (Ephesians 2:4-6).

The role of priests is to bring prayer and worship before God in heaven. God’s purpose for Israel was to be a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6), and now all who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ have become a “royal,” or kingly, “priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9).

The domain of our kingship is the earth itself: “We shall reign on the earth.” For the role of the Kinsman Redeemer was not only to buy back His own people but also to recover their land. The earth, which was originally given to man when he was created, to subdue and fill it with the glory of God, once again comes under the dominion of the people of the Lamb.

For this reason, the Lamb is greatly praised: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing! … Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) is worthy, fully qualified, to redeem us, and all the earth, because He was slain on our behalf. He gave His body and blood so that out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation He might make kings and priests to our God.

The bread and the cup at the Table of the Lord is the constant sign of the worthiness of the Lamb, and of what He has done for us. As we partake of it, we are offering up our worship with all the saints and angels to give Him highest praises.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Table of Feasting

He brought me to the banqueting house,
And His banner over me was love.
(Song of Solomon 2:4)
The Hebrew word for “banquet” refers literally to wine, effervescent and intoxicating. It is a table of feasting. In the setting of the Song of Solomon, it is a place of intimacy where the Shulamite woman meets with her Beloved. He covers her with his banner, which is the declaration of his love.

The Table of the Lord is a table of feasting where we meet with our Beloved and He expresses His love for us. It is the secret place, where we can say, like the Shulamite woman, “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine” (Song 6:3). “I am my Beloved’s and His desire is toward me” (Song 7:10).

This privilege belongs to all who call on the name of the Lord, all those who trust in Him. God offers this table to the whole world, for He is calling out and redeeming a people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation, all those who receive the Lord Jesus. The prophet Isaiah foretold of a great feast for all people:
And in this mountain
The LORD of hosts will make for all people
A feast of choice pieces,
A feast of wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the LORD;
We have waited for Him;
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
(Isaiah 25:6-9)
It is a time when death is swallowed up and every tear is wiped away. It is the day of salvation. The Hebrew word for “salvation” here is yeshuah. As a name, it is Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus. He is the one who by His death lifts the reproach from His people, by His Spirit removes the veil that blinds the nations, and swallows up death in the victory of His resurrection.

The book of Revelation also describes a great feast that is the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. It is the marriage supper of the Lamb, where the Lord Jesus takes His bride unto Himself.
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” (Revelation 19:6-9)
The bride is the Church, whom Jesus loves and for whom He gave Himself that He might present us pure and holy before Him (Ephesians 5:25-27). He has given us a table over which He has set His banner of love. It is a table of intimacy with Him where we feast on the bread of His body and the wine of His blood. It is a sign that we are called to share the marriage supper of the Lamb and be His forever. For on the night He instituted this sign, He gave the cup to the disciples and said, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). And so He shall at the marriage feast of the Lamb.

The Table of the Lord is the Table of Feasting.

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Table of Reckoning

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:11)
In the death of Christ we died also. We do not make it so; He made it so. We simply receive it by faith. We reckon it to be so. The Greek word is a term of accounting and has to do with how one counts or considers a thing. For example, to reckon something to be true means to count it to be true, or to consider it to be so. The ESV shows it this way: “So you must also consider yourselves to be …” Weymouth’s Translation has, “You must regard yourselves as …”

“Reckon yourselves,” Paul says. It is an exercise of faith. We count ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God because that is what God has said, and He cannot lie. Notice that Paul begins this verse with “likewise.” Like what? Like what we see about the Lord Jesus in the previous verses:
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.(Romans 6:8-10)
Just as Christ died and now lives, even so we, if we have died with Him (and through faith in Him, we have), we will also live with Him from now on. Paul reckoned this to be true of himself when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). When he took inventory of the truth of Jesus Christ and His salvation work on our behalf, this is how it added up.

What then are we to reckon or consider as true of ourselves? First, that we are dead to sin. When we are dead to something, it no longer has any power or authority over us. We are no longer obligated to it in any way and do not have to give in to its influence anymore. That part of us that once was in bondage to sin has been set free by death, the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We can now reckon His death to be our own, so we do not have to let sin reign in us, or present ourselves as “instruments of unrighteousness” (Romans 6:12-13).

This is what Paul meant when he said, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24), and, “Therefore put to death our members which are on the earth” (Colossians 3:5). We “crucify the flesh” and “put to death our members” by reckoning the death of Christ to be our own, for He was crucified in our place.

That is only half of it, however, and if it were all there was to our salvation, we would still be in miserable shape, for we would simply be dead. But the amazing grace of God is that not only have we died with Christ so that are dead to sin, we have also been raised with Christ and have been made alive to God! And that is how we are to now consider ourselves. We no longer have to present ourselves to the bondage of sin and unrighteousness. We have the life of Christ at work in us and can now present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). God counts us as righteous, and we are free to live out that rightness which we have with Him.

The Table of the Lord is a place of reckoning. As we take the bread, we give account that His body was given for us. As we drink the cup, we count it as the blood that He shed for us. We behold His death, but also His life, and we reckon them as our own, dead to sin, but alive to God.

The Table of the Lord is the Table of Reckoning.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Table of Hiddeness

Set your mind on things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)
Paul tells us to set our “minds” on things above. The Greek word is phroneo and refers not only to the focus of the mind but also the attention of the heart. The KJV translates it “affections.” We are to focus all the attention of our inner man on things above, that is, of heaven. Why on things above? Because that is where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

The great truth for all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is that we have died — and yet we still live! As Paul declared in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

This new life we have is “hidden” with Christ in God. We are kept by God in a secret place, where enemies cannot find us. It is a treasure hidden away where thieves cannot break through and steal it. We set our affections on things above because that is where our treasure is, and Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

This treasure, this life we have in God is the Lord Jesus Himself. For not only have we died with Him, through faith in Him, but we have also been raised from the dead with Him and seated with Him at the right hand of the Father.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6)
Notice that Paul does not speak of this as future expectation, but as accomplished fact and present reality. We have already been made alive together with Christ, raised up with Him and seated together with Him in the heavenlies. We set our affections on things above because that is where we are now seated with Christ.

The Lord Jesus is our life now and when He appears, that is, when He comes again, we will also appear with Him in glory. John speaks of this same truth: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:20).

This life we have in Christ is hidden. The world does not recognize it and does not know what to with it. It has no category for it. But it is not hidden from us. The bread and the cup are signs that point us to it. The Table of the Lord focuses our affections on these spiritual realities, teaching us that, in His death, we died also. His body was given for us; His blood was shed for us. We enjoy them together as we share in the bread and the cup.

The Table of the Lord also teaches us to watch for His appearing. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). When we take of His table, we not only proclaim His death (and our death with Him), we also proclaim that He is coming again. It reminds us that, when He who is our life appears, we shall also appear with Him, and we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

The Table of the Lord is the continual sign of our hiddeness with Christ in God.



The Focus of Our Faith
The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Monday, June 16, 2008

The Table of the Kingdom

But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom. (Matthew 26:29)

With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.… Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. (Luke 22:15-18)
The Table of the Lord speaks of the fulfillment of the kingdom of God. Jesus said that the kingdom is already “at hand” (Matthew 4:17), which is an idiomatic way of saying that is now here. Indeed, Jesus speaks of it as being present within His disciples (Luke 17:21). But it is not yet fulfilled, that is, it has not yet come in all its completeness. This will not happen until the King Himself returns.

In Matthew’s reading, the word “new,” does not speak of newness of time but of quality, the quality of kingdom fullness. In this way, The Table of the Lord is a sign of the return of the King. Paul reminds us, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Not only is this Table a sign of the Father’s kingdom, it also shows that we are participants in that kingdom, that we truly belong to it, for the Lord promises that He will drink of it with us. However, we participate in His kingdom not merely as servants but as sons. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). Through faith in Jesus Christ, we become the sons of God, and as sons, heirs of His kingdom. Jesus said, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). It is our inheritance.

The Table of the Lord is the sign that, though the kingdom of Heaven on Earth is already present and active within us, we shall one day experience it in all its fullness when Jesus returns.



The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth

The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew

by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Friday, June 13, 2008

The Table of Covenant Kindness

Now David said, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” (2 Samuel 9:1)
David had come into a place where he was able to bless people like he never could before, for he had now assumed his position as king of Israel. When the dust of his conquests settled, he remembered that there was some business to take care — to remember his covenant with Jonathan.
Then Jonathan and David made covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. (1 Samuel 18:3)

[David to Jonathan] “Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD.” (1 Samuel 20:8)
Jonathan did deal kindly with David, and though he and his father Saul were now dead, David still honored the covenant he made. “Is there still anyone who is left of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth, who had been injured in an accident when he was a child and was now crippled. He was living in the house of Machir, which means “sold,” in the land of Lo Debar, a place “not a pasture” (Brown, Driver and Briggs Hebrew Definitions) or “without treasure” (Lo means “not,” and Zondervan’s Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible says Debir means “treasure;” s.v. Debir). It was not a good circumstance, especially for one who once had been destined to be a prince.

David sent for Mephibosheth, and when he arrived said to him,
Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually. (2 Samuel 9:7)
Then David made it known: “As for Mephibosheth, he shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons” (v.11). And so it was. “Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table” (v. 13). David blessed Mephibosheth for the sake of the covenant he made with Jonathan.

Like Mephibosheth, we also have a place where we may eat continually because of covenant, the Table of the Lord. On the last Passover Jesus shared with the disciples, He took the bread and said, “This is My body which is given for you” (Luke 22:19). Then He took up the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (v. 20).

The covenant He made with the Father is one cut in His own blood, but it was on our behalf and for our benefit. His body given for us, His blood shed for us is the kindness of the Lord spread before us at His Table.

Jesus invites us to this table, we who were without pasture, without treasure and sold into slavery by sin. With the bread He says, “Take, eat; this is My body” (Matthew 26:26). And with the cup, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (vv. 27-28). “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).

The Father remembers this covenant. It is ever before Him and He is looking for those to whom He may show His goodness for Jesus’ sake. To us has been given the privilege of feasting continually at the Table of Covenant Kindness.