Category: Church Page 2 of 4

Live Peaceably with All?

On July 5, 2022

In Church, Freedom, Hermeneutics, History, Holiness, The Basics, Witness

Another contextual clue to Paul’s teaching in Romans 13 is the words that come almost immediately before Romans 13, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” The call to submit to the Roman civil magistrate is part of the call to “live peaceably with all.” Our living peaceably with all depends on our ability to obey God; to live according to our calling before him. We are to honor God before men.

What does it mean, “if possible, as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all?” There are a lot of ways to apply those words to today. Does that mean we are to do everything for the sake of peace?

A good understanding of these words begins with an understanding of the church’s mission. The mission of the church, the mission of Christ, informs what it means to live peaceably with all. Our goal is nothing less than the reconciliation of all things to Christ. The church’s work in fulfilling that mission can bring times we are offensive to the world around us. In fact, says the scriptures, “to those who are perishing we are the smell of death.” Jesus says, “the world will hate you as they hated me.” This is a reality, but within that Paul wants us to work our best to live peaceably with all, including the civil magistrate, as much as possible.

But when the magistrate interferes with the mission of the church whether in her worship or in her call to love one another, the church is called to stand up to the civil magistrate. But even so, she does not do this in a way that is malicious, angry, or threatening. She does this in a way that continues to keep the peace, recognizes the importance of law and order, and seeks the city’s good.

The good of the city is our ultimate goal. It is a good that is defined by the gospel of Jesus Christ. This good has two aspects. First, the righteousness and order of Jesus Christ: those in Christ and out of Christ have two different value systems. We want to bring the value system of Christ to the world as a whole.

The second aspect of this good is how it defines our resistance of evil in this world. Or we might say how we seek to bring Christ’s value system into our world’s value system. It is a spiritual war, not a physical one, which we fight. We do not seek to destroy our enemies. No, we love our enemies and aim to transform them by putting away our desire for vengeance and ultimately seeking their good. We seek peace with our enemies by continuing to do what is good, thus heaping burning coals on his head. This action is all according to the law of love and in line with Christ’s act of obedience to our Father in heaven.

Our ability to live peaceably with all depends on our ability to live according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Living according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ is not only about the things we don’t do, but also about the things we do. An example of the first might be where the government commands us to give a pinch of incense to Caesar or commands us to kill somebody who is innocent. An example of the second might be things that interfere with our worship or our call to love one another, basically anything that interferes with our three-fold office of prophet, priest, and king in Jesus Christ.

We must recognize that we have a duty toward the government as those who bear the sword for vengeance. According to this calling, they are to defend the righteous and condemn the wicked. We are called to give due honor, due obedience, and due monetary support, with regard to that calling. That is part of the righteousness and order of Christ. Some could argue that those things interfere with our ability to fulfill our duty as Christians, but they are also part of our duty as we seek the good of those in authority over us. Ideally, they also secure the peace and order of the community of God.

But when the civil magistrate begins to use its monopoly on force to deny or undermine our duties, then we ought to start to think through where we might owe obedience to God before we owe obedience to the government. I say start because there is an important place for patience and for conversation before action.

Here I want to discuss a bit the use of prudence in these things in making that decision about how best to respond to various types of tyranny. The very command “as much as it depends on you, be at peace with all men” assumes a call to prudence. Our goal is the peace of God, but at the same time, faithfulness can disturb the peace. Ahab calls Elijah “A troubler of Israel.” Zechariah 1 describes a type of peace that is not due to faithfulness but due to unfaithfulness. The Apostle Paul is accused of “turning the world upside down.” He too is a disturber of the peace.

So is it time to be an Elijah or a Paul, or is it time to be quiet and patient? How do we accomplish the goals of the kingdom in our station of life? Paul is not a revolutionary, he desires to transform from within. Just as the Spirit comes into a person and crucifies the flesh and brings to life the new man, so those moved by the Spirit transform from within society with deeds of love and mercy. We look to the Spirit to apply the wisdom of scripture in our current situation.

Part of this prudence is in recognizing your situation. If the evil done to you comes from those who are positioned over you, the response is different than to one who is your equal or under you. You owe greater honor and patience to the civil magistrate than to your average citizen because of the nature of their role in society. You will also have a different response as a pastor, plumber, farmer, policeman, or nurse. Each of those comes with varying factors of risk. It also matters whether you have dependents or not. Paul sees the importance of the work of providence in giving us each a different vocation in our lives. That is why he tells us in 1 Corinthians 7 to “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.”

Another part of that prudence is discerning what you are willing to risk or what hill you are willing to die on. The natural way of the Gentiles is to lord it over one another and we should expect that they will try to lord it over the church as well. The natural way of our hearts is to lord it over one another. Therefore, the first attitude toward the rise of tyranny is one of patience.

In terms of Covid, which is the apparent reason for writing these articles, I would argue that most Christians responded with patience. Still, beyond initial patience, Christians had different metrics for deciding when civil disobedience was necessary and different understandings of the severity of the pandemic, understandable because of the lack of open conversation about these things in the public square.

Yet even when we decide that it is necessary to ignore government mandates, we must still seek peace with all men as much as possible. That doesn’t mean we can’t be sarcastic or confront the authorities. After all, Christ gives us examples of precisely this type of action. But we must, in all this, prioritize mercy and justice. In all this, we must follow the way of Christ. “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” “Bless those who curse you,” says the Lord. God gives us this truth generally and this is where prudence and the leading of the Spirit come in. We’ll come to this more in our next article, where we will discuss resisting the government God’s way.

Love the Brotherhood. Honor the Emperor

By James

On June 22, 2022

In Church, Reformed Theology, The Basics, Worship

(This is the first of a series on Romans 13. The Covid regime has pushed Romans 13 to the front of conversation between Christians. I am working on putting out several articles on the issues that surround Romans 13 to shed more light on the big picture of what God is doing through his instruction in Romans 13.)

Many of the regulations our government put forward during the Covid-19 crisis undermine the fundamental duty of Christians to love one another. While keeping peace with all men, Christians should continue exercising this divine instruction as much as possible. In this sense, I agree with the many memes that say, “to resist tyranny is to obey God.”

Our duty to demonstrate an embodied love is a higher duty than that of honoring the civil magistrate. In fact, honoring and submitting to the civil magistrate is, in Romans 13, subsequent to the call to promote peace. Such an attitude allows the church to do the necessary work of proclaiming the gospel among men. The nature of the civil magistrate is such that it is good for the church to submit to them, for God has established them to bear the sword of vengeance. But the embodied love of the saints for one another remains a higher calling.

The word “embodied” is essential here. “Glorify God in your body,” God says to the Corinthians in the context of warning them about sexual immorality. The way we use our bodies is vital to God. If it is crucial, then the church’s authority as an expression of the power of Christ is an authority that affects the body as well.

I seek to prove this in two parts. First, I will demonstrate that the love of the brotherhood is the highest calling after the love of God. After that, I will seek to illustrate the importance of that love being embodied instead of projected through letters, phones, or screens.

Before I get to Romans 12 and 13, I will bring in several passages that more clearly point to the priority of the love of the brotherhood. (I assume, of course, that the most important love is the love of God. Brotherly love flows from the love of God and demonstrates that love.)

The most striking passage in this regard is John 13. There Jesus, having washed his disciples’ feet and having expressed his love toward his disciples through the love feast of the Lord’s Supper, says this: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” The unique expression of Jesus’ love defines the Christian brotherhood’s love for one another. There is a constant willingness to give oneself for one another, just as Christ gave himself for us on the cross, just as Jesus expressed his love by washing the disciples’ feet.

Christ gives this command to the brotherhood, the Christian church. Jesus is speaking to his disciples, giving them instructions on what it is to be the new Israel. Significantly, this is the central commandment he gives his disciples before going to the cross. This command marks out the church as an alternative community, an alternative community that is defined by the self-giving of Christ.

Another place where we see the priority of brotherly love is in 1 Peter 2: 17, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the Emperor.” Notice the gradations of command. “Fear God.” Obviously, God is first. God is the only one we ought to tremble before truly. God is the only one whose opinion matters in the end. “Love the Brotherhood.” We owe the brotherhood the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. “Honor everyone… Honor the Emperor.” These deserve honor because of God’s image and their office. The commands of Peter demonstrate priority, however. We owe God, the brotherhood, and then we have duties to others in society.

The teaching of Paul in 1 Corinthians reflects this on a practical level. In the opening chapters, Paul calls on the Corinthians to prioritize Christ over their attachment to various Christian leaders, but even more the world’s wisdom. Then, in 1 Corinthians 5-10, Paul warns Christians about attachments to the world, especially regarding the temptations of sexual immorality and idolatry.

One passage that particularly stands out for our purposes is in the first part of chapter six, where Paul warns about settling civil matters before the ungodly civil magistrate (in other places, Paul clearly sees the benefit of the civil magistrate for criminal matters). A deduction from this passage might be that the church ought to oversee her own civil affairs as much as possible, especially when the civil magistrate is ungodly.

The remainder of 1^st Corinthians defines the love of the community, especially as it pertains to the practices of worship and the use of each person’s gifts for the sake of the community. Again, we see the priority of the love of the community of Christ.

Now we come to Romans. Romans 13 is sandwiched between calls to love the brotherhood. Romans 12 begins with personal transformation, but that personal transformation turns into the service of love toward the community of God, calling each member to use the gifts of grace given to them for the sake of the community. It all culminates in the words of verses 9 and 10, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Similarly, after the teaching on civil government in Romans 13: 8, Paul goes back to the love we owe one another, “owe no one anything except to love one another.” The teaching on the civil magistrate is sandwiched in the primary commandment of Christ, “just as I have loved you, so you also are to love one another.”

We can make our case even stronger in Paul’s theology of the church in Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians. All emphasize our priority in connecting to our head as the body of Christ. In Ephesians, we are told that we are “raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” In Colossians, “you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God,” and “you died to the elemental spirits (a reference to the social order) of this world.” Finally, in Philippians, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are citizens of heaven who do not truly belong to this earth. The order of our affairs is distinct. According to that reality we have the calling that is only second to our fear of God to love one another.

And in this love of one another, we have Christ as our example, which brings us to our second part, where I seek to demonstrate the importance of embodied love.

The very act of Christ in washing the feet of his disciples as a demonstration of his love shows the importance of bodily presence in our love of one another. Christ shows his love in a very personal and human way. The fact that Christ has sent his Spirit upon us allows us to call the kindness we do to one another in visiting and sharing good works that we have done to him. We see this in the teaching on the sheep and the goats before the judgment seat of Christ in Matthew 25. “What you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.”

There is also what we noted in our introduction, the call to glorify God with one’s body, which affects most prominently sexuality, but we can also note, again in 1^st Corinthians, how the use of one’s body brings glory or shame to the church of Jesus Christ. Particularly, we can think of the Lord’s supper, where the way the Corinthians have organized themselves is so offensive to God that God tells the Corinthians that it is not the Lord’s Supper they are eating. The way they use their bodies demonstrates their service of God.

Neither can the body be replaced by letters or other forms of distance communication. Most prominent in this is the example of Jesus Christ, who demonstrated himself through a love that could touch, that could become sick, that could be maimed. God did present himself to his people in the Old Testament at a distance, necessarily behind a veil and through mediaries. However, in his most significant act of love, God becomes flesh so that he can be physically present with his people. Christ has the fullness of the glory of God within him. If we are to imitate Christ’s love, our love should also be physical.

The Christian has the Spirit of Christ. He is a temple, like Christ. That is why corporate worship is so important; we come to see Christ in one another. The church has always taught, based on a chapter like Hebrews 12, that Christ is present in a unique way in the corporate worship of the church. Long-distance communication, whether letters or live streams, cannot take the place of this corporate worship. In the same way, private Bible Study cannot replace membership in the body. We need the body.

Of course, we must take circumstance and necessity into account. I cannot be present with my father and mother at this time, so I use other means. But in the community where God put me, where I am fully able and willing to go, I ought to be a part of the communion of saints. Sickness can take us away from the body, weather, coercion, and persecutions, and God gives us strength in these times. Nothing can keep us from his love, even if our bodies are somehow unable to make it to the communion of the saints. However, if possible, I ought to search out the body and join it regularly for my spiritual health. The arm does no good to the heart if it is not physically present.

I ought to make a caveat here that some regulation is helpful in a pandemic. There are regulations I would be happy to follow. There are excellent resources demonstrating a different and wiser path our government may have taken, which considers the flourishing of all parts of society and respects the historical rights of individuals and institutions. One example is the Great Barrington Declaration. But, since the government chose the road of tyranny (as best I understand it), we must figure out how to self-regulate according to the best sources we have on Covid, which isn’t always ideal. Yet even then, we still ought to prioritize the communion of the saints as much as possible.

Therefore, if I owe love to the brotherhood more than I owe submission to the government, and if I that love I owe ought to be embodied, then when governments undermine my love for the brotherhood through mandates, I still ought to fulfill what I owe to my brothers as much as possible. This love can be shown in visiting brothers when we are not allowed to visit. This love can be in showing equal kindness to vaccinated and unvaccinated. This love can be my presence in church for the joy of assembling before the Lord. Because of the importance of the love of the brotherhood, the possibility of fines, mockery, and jail time (all of which have proved relatively low risk if you choose to be non-confrontational and respectful), should be a small price to pay for reflecting Christ in our love toward one another.

In conclusion, the church should count her duties to one another as more important than her duties to the government. There is, however, a big “however” here. Paul notes the importance that as much as possible we ought to have peace with all men. Even where we must obey God before men, we are do so out of a desire for the good of our country, even out of love for our enemies. There is the critical question of prudence in these things. I hope that in our next blog post, we can deal with this question. We also not that we do not dismiss the government entirely even when it acts in a tyrannical fashion. Paul also notes that, properly speaking, the civil magistrate does have a vital role to play which we are called to recognize, submit to, and obey. We owe the civil magistrate for certain services, but that cannot take away from what we owe one another.

Respectability and the Ministry of Reconciliation

By James

On May 11, 2021

In Church, Witness

If you can faithfully keep the Ministry of Reconciliation without any conflict, you are a better missionary than Jesus. If you can obey God without losing respectability in our society, you are a better Christian than Christ. That’s ridiculous! Your Saviour and Lord said, “I send you out as sheep among wolves,” but “fear not, for I am with you even to the end of the age.”

At Least Weekly: Part 8 of 8

By James

On June 24, 2020

In Church, sacraments

A call to restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

The weight of Scripture is for a frequent communion. Yet, our hearts may still have some objections. I’d like to use this final article to address some of those objections and to give some recommendations on how to begin the path to greater obedience in our churches.

Counter-arguments

It is helpful, at least briefly, to deal with some counter-arguments here. There are at least two that are commonly given. The first argues that weekly communion will bring an improper focus on the sacrament so that we will slip into the error of the Roman Catholic Church. The second argues that if we use the sacrament too often, we will not value it.

We rightly see that the Roman Catholics give a false pre-eminence to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. In the 16^th century, the result of this was not weekly communion for the average member of a Catholic church. Many laymen in the church at that time only had the sacrament once a year. The high view the Catholic Church had of the sacrament was cause of takingcommunion away from the average Christian. The reformation restored the Lord’s Supper to the average Christian, although not in every reformation church and only in part for some. The Roman Catholic fear of the holiness of the Supper (ultimately a failure to understand justification), continued to play a role in the understanding of many Reformed people. This fear, in part, might explain why we still do not practice weekly communion today.

Yet the worry remains. If we make the Lord’s Supper a more significant part of our church life, we will create a false reliance on the earthly elements of the Supper for salvation, rather than the God who gives the Supper. That is possible. That is possible when the Lord’s Supper is done weekly, or monthly, or quarterly, or yearly. History demonstrates that our current system will just as likely result in people having a Roman-like attitude toward the Supper, viewing it as a supper only for the extra holy. We merely need to think of the Netherlands Reformed Church and their attitude toward the table. You will often hear that one must have a mystical experience of the certainty of faith before we approach the table. This possibility should not undermine our obedience to the call of God to practice the Supper frequently.

We should also note that Baptists will argue in the same way about the practice of infant baptism. If you practice infant baptism, people will look to the baptism rather than to Christ. This error happens in churches that practice infant baptism, but that doesn’t make the argument true. The answer is to teach people that the proper purpose of the sacraments.

A proper understanding of the Lord’s Supper depends on preaching that takes time to teach people about what the Lord’s Supper means. This preaching will always point the eyes of the people to the Lord Jesus Christ who gives of himself in the Supper. As we’ve tried to emphasize throughout this whole series: word and sacrament must work together. Both must show the Lord Jesus otherwise both will be ineffectual.

Our answer to the second objection is very similar. Might a higher frequency of communion correlate with less respect for the Supper? Possibly. Again, what matters is the teaching. If we follow Christ in all things, the Supper will be a spiritual benefit for the people of God. In my experience, and I admit that it is merely anecdotal, our current system does not necessarily result in a deep desire for communion. We have both those who desire the Supper and those who don’t understand what the big deal is. The only way to counteract that is good teaching.

The crucial thing in combatting apathy toward the Supper is to emphasize that this is Christ’s self-gift to us. Weekly communion may be one of the best ways to combat this apathy. To value this truth we must continually be reminded of it. Through the Spirit, we eat of Christ, so that we are transformed into his image. That is amazing! That boggles the mind! That should create in us a desire for a closer, deeper, and more frequent union and communion with Christ.

Both of these arguments are based on conjectures of how we might experience weekly communion. We ultimately don’t know. What we do know is that if we obey Christ, he will bless us. That means we can’t base our decision on the possibility of spiritual problems. Besides, apathy and superstition are things the church will always have to fight. The question is how best to fight those problems. If we are willing to hear the Word of God on this point, one weapon in that fight is frequent communion. We go forward with confidence in Christ; not in ourselves.

If you have followed the argument so far, you will see that in the Supper, there is the offer of Christ himself; our Lord. The Lord’s Supper was created to give us the assurance that God loves me. The word without the Lord’s Supper is like a marriage with no physical contact. Again I ask, why would we refrain from using that good gift frequently? God is not a miserly God. Why do we keep this demonstration of his grace limited to a quarterly or a monthly practice?

What to do

As far as I can see, there is no principled stance against weekly communion. There is only a pragmatic one. That is not how reformed ministers are supposed to argue for or against a practice in worship. I believe the arguments laid before us demand a serious response. We ought to have weekly communion embedded in our church order. If we call our churches to preach at least twice a Sunday, we ought to have communion at least once a Sunday. In this way, we will follow the good pattern, the good tradition, which God has laid out for us in the scriptures. I give the caveat that we would have to give years, perhaps decades, to work through that transition. God is patient.

Of course, if implemented, we will have many practical problems. We have a system that is built around quarterly communion (even so many of our churches practice monthly or bi-monthly communion). We would need a form that assumes weekly communion. Due to logistical problems, many of our churches that practice communion at the table would likely have to move to the pew (If we think of the feeding of the five thousand as a sort of proto-Lord’s Supper, this is not entirely without precedent). We recognize that this is a functional thing, not necessarily an ideal thing.

Perhaps the architecture of our churches would have to change so that they look more like banquet halls rather than lecture halls. Remember, things like pulpits and pews are not necessarily that old. The church has had had different ways of using space for gathering together. Of course, that looks far into the future. What is important is that we do it. Naturally, this will take different forms in different places.

I do not believe that this is something worth dividing the church over. Although it is clearly a defect, analogous to belief in credo-baptism, it does not depart from true worship to the same degree as something like credo-baptism or other defective forms of worship in our day. I do not intend to break with my brothers over this even though their stubbornness saddens me.

Yet I do have hope. Recently, I came upon Nehemiah 8: 17, when reading Scripture, “And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in booths, for from the days of Jeshua, the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing.” It seems that even though the feast of booths may have been celebrated, it was not done in the way God called Israel to practice that festival until the time of Nehemiah. One may wonder why David or Solomon or Hezekiah did not follow this institution of God, whether it was the stubbornness of the people or their lack in zealously following all the law of God.

But God was gracious. More than that; he went from grace to grace. In restoring his people after the exile, he also gave them a fuller experience of his blessings than they had enjoyed before.

At Least Weekly: Part 7 of 8

By James

On June 24, 2020

In Church, sacraments

A call to restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

We have come to our penultimate installment on the frequency of communion. Here, I argue that communion is deeply embedded in the call of the gospel. This argument demonstrates how this argument is not just about growing in union with Christ and one another; this is about correctly presenting the gospel to those who are outside the church. Weekly communion is missional in the best sense of that word.

An argument from the call of the gospel

We have already alluded to this in our argument from the week. But the fact of the matter is that God’s invitation to the sinner is not only an invitation to receive forgiveness of sins, but it is an invitation to a feast. You can already see this in the Exodus where Moses’ original request to Pharaoh is that Israel goes into the desert for a feast unto God. Likewise, Scripture pictures the holy land as a place of food and feasting.

Look at Jesus’ invitation in John 6, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger; and whoever believes in me shall not thirst.” This episode is after he was miraculously provided food to the five thousand. Again in John 4, He offers the Samaritan woman living water. Now Jesus is speaking of spiritual food and drink. However, the physical food and drink of the Lord’s Supper are what he gave as a reminder that we need to find our spiritual food in Christ.

In Matthew, we see this again. We have the call in Matthew 11, “Come to me you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” In Isaiah, where that quote comes from, the rest comes via food and water. We can think of Matthew 22, where the kingdom of heaven is compared to a wedding feast. Of course, there are many other examples of this comparison. This also nicely ties in with Revelation 19, where we see the wedding feast of the lamb. The Lord’s Supper is that wedding and is a promise of that wedding.

Commentators comment on the book of Luke, noting that Jesus always seems to be having a meal in the book of Luke. This is the table of the kingdom of God. Jesus says so in Luke 14. He is encouraging his disciples to invite all to the banquet of God, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. When one who is eating with Jesus hears this he says, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Jesus goes on to emphasize the high importance of coming to that banquet. God is inviting Israel to a new banquet in Christ.

We tend to isolate the table from Jesus’ ministry. But Jesus gives us a table that is at the center of his ministry. The Lord’s Supper only continues the festal reality that our Lord is with us. Jesus has come to announce the kingdom of God; he has come to announce rest. He comes eating and drinking for the bridegroom is here. Jesus asks the disciples of John who ask about the disciples lack of fasting, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” When we worship God, we have a promise that the bridegroom is here with us too. Why don’t we eat with him now? At least when we gather to hear him every week?

The Lord’s Supper is a gospel event. We taste and see that the Lord is good. The Lord is so good that he has given us a new beginning in Jesus Christ. Every week he continues to give us that new beginning.

The penultimate words of Scripture are an invitation to a feast. Verse 14, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life.” Verse 17, “Let the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come… let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” We say these words, but we do not show people these words through the sacrament God has ordained. The rest of the gospel is found in eating and drinking the spiritual food that Christ provides. As Christ says, “my food is to do the work of my Father.” God promises the word for that end, but particularly he has chosen the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to nourish us in our spiritual life. Why do we devalue the importance of that gift?

The way we focus on the Lord’s Supper in our churches suggests that it is meant to strengthen us in our bonds with each other internally. The Lord’s Supper is about our unity with one another. This is true. However, the way Christ and the New Testament give the call of the gospel should make us question the assumption that this is only about the internal life of the church.

The Lord’s Supper is an invitation for the nations to join in and receive healing from the Tree of Life. It is a reminder to the congregation that they have received the goodness of God. Further, in their transformation into the image of Christ, they also become rivers of living water. Our failure to regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper undermines our message to the nations about the goodness of our God.

At Least Weekly: Part 6 of 8

By James

On June 24, 2020

In Church, sacraments

A call to restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

We now add a sixth argument to our series. God has established enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. We participate in a spiritual, holy war. God prepares us a table to strengthen us in waging that war.

An argument from holy war

David says, “you have prepared me a table before my enemies.” I have argued that in the Lord’s Supper, we experience the rest of the Lord Jesus. Yet, according to Hebrews 4, “a rest remains for the people of God. We are a people in the midst of a war for the universe. This war is a cosmic war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

We need the spiritual sustenance our Lord Jesus gives because we are going out to war. We are fighting against our three enemies, sin, the world, and the Devil. As participants in the mission of God, we go out seeking to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. We need the assurance of the holy armor of God as we go out to this war. In the Lord’s Table, the Lord promises his peace and his rest as we walk in the valley of the shadow of death.

When David wrote, “you have prepared for me a table before my enemies,” he may well have been thinking back to the beginnings of the conquest of Canaan. The people of God enter the land. They have not obeyed God’s command to circumcise themselves while in the desert and so they get to work circumcising the people so that they may roll away their reproach before God. This cleansing is followed by a celebration of the Passover. They ate this Passover not far from Jericho. God set them a table in front of their enemies.

Christ has conquered the Devil, the flesh, and the world on the cross. The people of God work out the salvation that Christ accomplished. The people of God are involved in the mopping-up operation. We eat of Christ himself because we have been brought into the rest of the New Creation. We also eat because we need strength as we continue to assault the gates of hell. In the Lord’s Supper, we see the promise that Christ has already won. We also find strength in continuing to apply that finished work to the mission of God

Maybe you think that faithful churches today are insular. I tend to think so. Why does cultural engagement so often lead to cultural appropriation of the wicked works of this world? Why is the church enervated by secularism? The lack of communion is not the only reason for this. But it certainly provides a part of the explanation. We can say that the Catholic Church has the same problems, but we should recognize that the Catholic Church has so twisted communion through their theology and only until recently, through their practice, that it is no longer recognizable as true communion. The church fails to use the tools God has given her for cultural engagement.

Let us take in Christ so that we may have the courage to take up his armor. The Lord promised a helper to us, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit promises to use communion to strengthen us for the war. We all have demons to fight, our sin, bad situations in our lives, the mockery of colleagues, and the temptations to compromise and join forces with the children of evil. Why do we fail to grasp for that inner strength the Lord promises as we go out to the valley of the shadow of death?

The reformers emphasized that this meal is for assurance. How can we prepare a people to wage war against the works of the Devil if we do not give them this assurance?

At Least Weekly: Part 5 of 8

By James

On June 24, 2020

In Church, sacraments

A call to restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

We have now looked at how the Scripture provides a precedent for weekly communion, we have seen the way in which the theology that underlies the Supper supports a frequent use, we have seen how a theology of presence is foundational to frequent communion, and we have seen how the pattern of word and sign or word and sacrament, provides a model for our weekly worship as well. Now we turn to an argument from the week.

An argument from the week

On the 7^th day, God rested from the work he had done. God has day by day, taken delight in his work. “He saw what he had made, and he declared it good.” We can extrapolate from what has come before that God continues to delight in his work on the 7^th day. He is no longer evaluating his creation though. Rather, he is enjoying the work that he has done.

God’s pattern is our pattern. We work, and then we enjoy the fruit of our labours. As Christ says, God did not make man for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. On the Sabbath, Israel finished all her work and was able to enjoy the fruit of her labours with her Father and Creator. That rest was an opportunity for festival and communion with her Creator. And what is communion with our Creator other than the worship of God?

But now Christ has fulfilled the Sabbath and has been raised on the first day of the week. He does so as the New Creation, in whom we are also a New Creation. As a new creation, he is a source of sustenance to our spiritual bodies, just as the old creation is a source of sustenance to our physical bodies. Baptism marks our entrance into that rest of this New Creation. The Lord’s Supper confirms to our hearts our continual participation in that rest.

The Lord’s Supper allows us to eat of the fruit of Christ’s labors and so have the freedom to exercise our good works in the week ahead. Again that rest is found in communion with God. That communion is worship. That is why we worship on the day of rest. From the beginning, the church has joined together on the first day of the week to enjoy the fruit of Christ’s labors.

The week is re-worked through the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is a dividing line of history. Christ accomplished what Adam could not. Adam sinned so that man is no longer able to produce truly good things. He could not produce the good fruit God called him to produce. Everything is affected by sin. Christ did the six days of work that Adam was unable to do and so brought about a new pattern.

We begin by enjoying the fruit of Christ’s labors, rather than end the week by taking delight in our labours. That doesn’t mean that the labours of Israel didn’t come from grace in the Old Testament. All our work is a gift from God. That labour, however, was never able to fulfill the law. Christ fulfilled the law and brought in a new era, which came with a new week. A week where we begin in the work of Christ.

We participate in Christ; we enjoy the fruit of Christ’s labors so that we begin the week in the rest of Christ. In this way, the Lord’s Supper is about the pattern of work and rest that God has worked into the world. In the new covenant, we begin the week with the knowledge that we have been given rest through Christ’s work, so that we, as the Heidelberg Catechism says in Lord’s Day 38, may rest from our evil works. When we celebrate infrequently, we lose something of that constant reminder.

The Lord’s Supper communicates the work of Christ to us. Christ is the seed that dies. We take in that seed. Through that participation, we produce good works. We can’t do good works apart from Christ. The law couldn’t save it could only condemn. But because we begin the week in Christ, we can do good works. Again, we see the importance of the Lord’s Supper in the process of sanctification.

Perhaps our modern world doesn’t understand rest, because the church has not adequately understood the rest that God gives in communion. Rest isn’t merely ceasing to work. Rest is the festival, as exemplified in the Lord’s Supper, it is coming together in communion with God. And on Sunday, we come together and enjoy the fruits of Christ’s labors. Ultimately that is the gospel. If we had weekly communion, we might appreciate the fullness of that gospel.

At Least Weekly: Part 4 of 8

By James

On June 24, 2020

In Church, sacraments

A call to restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

We continue our series on the question of frequency of communion. We have seen how the New Testament laid down a pattern of weekly communion. In our last article, we saw how frequent communion fits with the theological meaning of communion. This week I lay out an argument from order. Basically, I desire to show how the Preaching of the Word and the Lord’s Supper work together as two means that God uses to regenerate his people. The basic structure of those two means is, first, preaching, and second, confirmation of God’s word in the Lord’s Supper.

An argument from order

We emphasize the importance of the word in our tradition. We are right to do so. The practice of the Lord’s Supper without the word is worse than useless. It is a horrible misuse of God’s gift. The Lord’s Supper is treated as a magical pill for spiritual life, rather than lifting the heart of the recipient beyond the symbols of bread and wine to the true source of sustenance at the right hand of God.

How do you get the word inside of you? Through taking in the bread and the wine. The word and sacrament belong together. Weekly preaching without the Supper should seem as inconceivable to us as a weekly celebration of the Supper with monthly preaching.

Although not as bad, the reverse is also deeply defective. Throughout the scriptures, the Lord often confirms his great works to his people with signs. God demonstrated his love for Noah with a rainbow. God established the Passover upon the exodus of Israel. Following his ten words on Mt. Sinai, God gave his people the entire temple system to train them in his word. Sacrifice too, was a type of sacrament a sacrament, which happened in the temple daily. Sacrifice was a sign to the people of God, of God’s favor. It is not surprising to find the same pattern of word and sign in the New Testament. The scriptural pattern is the declaration of God’s covenant, followed by confirmation with signs. God calls us to repentance. God teaches. And God confirms that teaching through a sign. There is a wholeness in confirming the word with the sign.

We are creatures with bodies. God speaks to us and assures us of the truth of his word to us through the rituals of baptism and communion. Baptism is once, just as Christ’s death covers sin once and for all. We only need one sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Communion is the continual feeding upon the spiritual sustenance of Christ. Just as we need daily bread to live, so we need spiritual food and drink for our spiritual life. Because our hearts so easily stray, we need the confirmation of that spiritual reality often.

The bread in the Lord’s Supper is significant. We are many grains crushed and beaten and then baked into the one loaf of Jesus Christ. We can gather this from a passage like 1 Corinthians 10:14-16. The sword of the word is the instrument God uses to make this harvest, and the Lord’s Supper confirms our unity with Christ and with one another.

The wine confirms that our sins are forgiven. This is the cup of the new covenant, wherein God declares his favor through Jesus Christ’s work. The cup connects to the cup of judgment. Since kings judge, it is a kingly cup. In the wine, God declares that we are righteous, and by letting us drink the wine, he declares that we participate in his rule. This is why Paul can say that “saints will judge angels.”

We can also think of the words from Revelation 20: 4; God gives his saints judgment. The word is purposefully ambiguous in the Greek, suggesting that in receiving the judgment of favor from God, they also receive the right to judge with Christ. Even if you disagree with the particular interpretation of that verse, we can see in Scripture that the saints are judged favorably and being judged favorably they will judge with Christ (2 Timothy 2: 11-13). The wine is a foretaste of that reality. It confirms the promise of forgiveness of sins that we have heard. Further, we may now use that word to call the world to hear Christ’s judgment.

Hebrews 4 provides another supporting image. The word pierces, and the word divides. We might think of the high priest killing and dividing the sacrificial animal. Here we are the sacrifice, the living sacrifice that is being offered through the word to God. This is followed by the feast in which we are restored to the communion Adam had with God. However, we do that today in a fuller sense: for the Spirit of God is transforming us into the image of new Adam. The Spirit is making us into emblems of Jesus Christ to the world around us. We see in these word pictures that Scripture declares a deep connection between the word and the Lord’s Supper.

They are separate means of grace. The western church has always had a liturgy of the Word and a Liturgy of the sacrament. The preaching does not do what communion does. Communion does not do what preaching does, even though their purposes overlap. They do not provide exactly the same thing; that is why we need both. God gives both to strengthen us in Christ. What the one declares, the other confirms.

We might make one more analogy; that of the head and the heart. The word speaks to the head, specifically to the ears. We are to hear the word and comprehend it through our minds. But it can’t just go in one ear and out the other. Through our minds, it reaches our hearts. The sacrament confirms the Holy Word to our hearts. The Lord’s Supper helps me to understand how the factual and historical death and resurrection of Christ are working themselves out in the spiritual death and resurrection, the regeneration that is going on in my heart right now.

Why does it work this way? It is because the sacrament works upon my body. God knows that I am a being with a body. That is why he gives sacraments and why the sacraments are so appropriate and so needed. We can think of Article 33 of the Belgic Confession: God gives sacrament for the sake of my insensitivity and weakness. I need the sacraments because I am a created being. So the center of my being, the heart, is strengthened in assurance toward God.

For some reason, in the west, we have a lot of talk about the head and the heart the pits the two against one another. But if we confirm the words directed to the head within the heart through the Lord’s Supper, we break through that false dichotomy.

Let us not separate what God has brought together.

At Least Weekly: Part 3 of 8

By James

On June 24, 2020

In Church, sacraments

A call to restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship

Part 1, Part 2

God has given us the essential elements of worship. God has demonstrated a pattern for our worship. Through the scriptures, he allows us to dig deep into the meaning of those elements. The goal of worship is to enjoy the presence of God. The presence of God also gives us a foundation for regularly celebrating the Supper of our Lord with him.

An argument from presence.

Who speaks in our worship? Ultimately it’s not the minister; ultimately, it’s not the congregation; it is our Lord Jesus who is speaking through his word. Here is one of the main differences between a historical and biblical understanding of worship and many modern understandings of worship. Worship is God coming to his people and speaking to them. It is a conversation between God, through the minister and the congregation.

When God is present among his people, he serves them a meal. We see this clearly in the Old Testament sacrificial system. God is present in a powerful way in the temple. The people of God bring many offerings to the Lord. For many of the offerings, the Lord gives a portion back to his people. We find another wonderful example of this in Exodus 24, where the seventy elders of Israel join Moses on the mountain to eat and drink with God.

God is Israel’s king, and kings give out good gifts to their subjects. We can think of Melchizedek bringing out bread and wine to serve to Abraham after Abraham has defeated Cherdolaomer of the Chaldeans. Melchizedek is greater than Abraham (demonstrated by the tithe Abraham gives to Melchizedek according to the book of Hebrews), so he is also the one who offers Abraham a feast in the book of Genesis (Genesis 14). Another example of this is the feasts that we find in the book of Esther. The great King Ahasuerus welcomes the peoples of the Empire of Persia to a banquet where there is plenty of meat, bread, and wine for all. He demonstrates the goodness of the peace that he brings in this way.

God, the great king of Israel, does the same for Israel. This truth comes out beautifully in the book of Deuteronomy, especially chapters 14 through 16. There the people of God are commanded to bring the tithe to God and are warned not to come before God empty-handed. What are they to do with those gifts? They are to feast before the Lord (Deuteronomy 14: 22-29). When they are in the presence of God, he hands out gifts.

Jesus ascends on high and is also a gift-giver. In Acts 2, we see the signs that the Spirit is with the church in a new way. God will no longer give his special presence to his people in the temple. Through Christ’s work and the Holy Spirit, He promises to be present in a unique way in and among the men and women of the congregation. Just as the Spirit dwelt in Christ so he lives in us. That means when the congregation gathers together, the Lord is there breaking the bread.

In his last days on earth, Jesus demonstrated this. Almost every time he meets with his disciples after his resurrection, it is connected with a meal. Literally speaking it is a supper served by our Lord, although I wouldn’t argue that it is necessarily the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Even before his death and resurrection, we see a Lord who is always eating. The Evangelists tell us in the gospels that the Jews accused our Lord of gluttony and overindulging in wine. The number of meals found in the gospel bear witness to the fact that our Lord comes as a bridegroom offering a festival.

The point of the Lord’s Supper is spiritual nourishment. The Spirit uses bread and wine to lift our hearts to heaven. The Lord is there. The king, who has ascended, wants to pour out his gifts. Why are we so miserly in giving out those gifts?

Do we believe that the Lord is there leading us in worship? Then we will enjoy the Supper he offers us.

At Least Weekly: Part 2 of 8

By James

On June 24, 2020

In Church, sacraments

A call to restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship

Part 1

Here I continue to present my argument that our churches should adopt the practice of participating in communion at least weekly. I have given a case from precedent or the pattern that God has laid down in Scripture. Here I present an argument from the meaning of the Lord’s Supper.

An argument from meaning

The Lord’s Supper pictures Christ’s gift of himself to us for the sake of our life in him. It’s helpful here to see the connection between the two sacraments, one applied externally (I speak physically here) and the other applied internally. In Baptism, Christ washes us, declaring us clean before God. The sign is applied externally because it demonstrates the promise of Christ’s covering. It is the declaration of the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is an initiatory rite. It marks the beginning of our relationship with God. The Lord’s Supper keeps the bonds of that union tight. Through the Lord’s Supper, God continues to confirm our faith in our hearts through the promise of union with Christ.

The Lord’s Supper pictures a taking in of Christ. An image that, through the Spirit, becomes a reality. In the Lord’s Supper, we internalize the promises of Christ. It declares to us that Christ is our only spiritual sustenance. In the words of Belgic Confession Art. 35, we receive nothing less than Christ himself in the Lord’s Supper, “who nourishes, and sustains the spiritual life of the believers, when he is eaten by them, that is, spiritually appropriated and received by faith.” All our salvation is from Christ. We cannot justify ourselves, and we cannot sanctify ourselves. The Lord’s Supper reminds us that everything we have comes from God’s grace. We receive grace through the constant application of the Spirit in crucifying the old man and bringing the new man to life. God declares to us that he is transforming us into the image of Christ.

This work of transformation happens over the entire life of the Christians. We are not presumptive about this work of salvation, but seek to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We need that constant reminder that this is not of our strength, but it is the Spirit who is working in us so that we have the strength, the energy, and the freedom to work this out. It is the Spirit who works in us to work and to will. The Christian life is a working out of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Weekly communion is a constant reminder that of the central truths of the gospel. It is not I who live, but Christ, who lives in me. I must put my flesh to death on the cross of Christ. I must find life in Jesus. Of course, we hear that in the word, but we also need that confirmed to our hearts every week. The breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine are integral to the life of the church because they so clearly demonstrate our union with Christ and his righteousness. Through faith, The Lord’s Supper is effectual in bringing that union about. We want to be fat with the gospel of Jesus, not always on a diet.

The whole point is assurance. I learn through the word. God assures me of the truth of that word through the sacrament. All Christians struggle with the assurance of their new reality in Christ. God gives us the gift of the Lord’s Supper to strengthen that assurance. Use it! I now taste and see that the Lord is good.

The question remains how do we avoid the mistake of the Roman church and turn our focus on the earthly elements rather than heavenly sustenance? The gospel that we have a living king in the flesh at the right hand of God must continue to come out clearly in all our teaching. We must also emphasize that that king is accomplishing our transformation through the Spirit, who comes from his side. If we continue to set our participation in the Supper in the context of a risen Christ and a mighty Spirit, we will avoid looking to the earthly elements in the Supper for sustenance. Regardless of our practice, that realization is what we need for a healthy church. It is our union with the once dead and risen Christ that is fundamental to living out our salvation.

I sometimes wonder if the reason our churches struggle working through the connection between justification and sanctification is found in that we do not live out those doctrines in weekly communion. We know that sanctification flows from justification in our minds, but do we have a “from the gut” understanding of this truth. The connection, of course, flows from our union with Christ. The Lord’s Supper is all about union with Christ. In Christ, we no longer belong to this world, but we are citizens of heaven.

What greater way to live that out, than to physically live out that union with Christ? That is what the Lord’s Supper is. We boldly come before the throne of grace, clean in Christ, and there we find what we need to live in Christ. Christ is the seed that is taken into ourselves so that good works flow from our hearts as naturally as from a spring. Both our status as Christians who may eat with Jesus and our need to receive spiritual sustenance are deeply entwined together in this holy meal.

We can flesh this out with the doctrine of Christ’s three-fold office. As a priest, I eat with Christ, and so I demonstrate that I share in his death and resurrection. Therefore, I declare in the Lord’s Supper my willingness to offer myself as a living sacrifice to him. I am a priest offering myself to God in gratitude for what Christ has done. We also see our kingly office. We declare the righteousness of God that is found on the cross and offer the reconciliation of God to all men through the body of Christ. God is righting the wrongs of history at this table.

Finally, we see our prophetic office. We follow Christ in declaring the coming of the kingdom of God. We declare the forgiveness of sins, equally and freely offered to all. So we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Here is the table! Come and see that the Lord is good!

We might object: weekly communion isn’t necessary for a positive Christian life. Neither are churches who practice weekly communion shining examples of God’s goodness. Of course not. On the one hand, churches without weekly communion have lived out the gospel. On the other hand, churches with weekly communion have not. In these, communion was used for its own sake and was not used to point the congregation to Christ.

Weekly communion does not magically make us better Christians, but then again, neither does the practice of having two services every Sunday. The point is that weekly communion will strengthen those churches who do have the gospel. In the same way, churches are more greatly edified by having both a morning and an afternoon service.

We can also bring up the example of those churches that lack infant baptism. Many Baptist churches do have the gospel, but if we believe that the practice of infant baptism is good, we must also say that they weaken themselves through withholding the gift of infant baptism to their children. Even though a given church that baptizes their infants may be weaker than a given church, that does not make the practice itself unhealthy. Like the Baptist, who chooses not to baptize their infant, we choose spiritual weakness by offering Christ’s self-gift in communion so infrequently.