The Lord’s Supper changes you. In one sense, you won’t leave here the same person who walked in. This is true for both the elect who faithfully partake, and the reprobate who partake of this meal in high-handed hypocrisy. For the latter, as they partake once more in unbelief, the shell grows harder, the stony heart increases in numbness, they become more like who they are becoming. They crucify afresh the Lord of glory, and have added to their offenses another instance of their rebellious hatred for Christ’s gift of grace.
However, for those who partake by true, evangelical faith, you too depart changed. You too, become more like who you are becoming. For the redeemed, by partaking of Christ, you are also assured that you are becoming more like Christ.
We know we should we look at this bread and wine and see Christ in these rustic elements. However, we must also see by faith what Christ is accomplishing in us individually and corporately. Your battle with sin, your fears of the future, your trials which beset you all are overcome by Christ. So, since you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, you have abundant grace for it all.
This change isn’t all at once. We don’t do an altar call, turn down the lights, rev up the music in the hopes of sending a tingle down your spine so that you have the emotional perception that you’ve changed. Rather, we partake of ordinary elements of bread & wine, with Christ’s blessing upon them, and so in faith we know that we are changed from glory to glory by looking on the face of Christ. By the Spirit’s power, the effectual blessing of Christ is in this meal. That blessing cannot help but make you, bit by bit, more like Christ.
So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…
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