WHAT IS OF CHRIST HERE
[p. 131] WHAT IS OF CHRIST HERE
“I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” Here we have a solemn and blessed thing. Communion with the blood of Christ - communion with the body of Christ. The cup is put first here because it is His death, and of that I am to be the exhibition and manifestation here on earth. That is the first characteristic of the table of the Lord. The cup of blessing is communion with His blood. It connects us directly with His death and puts us in the place where we ought to be here on earth, that is, on the Canaan side of Jordan. It is, as it were, the stones taken out of the midst of Jordan, where the priests’ feet stood firm, and set up in the land. No one can take the place of death who does not know the place of life.
The cup which we bless is not merely that we have the blessing, but we bless. We must have had the blessing, but it is not that which occupies us; we bless. We have ‘communion’ with His blood; that is not thinking that the blood has washed away my sins, but it places me in the position towards the earth in which He is, even that of death. Christ having died, I am out of this scene in spirit with Him, but I am to be the continuation of that blessed One on earth in the power of His life, but announcing Him thus in death till He comes! The Lord calls His disciples around Him and says, I am breaking every link for you here. He need never have broken one. He was on earth perfectly pleasing to the Father, every link He formed was perfect; but He says, I break them all for you. Thus with Christ above in spirit I must when I come [p. 132] down to earth be nothing but Christ here. I must represent Him, and this is the wondrous place the Lord’s table presents. It is the communion of His blood (His death) and of His body.
Baptism is the declaration of the end of man in the death of Christ, that death was the execution of man in the flesh, and this is what I am called to do morally. The Lord says, I gave My body for you, and I call you into communion with Me that you may take this place on earth, where My death has placed you, as I left this scene, not as I was in it. To announce His death until He comes is to see every link broken by His death and ourselves outside the scene with Him.
The Corinthians were maintaining the links. Can I partake of His body and keep up that for which He died? I cannot. I thereby avow that I myself have been put out of the way, and in presence of that avowal can I leave the table to maintain and continue the existence of that which has been put out of the way? The more deeply the soul has entered into the fact of the Lord’s body given for you, the more it must see the character of the presentation to be assumed down here by us. If He gave up all to carry me outside this scene, what can I be but a presentation of Him as He left it, to announce His death until He comes? The moment I take this ground I cannot return to the other. It is not merely that it would be wrong, it would be impossible. I cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of devils.
How touchingly the Spirit of God shows in this whole chapter what the saints ought to be here on earth! It is as though He said, Get rid of yourself altogether, remembering Him who gave Himself and desires you to be partakers with Him in the act, and thus calls you into association with Himself outside everything which He has broken with. Thus there is superlative blessing in the Lord’s table, even to the ignorant. It is a deeper thing to be in communion [p. 133] with His blood, His death, than with His joys. Could I know a friend in bright circumstances and not walk with him in dark ones? It is because I have fellowship with Christ up there in His joys that I seek and have fellowship with Him in His death down here.
The Lord lead our souls to see what a bright path He has marked out for us - all that hinders or tries us is in ourselves. If we were rid of self practically we could be as happy as the day is long!