Grace and Truth
Bible Ministries

Celebration of the Lord's Table; True Love has a Theocentric view of life

In our current study we have been discussing the doctrine of reciprocal love.

When we celebrate the ritual of the Lord's table that is part of the mystery doctrine of the church that was inaugurated by TLJC as the only ritual of Church Age as part of the new covenant to the Church the evening before his crucifixion we are expressing our reciprocal love for Him. Luke 22:19,

By suffering the death of the cross he was obedient to the Father's plan Phil 2:8; that resulted in his humanity being exalted above every created being, such that, every created being will ultimately bow down to him. Phil 2:9-10;

He completely and perfectly fulfilled the directive will of the Father by unilaterally providing a way of salvation for all men. Rom 5:8; as the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world" Rev 13:8; KJV John 1:29;

While we were enemies of God, God demonstrated his love for us by giving his uniquely born Son "monogenes" John 3:16

As a result, God is free to reconcile mankind from their fallen state of depravity without compromising his perfect righteousness and justice because TLJC willingly laid down his life for us as our substitute. John 15:13; 1John 3:16

This is why believing in TLJC is the only way to a relationship with God John 14:6, salvation Acts 4:12 and eternal life John 3:16;

Anyone can appropriate this Grace gift of salvation which is secured by the Power of God John 10:26-29; simply by believing in TLJC 1Cor 15:3-4 in the same way that Paul and Silas instructed the Philippian Jailer who asked "what Must I do to be saved?"

Their response recorded In Acts 16:31

Anyone, any time, anywhere can become saved in a moment in time simply by believing in TLJC privately in their thoughts only.

TLJC left his friends, the members of The Royal Family of God, this one and only ritual in the church age The Lord's table which we are mandated to observe in remembrance of Him.

The mandate is found in 1Cor 11:24; in the second person plural present active imperative of the Greek word " poieo" that where Paul references TLJC's own instruction found in Luke 22:19-20;

An expanded translation of 1Cor 11:24 taking into consideration the tense mood and voice of "poieo" would be " Keep on doing this in remembrance of me"

As a result of this mandate, the Lord's Table is one and only ritual of the Church Age and it is a test of our capacity to concentrate on our Lord Jesus Christ through the Bible Doctrine that is resident in our soul as we partake of the elements that represent his work on our behalf.

We have these instructions for partaking of the Lord's table from the Apostle Paul starting in verse 26 of 1Cor 11.

1Cor 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

We understand from this that we are to evaluate ourselves in the light of the word, privately in our thinking, in the privacy of our priesthood, and when we find we are outside of the word, we apply the first problem solving device, and simply acknowledge the sin as described in 1 John 1:9;

If we acknowledge our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Having examined ourselves, and taken appropriate action, We are then instructed to partake of the elements, the bread and the cup.

The bread which represents his body in which he bore the sins and the judgment for our sins and the sins of the whole world, past present and future.

1Cor 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
1Cor 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.

eat the bread

The cup which represents his substitutionary spiritual death on the cross which purchased the freedom from spiritual death and eternal condemnation of everyone who believes in him.

1Cor 11:25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper saying This cup is the new covenant in my Blood do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.

drink cup


We have seen that the basis for virtue love is God's love. This makes our love a response to his love. This is called reciprocal love.

Reciprocal love expresses the mutual love relationship between God and the Church Age believer the ministry of God the Holy Spirit whereby the believer responds to the perfect love of God.

We saw that the principle of reciprocal love is expressed in the subjective, objective or plenary genitive that is expressed by the Greek phrase "he agape tou theou".

Continuing where we left off when we were looking at some verses that describe this.

Rom 5:8; "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us." The power behind everything is the love of God.

2Thes 3:5; "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the staying power (perseverance and endurance) of Christ."

In eternity past, all three members of the Trinity had perfect, eternal love for each other. They co-existed in perfect harmony and love for each other. The love of each member of the Trinity for each other provided a fantastic relationship and a happiness that is beyond description.

Because God is omniscient, God loved all believers in eternity past. He knew everyone of us as Church Age believers and the spiritual life that would be given to us because of the work of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union during his first advent.

This means that God loved us in eternity past no matter how badly we would fail in time.

The omniscience of God is without boundary or limitation, therefore, God cannot be complicated by ignorance or absurdities, emotion or irrationality.

In eternity past, God existed in three persons with identical essence. Self-existence is the first principle of infinity. Eternal, divine existence is the meaning of infinity, and that is where the personality of God starts.

God is governed by His own integrity. Therefore, each person of the Trinity functions from righteousness, justice, and love. God must always act in accordance with His own righteousness, justice, and love, because He never acts outside of His perfect integrity.

If the integrity of God demands punishment for sin, and it does, God is not free to disregard or omit punishment. God cannot forgive sin apart from the satisfaction or propitiation of His righteous claims and remain perfectly righteous.

Righteousness and justice demands satisfaction, but loves solves the problem.

To forgive without satisfaction or propitiation would be to fail in the proper function of His divine integrity. God's integrity cannot be satisfied unless all sins are judged.

God's love found a way to solve the problem of our sin that was acceptable to His righteousness and justice. Love found the solution, holiness signed off on it. God's love can never be separated from His perfect righteousness and justice.

Atonement is the judgment of every sin in history. There is no such thing as reciprocal love with God where sin remains. There is no way we can ever have blessing from God apart from the satisfactory resolution to the problem of sin.

Jesus Christ made the decision in eternity past to resolve this problem by becoming the atonement for all the sins ever committed in the history of the human race.

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 10/3/2010