God’s Table

I found the following advice from our Baptist forefather, Benjamin Keach, to be stirring and helpful when considering the practice of taking communion. Here is what Keach says to his fellow Christians about the Lord’s table.

Question: What is required of persons who come to partake of this holy ordinance?

Answer: They ought to examine themselves. It requires due preparation, which doth consist in these four or five particulars.

1) A sincere confession of those sins, which we find out upon diligent search and examination.

2) Godly sorrow for the same, manifested by putting away the filth of the flesh. We must come with clean hands, and a pure heart.

3) We ought to forgive those who have offended us. Christ commands us to be reconciled to our brother. The apostle exhorteth us to lay aside all malice. We must not '“Keep the feast with the leavened bread of malice and wickedness.” (I Corinthians 5:8)

4) Faith in the death and blood-shedding of Jesus Christ.

5) We ought to do it in remembrance of his death.

(i) With an affectionate remembrance. The sight of our eyes ought to affect our hearts.

(ii) A sorrowful rememberance, in contemplation of what our sins brought upon our dear Saviour: they were the thorns, as I may say, that crowned him, and the nails that fastened him to the cross.

(iii) With a sin-loathing and self-abhorring remembrance.

(iv) With a thankful remembrance. Though we have cause of sorrow, considering the nature of our sin, and the horrid evil thereof; yet there is great cause of joy and thanksgiving, to behold a Saviour, who in bowels of love died to redeem and save us from them.

Keach commends an examination of one’s heart and also a thankfulness to Christ as an atoning work for sin. Perfect people may not come to the table of the Lord. But those who trust in a perfect Savior are welcome to dine with Christ and Christ’s people at the table of the Lord.

Keach goes on to answer the question as regards the Lord’s table and assurance of salvation. He writes:

Quest: How may a Christian, with much comfort, upon examination, receive the Lord’s Supper?

Answ: 1) If there be no sin in thy heart or life, which thou regardest, or dost allow thyself in, bearest with, or connivest at [secretly allow].

2) If thou dost loathe sine, as well as leave it; when it is not only out thy conversation, but out of thy affection also. To hate and loathe sin, is more than to leave it; persons never willingly leave or forsake what they love.

3) If thou canst say in truth, that thou wouldest be made holy, and dost labour after it, as well as to be made happy; to be thoroughly sanctified, as well as to be saved; live to God here, as well as live with God hereafter; to have sin mortified as well as pardoned.

4) If Christ be most precious to thee, and hath the choicest room in thy heart. If upon trial thou findest these things are in very deed wrought in thee, thou mayest with much comfort come to the sacrament.

What a horror our sin is. What a blessing the Table of Christ is. As we often sing on Sunday mornings, “Once your enemy
Now seated at Your table,
Jesus thank you!”

The supper sanctifies. It assures sinners that their sins are forgiven and secures for sinners the hope of their own sanctification and glory. Each time you come to the table, you are proclaiming what kind of person Jesus saves, sanctifies, and glorifies. He saves lowly sinners like you and I.

Heaven is high, but in the ordinance of Christ’s supper, we attain a taste of that which has been secured for us by the sacrifice of the Savior Jesus.

It is only in the perfect Savior that a perfect sacrifice for sins is made. Let us partake of the benefits of salvation each time we come to the Savior’s table in repentance and faith, to the glory of God.

I pray you are encouraged to come to the table of the Lord. He bids you come and feast.

Isaiah 55:1–2 (ESV)

55 “Come, everyone who thirsts, 
come to the waters; 
and he who has no money, 
come, buy and eat! 
Come, buy wine and milk 
without money and without price. 
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, 
and your labor for that which does not satisfy? 
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, 
and delight yourselves in rich food.