This is a family table. All of God’s children are welcome here.
If you are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ as he is offered to all in the gospel; you are welcome to this table.
If you do not know the Lord, if you have not placed your faith in him alone for forgiveness; do not come to this table.
We are the adopted children of God.
Here we are reminded that all that belongs to the real, natural son, belongs to them as well.
We are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, through faith.
Many parents have adopted children into their family. They often make that happen with great sacrifice, and it is pursued out of great love. With every added child, the love of the whole family increases.
When they become part of the family, officially full sons and daughters, they often struggle to accept the fact that they are full members of the family; that they are included, loved, and will continue to be loved no matter what the future brings – just like the natural children.
They seem to emphasis the ‘adopted’ part of adopted children. They fell like second class children, not full accepted, not equally loved. Nothing pains the parents more than this struggle of their adopted children.
So, they continue to love them, accept them; speaking love to them, giving them tokens and reminders of their continuing love and acceptance.
In part, that is what God is doing in the Lord’s Supper. He is reminding us that we are His children, with full rights and privileges as sons and daughters, yes, but also as fully loved and accepted as the natural son.
Romans 7:17 “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
“Provided we suffer with him.”
To be part of the family is to embrace the joys and the sorrow. It is to live life together; even the tears and the suffering.
Perhaps nothing proves that you are part of a family than the fact that you feel what they feel, and suffer what they suffer.
So it is in the family of God. We are family. We bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ‘s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
But notice also the end of Romans 7:17; “in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
We will be glorified with Christ. The best is yet to come. We will enter into his glory.
Matthew 25:34, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”