You don’t taste the sweet wine of the Gospel’s salvation without having tasted the bitter cup of the Law’s condemnation. “Be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy” echoes in our ears, even as we see the dingy gray of our own pathetic efforts at holiness, and the soiled garments of our sin. As one poet put it, “When legal fears shook me, I trembled to die; No refuge, no safety in self could I see.”

By God’s good design, this table confronts you with the severity of sin and the sweetness of the Gospel. Like the Israelites of old, standing upon the twin mountains of blessings and curses, we stand here to say “amen” to the covenant terms which God has kindly made with us. 

Upon this table is hard law. “Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant (Jer. 11:3).” You see here that sin deserves death. The paycheck that comes along with toiling in the fields of sin is death. Signified upon this table is the torn body of Jesus, and the blood he spilt upon Golgotha’s tree. He died, and did so joyfully, because we all had sinned, and had done so with a twisted gladness. 

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