The Manner in Which Believers Exercise Communion with Christ

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Pilgrim72

Puritan Board Junior
This excerpt from Wilhelmus à Brakel's The Christian’s Reasonable Service really blessed me, so I thought I'd share it with you.

The Manner in Which Believers Exercise Communion with Christ

This communion is exercised in the following manner:

(1) In beholding the Lord Jesus in His beauty, desirability, and fullness. There will be thoughtful reflection about the Counsel of Peace, in which the Son of God out of love for His elect willingly offered Himself as their Surety. From there one descends to meditate upon His assumption of the human nature, the full scope of His bitter suffering, and then His cursed death. From there one proceeds to His resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God. In all of these one beholds His love, His willingness, the efficacy of the atonement, and all His fullness unto the salvation of the sinner. Here the soul pauses with longing eyes desiring a further, clearer, and closer view of His perfections. She desires to find delight in such contemplation, to be ignited with love, to joyfully acknowledge and approve of Him as such, and to praise and to magnify Him. In this manner a believer beholds Jesus. Such beholding of Him stirs Jesus up to express His love towards the believer. “Thou hast ravished my heart, My sister, My spouse; thou hast ravished My heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck” (Song 4:9).

(2) When the heart of the believer goes out in love to Jesus, viewing Him as his own and as being his Bridegroom. There will be a desire to focus the eyes on the one loved, and in beholding, love will be stirred up all the more, for the loved one will behold love in the face of the beholder. This mutual beholding of each other in love is as an act of communication, whereby loving desires towards each other are maintained.

(3) By means of familiar discourse. The soul who thus beholds Jesus, the heart going out in love towards Him, will share with her Beloved the frame of her heart, her love, and her grief for not loving Him more. She will bring all her needs to Him, reveal her desires to Him, make supplication to Him, plead affectionately with Him, and beg of Him sweetly for the fulfillment of her desire. She listens to what Jesus has to say to her, turns herself to His Word, deeming it to be the voice of her Beloved. This is particularly true when with clarity, power, and sweetness He impresses a text of Scripture upon her heart, causing her to speak to Him in return, giving expression to all the questions generated by her love, which in turn causes Jesus to reply to her. In doing so the soul will lose and forget herself, and it will grieve her if this dialogue is broken off, or if her body is too weak to endure the intensity of her desires as well as the kisses and influences of His love.

(4) In dependence upon Him. In love she leans upon Him, entrusting to Him her soul, her body, and whatever she may encounter. She expresses and reveals all of this to her Bridegroom; she takes refuge under His shadow and rests in His safekeeping. Without fear she entrusts all this to her Jesus, taking refuge with Him, knowing that He will neither drive nor cast her away from Him, but that this is pleasing to Him and stirs up His desires toward her.

(5) By asking counsel. If something must be performed or refrained from, she will neither proceed blindly nor will she trust her own judgment. Much less will she follow her own will. Rather, she will ask counsel of her Lord, asking Him what is pleasing to Him, for His will is her will. And having received counsel from Him she will walk in the way of uprightness.

(6) By making use of His strength and all His benefits as her own. The believing soul knows that she may avail herself of Jesus’ benefits, that this is pleasing to Him, and that He has given them to her for that very purpose. If a sin has been committed, she will flee to the blood of Jesus. If she has polluted herself, she will go to Him as a fountain to be washed. If she is weak, she will take hold of His strength, and in union with Jesus will overcome all resistance, doing whatever is according to Jesus’ will. By His strength she is encouraged. She boasts of His benefits as being her own, and she presents herself as possessing light, life, strength, riches, glory, and all things in Him. This causes her to have contempt for the world. Her walk will be in heaven and she manifests herself as such to the world.
 
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