Safeguarding Holy Flesh
In the present article I conclude my treatment of the peace offering by explaining the tremendous significance of the following section of its law that is recorded in Leviticus 7:15–21:
15. The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.
16. But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:
17. But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.
18. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.
19. And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof.
20. But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
21. Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
Let me briefly point out two things from this section of the law that I have already explained in the two foregoing articles about the peace offering.
First, this section of the law reminds us that “the flesh of the sacrifice of [the] peace offerings…shall be eaten” (Lev. 7:15).1 What especially distinguished the peace offering from the other three bloody sacrifices—the burnt, sin, and trespass offerings—was that the Israelites feasted upon the flesh of the peace offering, through which meal God testified to his sinful but elect people that the promised blood of his lamb satisfies for all their sins and ushers in a new relationship of peace whereby they are graciously seated at God’s heavenly table to eat the lamb’s flesh and be nourished unto everlasting life.
Second, this section of the law reminds us that there were “peace offerings for thanksgiving” (Lev. 7:15) and “a vow, or a voluntary offering” (v. 16).2 The thanksgiving, vow, and voluntary offerings were three kinds of peace offerings that were required at different times, yet altogether they taught the Israelites to receive everything that God sent into their lives—whether good or evil, happiness or sorrow, much or little, health or sickness, rest or tribulation—by faith in the blood of God’s lamb, to believe that God is at peace with them and working all things for their advantage and eternal good, and to worship their God of peace with thanksgiving.
Everything else in this section of the law awaits explanation.
We begin by observing that Leviticus 7:15–21 contains a list of extraordinary regulations governing the meal of the peace offering. These regulations are divided into two parts.
The first part (vv. 15–18) imposed a strict timeframe upon the meal, so that an Israelite had to eat the flesh of his offering within one or two days. In the case of the thanksgiving offering, that flesh had to be eaten on the very same day it was sacrificed. For the other two kinds of peace offerings, it was permissible for the flesh to be eaten on the second day. (I do not have a good explanation of why the former kind of peace offering had stricter eating requirements compared to the latter kinds, and so I cannot say if this has any meaningful significance.) Any flesh that remained beyond the appointed time could not be casually discarded but had to be burned with fire. On the third day the flesh became an abomination, and the law imputed guilt to any Israelite who ate this expired flesh.
The second part (vv. 19–21) demanded that the meal be kept from all external sources of uncleanness. Any flesh that came into contact with an unclean thing had to be burned. The flesh could be eaten only by those who were ceremonially clean. All persons rendered unclean either from an impurity in their own bodies or from touching an unclean object were forbidden to eat upon penalty of being excluded from the congregation.
Such extraordinary regulations clearly exalted the eating of the peace offering’s flesh above any common meal. Moreover, we can deduce that God legislated Leviticus 7 to safeguard the sacred character of the flesh.
Elsewhere scripture explicitly identifies the peace offering’s flesh as sacred: It is called “the hallowed thing of the Lord” (Lev. 19:8) and “holy flesh” (Hag. 2:12). But that is not the case in Leviticus 7:15–21. This section of the law never calls the flesh holy. Instead, this section of the law regulated the sacrificial meal upon the premise that this flesh was holy and according to the presumption that every Israelite understood that. In other words, the holiness of the flesh was obvious.
The obvious holiness of the peace offering’s flesh was, first, that it was God’s flesh. The law emphasized this in Leviticus 7 when it prohibited all unclean persons from the sacrificial meal, stating that the peace offerings “pertain unto the Lord” (v. 21). This flesh was holy by virtue of being God’s covenant possession. Holiness is that fundamental ethical perfection of God’s divine being. Holy is God as he is eternally consecrated to himself as the only good and ever-blessed God. Holy is a divine person.
Holy is the Spirit whom the Father breathes to the Son and whom the Son breathes to the Father as they seek one another’s eternal blessedness and glory. Holy is the triune God as he is absolutely exalted in his infinite and immutable and incomparable goodness above all that is common and profane. And the sine qua non for any of God’s covenant possessions is that they must be holy as he is holy.
Second, the obvious holiness of the peace offering’s flesh was that God himself had appointed that flesh to serve in behalf of his holy covenant. No one or no thing can serve God without being appointed to his holy service because God—not the creature, but God—consecrates all things for his own glory. And God publicly designated the peace offering’s flesh as holy by the ritual where an Israelite laid “his hand upon the head of his offering” (Lev. 3:2). God instituted this ritual in the sacrificial liturgy before the animal’s slaughter to testify to the Israelite who was forcefully pressing his hand upon the head of the sacrificial victim that God—not the Israelite, but God—imputed that sinner’s guilt to the sacrificial victim because God—not the Israelite, but God—had authorized and appointed this substitute to bear the burden of sin and to suffer the penalty of death in that man’s place.3
Third, the obvious holiness of the peace offering’s flesh was its spotless nature that God had prepared. An Israelite was required to present at God’s bloody altar a sacrificial victim “without blemish before the Lord” (Lev. 3:1). Every sacrifice had to be free from blindness, lameness, disease, mutilation, or any other observable defect in its nature because God’s holiness is absolutely separate from corruption and defilement. And if an Israelite found a spotless animal within his flock, it was only because God had first prepared and given that creature to the Israelite for God’s holy service.
Finally, the obvious holiness of the peace offering’s flesh was its satisfactory service as a vicarious substitute for the sinner, being imputed the sinner’s guilt, suffering the sinner’s death, and being consumed upon God’s holy altar. By that holy service God accomplished his purpose with his holy flesh, so that it ascended as “a sweet savour unto the Lord” (Lev. 3:5). By that holy service God glorified his strict justice against all sin and magnified his tender mercies toward his people. By that holy service God created peace with his enemies, cleansed sinners from all their iniquities, and drew a destitute people into his blessed fellowship.
To safeguard this sacred character of the flesh is why the law imposed a strict timeframe upon the meal. Any meat exposed to a Middle Eastern climate for three days begins to rot. Fetid and stinky is the root idea of the Hebrew word translated as “an abomination” in Leviticus 7:18: “[The flesh of the peace offerings on the third day] shall be an abomination.” And since corruption is incompatible with holiness, the law could not suffer any flesh that it regarded as holy to see corruption. The law required that all expired flesh be burned instead of discarded, lest that flesh decay on a trash heap before the eyes of Israel.
To safeguard this sacred character of the flesh is also why the law forbade any unclean thing from touching the meal. There is an inviolable “difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Lev. 10:10). Not only could the law not suffer the flesh itself to see corruption, but the law could not suffer any corruption to have fellowship with that flesh. Should the flesh touch an unclean platter or utensil, the flesh had to be burned. Should any unclean garment brush against the flesh, the flesh had to be burned. Should an Israelite accidently crush a lizard or an insect with his foot on the way to Jerusalem, he could not lay a finger on that flesh until he was first cleansed. Should an Israelite begin menstruating as soon as she had sat down for the meal, she and anyone else who might touch her were barred from eating.
For the explicit and distinctive purpose of safeguarding this sacred character of his flesh, God legislated Leviticus 7. He imposed its strict regulations. He demanded its severe penalties. Israel understood that.
Yet by faith Israel also understood that God did not safeguard this holy flesh because he had any pleasure in perishable animal meat. Over against unbelief in the Old Testament that confided in the multitude of sacrifices, faith confessed before God, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire…burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required” (Ps. 40:6). And again, “Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it” (Ps. 51:16).
By faith Israel had respect unto God’s word of faith, so that with an eye upon this type and shadow, the believer in the old dispensation also heard Christ speak, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:7–8). By faith Israel knew that God legislated Leviticus 7 so strictly and severely because he was jealous for his promise of Christ. By faith Israel possessed certain knowledge of the holy one whom God had decreed and exalted among his brethren. By faith Israel was assuredly confident that God’s covenant stood fast with Christ.
Now, if the law could reckon animal meat as holy, what shall we say then about the holiness of the antitype—God’s own beloved Son? Can we comprehend the boundless delight of God’s eternal will to be known and glorified in this holy one? For him and by him, God created all things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible. Can we ascend unto the exalted nature of Christ’s flesh? It is that ineffable wonder where God brings forth a clean seed from the unclean womb of the woman. Can we plumb the depths of his acceptable service? Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the cross. Can we tell all his worthiness and praise? It is God who has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name, so that before him every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess his lordship.
Moreover, if God so strictly and severely guarded a dim, fleeting, and unprofitable shadow of the law, how much more will he not keep from all profanity the glorious, true, and priceless flesh of Jesus Christ?
Let us then give separate consideration to the two distinct parts of Leviticus 7:15–21, both the timeframe imposed on the meal and the keeping of that meal from uncleanness. Let us observe first how Leviticus 7 completed the peace offering’s dim, earthly silhouette of the glorious, heavenly body of Jesus Christ—for he is our peace and the end of the law for righteousness—and, second, let us give heed unto the inviolable and unprofanable character of his holy flesh.
Safeguarding an Inviolable Testimony
As the sacrificial liturgy of the bloody sacrifices drew to a close and an Israelite sat down at meat to eat the flesh of the peace offering, he reminded himself and his family that they had to eat their meal quickly lest it should become an abomination. Here the law confronted the Israelite with an inviolable testimony, a testimony that today also confronts all who hear the gospel of Christ’s holiness. This is that inviolable testimony: God’s holy flesh possesses true and saving efficacy.
God’s holy flesh possesses true and saving efficacy because what operates in that flesh is God’s mighty arm. Holy flesh is efficacious because God came into that flesh, and God worked out in that flesh the perfection of his eternal will and good pleasure. Holy flesh is efficacious because through that flesh God has consecrated his most holy name. Without hindrance he has finished his glorious work.
God’s holy flesh always possesses true and saving efficacy. As this abiding principle applied to Christ’s flesh, so it applied to the animal’s flesh of the peace offering. Indeed, the peace offering had an efficacy exactly because it was the law’s imprint of Christ’s efficacious offering. However, the character of that peace offering’s efficacy was in harmony with the character of the Old Testament economy to which it belonged. Its efficacy was “a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Heb. 10:1). Its efficacy was earthly and fleeting, so that the only thing it could perfect was to bring sin into remembrance again.4
The efficacy of the peace offering granted a shadowy covering for sin, so that the law did not impute guilt to the Israelite while he stood in God’s earthly sanctuary among the congregation. Yet the efficacy of that animal flesh lasted only until the third day, at which time the law refused the flesh and warned that “the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity” (Lev. 7:18).
But the efficacy of Christ’s flesh is the perfection of all God’s good pleasure, accomplished once upon the accursed tree and glorifying God, who hates sin and who shows mercy toward an elect people by satisfying his justice against their sins according to his word of promise: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Unlike its shadow, Christ’s offering is one; for where sin is remitted, there is no more offering for sin. In Christ’s holy flesh is the complete forgiveness of sins, yesterday and today and forever.
The efficacy of the peace offering granted an Israelite only to reside for a brief time in the courts of an earthly sanctuary but never permitted him to go past the veil. The peace offering afforded an Israelite only an earthly meal that could never satisfy his belly for more than a day. And at the end of the peace offering, an Israelite returned to only a shadow inheritance and blood-soaked piece of ground encompassed by all the sorrows of death.
But the efficacy of Christ’s flesh is a meat that endures unto everlasting life. Those who eat his flesh never hunger. The efficacy of Christ’s flesh is to consecrate and open a new and living way unto God, having himself entered into heaven before the presence of God. Those who eat Christ’s flesh have boldness to enter the holiest that was not made with hands. The efficacy of Christ’s flesh is to lift the creation from under the curse, unite earth with heaven, and subject every last particle of creation unto the glory of God.
The inviolable testimony of the peace offering, negatively, was that the law could give an Israelite nothing but corruption because the efficacy of the law’s holy flesh became null on the third day on account of corruption. Positively, the inviolable testimony of the peace offering was that God had promised true and saving efficacy in the seed of the woman. And when that promise was fulfilled in the fullness of time, that promised seed did not see corruption on the third day because he arose from the dead.
He could not see corruption because his flesh is personally united to God without division, change, confusion, or separation. He could not see corruption because Adam’s guilt cannot be imputed to the Lord from glory. Though his flesh was formed from the corrupt genetic substance of the virgin and though his flesh was conceived in a womb of corruption, the Spirit preserved him holy and undefiled. He could not see corruption because he so overcame death legally that he can never die again. Though he was born under the law and the sins of the elect so thoroughly were imputed to him that he cried, “My sins are more than I can count!” he also so thoroughly exhausted the infinite wrath of God in his flesh that corruption had no claim on him. He could not see corruption because his flesh is exalted above sin, condemnation, death, the grave, and hell. He could not see corruption because his flesh devours corruption and brings immortality and life to light.
This inviolable testimony is what confronts all who hear the holy gospel. This testimony was proclaimed by Peter in the sermon on Pentecost: “[Him] God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him…thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:24–27). God’s holy one cannot see corruption because his holiness overcomes corruption, and he became lord over corruption.
Whenever the holiness of Christ’s person and natures and works is preached, all who hear are confronted with the sole, saving efficacy of his flesh. That his flesh could never see corruption means that God’s people are saved. They were as saved at the cross as they will ever be in their lives. That his flesh could never see corruption means those who belong to God’s covenant are forgiven of all their sins, are delivered from all sin’s dominion, and are passed from death to life before they even were born. That his flesh could never see corruption means that there is not a single work of obedience or a single tear of repentance or a single act of believing that is needed for the elect to be pardoned of all their sins and to enter into the peace and joy of God’s fellowship. That his flesh could not see corruption means that it does not matter how grievously the elect sin in their lives or how poorly they repent or how little they believe because nothing can hinder them from being received of God in mercy. That Jesus’ flesh could not see corruption means it is impossible that there be conditions in God’s covenant, that man cannot experience God’s fellowship without his own holy walk as an obedient person, that man must first act for him to be blessed by God, that a child of God can be unforgiven, and that a child of God must repent to be forgiven (all these are the doctrines of the Protestant Reformed Churches and clearly are incompatible with the gospel’s testimony about Christ’s holy flesh). That his flesh could not see corruption means that the entrance of the elect into the enjoyment of eternal life—both its beginning now and its fullness in the endless ages of heaven—rests solely upon the holiness of Christ’s flesh. “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).
That testimony is inviolable. It is inviolable because whatever is holy is incapable of error. It is inviolable because whatever is holy cannot lie. It is inviolable because whatever is holy is exalted above the judgments of men. It is inviolable because whatever is holy cannot be blasphemed.
When the gospel comes and confronts men with God’s holy flesh, no man can contradict it. All who believe in Christ are saved. But all who do not believe are condemned and destroyed for contradicting an inviolable testimony.
“He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses,” says the epistolist to the Hebrews (10:28). So inviolable is the testimony of holy flesh that Moses’ law demanded the death of an Israelite who contradicted a meager shadow of good things, and whose contradiction involved merely the eating of expired meat!
But today there is a contradiction that incurs much sorer punishment.
28. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Heb. 10:28–29)
Who is this gainsayer? This gainsayer is one who “hath trodden under foot the Son of God,” which implies that he had heard Jesus Christ speak to him by means of the preaching. This gainsayer “hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing,” which implies that he outwardly had been incorporated into God’s covenant by the sacrament of baptism, externally had possessed membership in the true church, publicly had confessed the forgiveness of sins, and visibly had participated in the eating and drinking of the Lord’s table. And this gainsayer “hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace,” which implies that he had been convicted in the depths of his being by the Spirit’s personal witness of the true and saving efficacy of Christ’s holy flesh.
This gainsayer was born and raised under the gospel. Or this gainsayer came into the church because he found the gospel attractive for a time. But the time came when this gainsayer could no longer tolerate the preaching, and he departed in tears or in anger saying “that is not the truth!” and forsook the assembling together of the church. This gainsayer intelligently and willfully and maliciously contradicted the gospel’s testimony of Christ’s holy flesh.
Yet we must not fail to explain the cause of this gainsayer’s contradiction in light of Christ’s holy flesh. The saving efficacy of that flesh did not fail in the case of this gainsayer, so that the promise of God became of none effect. In light of Christ’s holy flesh, this gainsayer never belonged to the Son of God. This gainsayer came into the sphere of the covenant a hypocrite and as profane as Esau. Though this gainsayer outwardly was sanctified and separated from the corruption of this world, he was never truly washed by the blood of the covenant. Though the Spirit of grace witnessed to him and convicted him of the truth, that operation of the Spirit was not gracious. The Spirit reproved him of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, in order to harden him and to leave him without excuse.
No, the true and saving efficacy of Christ’s holy flesh did not fail. Rather, it was the very efficacy of that flesh that made this gainsayer manifest as a hypocrite and profane. And it was the inviolable testimony of Christ’s flesh that became to this gainsayer a savor of death unto death.
Whenever this contradiction occurs in the church, Christ has efficaciously manifested a man or woman who loves mammon and not God. Like the Israelite who willfully transgressed Moses’ law because he would rather eat rotting meat, so today the gainsayer willfully trods underfoot the Son of God and counts the blood of the covenant unholy and does despite to the Spirit because he would rather have a portion in this rotting earth, carnal family relationships that are broken by death, and gold that thieves steal.
Whenever this contradiction occurs in the church, Christ has also efficaciously manifested to whose fellowship this gainsayer belongs. The gainsayer detests and forsakes the assembly of those who say “Christ’s flesh is salvation.” This gainsayer does not belong to that fellowship in the truth. The gainsayer is delivered to fellowship with the lie, so that he has pleasure in the assembly of those who say “Christ’s flesh makes salvation possible.” Having contradicted the truth, this gainsayer’s fellowship is with those who believe that if a man would be saved, there is that which he must do; with those who teach that the holy flesh of Jesus Christ is not enough; with those who preach that the holy flesh of Jesus Christ only gets a man so far before that man’s own holiness determines when and how he experiences joy and peace with God. Christ efficaciously manifested this gainsayer as one in league with the lie and the father of the lie.
Indeed, such contradiction happens today. I have already witnessed it many times in the Reformed Protestant Churches. Within her churches the Son of God speaks, the blood of the covenant cleanses, and the Spirit operates in the preaching of the gospel. With my own eyes I have seen, and over against my pure preaching, I have heard this contradiction occur in First, Sovereign, Zion, and Faith. I am also well aware of gainsayers who arose in Second, Cornerstone, the Berean fellowship in Singapore, and that church in Edmonton.
It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness.
4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5. And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6. If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Heb. 6:4–6)
“But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Pet. 2:22).
Take heed; the testimony of holy flesh is inviolable!
Safeguarding an Unprofanable Fellowship
As an Israelite sat at meat to eat of the peace offering’s flesh, he also reminded himself and his family that they could not touch that flesh if they were unclean, lest they should be cut off from the congregation. Here the law confronted that Israelite with the unprofanable fellowship that holy flesh forms.
The truth of that unprofanable fellowship is, first, that it belongs to a peculiar, holy people. That the fellowship of holy flesh belongs to a definite people necessarily follows from the true and saving efficacy of God’s holy flesh. To eat holy flesh—whether it be the shadow or the very image—is to partake of its true and saving efficacy.
To partake of the law’s holy flesh of the peace offering was to receive a shadowy covering for sin, a brief stay within God’s courts, an earthly fellowship limited by distance, and a fleeting existence on a corrupting plot of soil.
To partake of the holy flesh of God’s Son is to have the full pardon of sins, everlasting life before God, the fellowship of the Spirit, and an incorruptible inheritance in the new heaven and earth. Since God’s holy flesh cannot lie, all those who partake of Christ receive his true and saving efficacy. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54). And since God’s holy flesh is incapable of error, all those who partake of Christ were chosen unto this by God. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (v. 37).
Now, the one who determines the fellowship of holy flesh is God. “I am the Lord which sanctify you”
(Lev. 20:8). God determines those who partake of his flesh, and his determination is according to the holy character of his flesh.
It was God who by his law determined a worthy partaker of the peace offering in the Old Testament, and that determination was this: “All that be clean shall eat thereof” (Lev. 7:19). This designation of a worthy partaker as “clean” harmonized with the earthly and fleeting character of the Old Testament economy. A worthy partaker was not clean according to any ethical or moral standards but according to bare, outward, and ceremonial cleanness. A worthy partaker became clean not because his heart was changed but because he was externally washed with water. Besides this, an Israelite under the law could become unclean as easily as he drew breath (just read through Leviticus 11–15), so that the law often barred true saints in the Old Testament from eating that shadowy meal. In the end all that the law accomplished by its designation was to teach Israel that God determines who comes to his table, how quickly a man can defile himself with the corruption of this world, and that the true image of holy flesh had not yet come.
Today, God designates who are worthy partakers as “them that are sanctified.” “For by one offering [Christ] hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). The worthy partaker is a saint. And a saint is not a saint because of what he does. A saint is a saint because God separated that person unto himself by his eternal decree and appointed that person as a vessel of mercy for his own glory. A saint is a saint because God desired to live with that person in heaven and to show his praises in that person. A saint is a saint because that person belongs to God’s holy one, Jesus Christ. A saint is a saint because God imputes to that person Christ’s own holiness. A saint is a saint because that person is separated from the rotten corporation of Adam by God’s holy calling. A saint is a saint because Christ’s Spirit dwells in that person and by faith incorporates that person into the incorruptible flesh of Christ. A saint is a saint because through faith that person receives Christ’s own holiness, and in the heart that person has the beginning of perfect consecration to God and absolute separation from sin.
The truth of that unprofanable fellowship of holy flesh, second, is that its true and saving efficacy forms its own fellowship.
Just as the meal of the peace offering gathered a fellowship in that earthly sanctuary made with hands, so also when Christ breaks into the corruption of this world with the meal of his flesh, he forms his own fellowship and manifests that fellowship in the local, instituted church.
The saints do not make the fellowship. The minister does not make the fellowship. The elders do not make the fellowship. The building does not make the fellowship. God does not need something of man to enrich or advance the fellowship of his holy flesh. All that man brings into the fellowship is that from which God must cleanse him, namely, his sin.
When men try to determine the fellowship of the church, all that they end up with is a monstrously profane institution. Throughout history religious man does nothing different than what Nimrod did at the time of Babel: Man is always working on his own man-centered and man-pleasing fellowship. And what does man’s religious fellowship look like? It is the profane fellowship of Pontius Pilate and Herod and the Jews, who all hated each other but who became friends after they crucified the Lord. Man always forms his religious fellowship in hatred and opposition to the truth. And at the end of time, his fellowship will take the form of a seven-headed beast that comes up out of the sea, saying, “I am God, and I must be worshiped.”
I have observed with my own eyes how vigorously religious man goes about forming his own fellowship after he contradicts the inviolable testimony of the gospel and forsakes the truth. I have watched those gainsayers depart from the Reformed Protestant Churches and in bristling hatred of the truth go about seeking souls to incorporate into their body and to form after their own image. It is monstrous, for the nature of that fellowship is in blatant antithesis to God’s holy flesh. It is a fellowship that tries to yoke conflicting doctrines. It is a fellowship that willfully ignores impenitence in sin. It is a fellowship that supersedes denominational unity because it is more concerned about family ties and business partnerships and personal ambitions than denominational unity. It is a fellowship of politeness and smiles and talk about the weather, subsisting in love of self and hatred of God’s holy flesh. Such fellowship is not of God but is carnal, sensual, and devilish.
The fellowship of holy flesh is a wholly divine creation that God conceived in eternity and that God brought into existence by the cross and that God manifests in the gathering by the gospel into the local church. The fellowship of holy flesh is God’s condescending in Christ and through the Spirit to draw a people unto himself by feeding them with his own heavenly food and every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. The fellowship of holy flesh is God’s making his elect to be partakers of the divine nature, so that they reflect his glory unto his praise.
Therefore, not all have a right to God’s table. God does not offer his holy flesh to men or make it available to men. No one is invited into this fellowship. God does not leave it up to man to decide if he can partake worthily or not. The fellowship of holy people belongs to a definite people. There are worthy partakers at God’s table, and there are those unworthy of God’s fellowship. There are saints in gracious distinction from the rest of men who are dead. And God manifests his saints as saints by gathering them into the fellowship of his holy flesh in the local church through that inviolable testimony of his holy flesh, so that all those who will not separate themselves from the world and the false church simply manifest themselves as dead.
Finally, what follows from this truth that God’s holy flesh forms its own fellowship is that God’s table must be guarded from all profanity. The church must judge herself according to that inviolable testimony of God’s holy flesh in the gospel.
If there are divisions and heresies within her fellowship, if there are false doctrines and unbelief in the truth within her fellowship, if there are impenitent practices inconsistent with the holiness of Christ’s flesh, and she lays a hand on the meal of God’s table, then her fellowship desecrates the unprofanable body of Jesus Christ—the worst thing that the church can do to corrupt her fellowship in that meal.
Imagine if I brought you into my house to feed you, and you decide to drag along my enemy. And you seat that enemy at my table and watch as my enemy mocks my wife, spits on my children, and smashes my dinnerware on the floor. What do you think I would do? Would I not be within my rights to cast you and your profane guest from my house in righteous anger? But that is exactly what the church does when she admits someone to God’s table to eat holy flesh. The church says, as it were, to God, “God, we like this person. We like this person who trods underfoot and who counts the blood of your covenant unholy and who does despite to the Spirit of grace. We like this person who blasphemes your name and mocks at the rule of your house. You are going to fellowship with him because we say so.” What do you think God will do?
He judges. He judges because he loves his covenant, and he has no fellowship with iniquity. He judges according to the holy flesh of his Son. He lays the church low, as he laid Corinth low. He humbles the pride of his elect people, he cleans them through the word of his Son, and he delivers them because he chose them in love to be holy and without blame before him. He also casts out profane persons and cuts them out of his congregation because he hated them and decreed their destruction.
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Cor. 3:16–17).
Take heed; the fellowship of holy flesh is unprofanable!
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