Read Ex. 29
It is often profitable and helpful to us that current expressions should take a defined form in our minds. Few expressions are more in vogue than those of communion and fellowship, and as the terms are scriptural and expressive of our highest calling and deepest spiritual feelings, they are well worth a little meditation and analysis.
What then is communion? It is the partaking in common with another of any given condition. The word κοινωνία (communion or fellowship) is used twenty times in the New Testament, and in every case bears this signification. In four of these passages (Rom. 15:26; 2 Cor. 8:4;9. 13; Heb. 13:16;) it is communion of act rather than of feeling; the value of the act of course springing from the feeling, but the word is used to express the nature of the contribution of the saints, and fitly so, for they all had a common share in the act. It was the principle of gathering the manna; each contributed to the common stock and thus they had fellowship in the work. In the other passages the word is applied to feeling rather than to act, and this determines more distinctly its moral meaning. We first find it in Acts 2:42: " They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers;" thus expressing the sense of participative feeling which each had with all in the religious exercise in which they were engaged; and for the first time in the history of God's people on the earth, showing how they had now a common sense together of distinct engagements before God; i.e., they felt that they were interchanging a collective feeling. This is still more fully conveyed in 1 Cor. 10:16, in the words " communion of the blood of Christ," which teaches us that we should have a feeling, weak and imperfect it may be, but yet a feeling absolutely in common with what the blood of Christ indicates and supplies. The contrast to this is shown by the use of the same word in 2 Cor. 6:14: " What communion bath light with darkness"-what blending-what communicating of interest-what commingling of parts can such antagonistic elements have? Now 1 Cor. 1:9 instructs us as to what the saints are called unto, even, " the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord;" i.e., to share in common with Him; and though our apprehensions may be, and are very limited, yet every true apprehension we have is one in common with His. So also it is used in Phil. 3:10, where it refers to sufferings, and not enjoyments; " the fellowship of His sufferings;" and in Phil. 2:1 we find it in a very high sense, " fellowship of the Spirit," i.e. having a common feeling or purpose with the Spirit; and this is the sense in which the word is used in its very highest doctrinal enunciation in 1 John 1:3. " Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ;" thus announcing to us that being partakers of the eternal life which was with the Father, through the Son, we are now sustained by the Spirit in fellowship with the Father and the Son, 1. e. in common feeling as to the enjoyment and activities of this eternal life which belongs to the Father and the Son and is ours as given by them. Our feeling therein may be weak and ambiguous; but still, the fact remains, that what we have imperfectly is in common with what the Father and the Son have perfectly.
So much for the general term communion; but we may find profit in analyzing the nature of it a little more closely in the light of Ex. 29 which beautifully sets forth the whole subject of communion: our introduction there into, and progress onward to the highest order and experience of it. First there is atonement, and washing off all that the soul requires for acceptance, without which there could be no communion. And then there is consecration, or "filling" (in the Septuagint, perfection, Tad/eats, only used twice in the New Testament, Luke 1; Heb. 7) all conveying that, as accepted, we are now to be introduced into a full, perfect sense of our blessedness, and this as an essential preliminary to service or cooperation, which is communion of act, as interchange is of feeling. Now, there were two rams; one is wholly offered up, which, I consider, typifies our Lord gone to His Father and our Father, His God and our God: the other is the ram of consecration, i. e. Himself, too; but as apprehended by us, and presented by us while possessing Him and holding Him in our hands; and this, in two distinct points, the fat and the right shoulder, one His excellency, and the glory declared in resurrection in consequence of His death;" and the other, (the right shoulder) the power of His resurrection. These were presented in company with the high priest and taken up by God as a sweet savor, while the breast was waved by Moses (typifying Christ as the Son of God) and representing the affections of the heart of the sent one-not burned, but eternally waved for us. Thirdly, the residue of the ram was eaten by Aaron and his sons in the holy place.
Now I think there are three orders or divisions, so to speak, of our communion, which, though consequent on one another, are still quite distinct. 1St. We have communion with Christ where He is, even in the heavenlies. 2ndly. We apprehend and enter into His excellencies. 3rdly. We have the consciousness of strength and support derivative from Him and of Him; He imparting to us of Himself for our support down here: this is eating in the holy place. Each of these three divisions I regard as set forth in the first ram wholly offered up, and the two parts of the second, the ram of consecration.
I have said the first order is, communion with Christ where He is-that is to say, the soul has consciousness of participation with Him who is our life, and in that place to which He has gone; it has fellowship with Him in that position, and fellow-sentiments as to what that position is; but the second order is still higher-it is the consecration or filling; the fat, right shoulder, and breast of the ram, the apprehension of the excellency, power, and affections of Christ, which, according as they are vigorously and correctly apprehended, give strength and skill to our souls to judge of and ascertain all the ways of God on earth, and make a man what the apostle calls " spiritual, judging all things." The great interpreter and elucidation of all God's purposes is our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is according as we apprehend, know, and have common feeling with Him, that we are able to comprehend what the counsels and ways of God are tending towards; for God will glorify Him, and set Him forth in full manifestation in all the excellency which is now partially and feebly apprehended by us; but in proportion as it is apprehended, are we able to comprehend His ways and works, and to be practically in common feeling-in fellowship with Him. This is a partaking of His mind, as it were, an understanding and responding to it, a sharing of. His judgment of things.
It is evident that these two orders of communion which I have adduced, and which the two rams present to us, are very different and quite distinct. In both cases I am, so to speak, in the company of Christ, and in the region in which He now is; and I cannot be in His company without having more or less sense of it; but I may have a large measure of appreciation of my position and identification with Him therein, (which is fellowship,) without that apprehension of His excellency which makes = me sensible of interchange and intimacy with His mind. We may illustrate the two in a lower sense by the example of Peter and John, in John 13, Both were in the Lord's presence, both were conscious of participation with Him in position and association, but Peter was ignorant of His mind; and though in His presence, he was anxious; whereas John enjoyed intimacy; he leant on His bosom, and had free interchange as to any question that might arise. Communion with the Lord's mind comprises everything. Mere interpretation of Scripture falls very short of it, unless it be active at the time, suitable to the occasion, and in the sense of His presence. Thus it was with the two disciples going to Emmaus, when their hearts " burned within them as He opened to them the Scriptures;" and thus, though unconsciously to themselves, they were in communion with both His presence and His mind, advancing deeper into it, the further He led them thereinto. These illustrations, though drawn from the Lord's sojourn on earth and His corporeal presence, serve to show the distinction between fellowship with the mere presence or company of another and that of the mind which is thus present with us. Now, of course, it is His spiritual presence, unseen save to faith; and the region of this communion must be where He is, even in the heavenlies; but many a soul is happily and blessedly conscious of its participation with Him there; and moreover, that its sentiments as to that position and portion are identical in nature though not in degree with His, who, nevertheless, does not know that intimacy which enables it to enter into His feelings, tastes, and judgments of all things; and this is the difference between godliness (εὐσέβεια) and spirituality. Godliness refers everything to Him, spirituality feels and thinks with Him.
And now as to the third division of our communion, which is, however, part of the second, closely allied to it, and the effect of it. It is the residue of the ram of consecration, eaten by Aaron and his sons in the holy place. (Ver. 32.) This I regard as the strength and nourishment which accrue to the soul from the apprehension and communion typified by the other part of the ram, burned and waved. And here it is communion with one another, as well as with the High Priest. We feed on it together: " in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." It is the effect of being in apprehension with all saints of the " length, breadth, depth, and height;" and this effect is to be " filled in all the fullness of God." It is a consummation -a finishing up, as it were. David knew something in his measure (fettered of course, by his dispensational position) of each of these orders of communion when he " sat before the Lord" in the full sense of His presence, full intelligence of His mind and counsel respecting himself, His people, and all things; as well as full sympathy and fellow-feeling with Him possessionally apprehending what God was for him, and in His own intrinsic excellency, and feeding thereon in meditation and tranquil enjoyment. We are called to it in a far higher sense, our fellowship being based on union with Him who is the object and center of it.
In conclusion, this chapter (Ex. 29) sets forth to us in type the means by which we are introduced into this blessed position and experience in our priestly character. The first thing is acceptance; secondly, communion, of which we have three divisions-first, that of positional participation with Christ, the power of which the soul enters into in the offering up of the first ram-secondly, that of apprehension of His excellency, mental interchange of thought and feeling, as set forth by the fat, shoulder, and breast of the ram of consecration-and thirdly, that of strength and nourishment derived therefrom, with Him and with one another: while abiding with Him in heaven, eating the residue in the holy place.