What is communion? It is the partaking in common with another of any given condition. The word in Greek, translated communion or fellowship, is used twenty times in the New Testament, and in every case bears this signification. In some passages it is communion of act rather than of feeling, while in other passages the word is applied to feeling rather than to the act, and this determines more distinctly its moral meaning. We first find it in Acts 2:4242And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42), where we read, “They continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Thus they expressed, for the first time in the history of God’s people on the earth, the sense that they were interchanging a collective feeling. This is still more fully conveyed in 1 Corinthians 10:1616The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16), in the words “communion of the blood of Christ,” which teaches us that we should have a feeling in common with what the blood of Christ indicates and supplies.
The word is used in its very highest doctrinal enunciation in 1 John 1:33That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3): “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Our feeling in this may be weak and ambiguous, but the fact remains that what we have imperfectly is in common with what the Father and the Son have perfectly.
Introduction Into Communion
Exodus 29 beautifully sets forth the whole subject of communion: our introduction into it and our 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. Then there is consecration, 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. There were two rams; one is wholly offered up, which typifies our Lord gone to His Father and our Father, His God and our God. The other is the ram of consecration, which is Himself too, but as apprehended by us and presented by us while possessing Him and holding Him in our hands. We have the fat and the right shoulder. The fat speaks of His excellency and the glory declared in resurrection in consequence of His death, while the right shoulder conveys 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. Third, the residue of the ram was eaten by Aaron and his sons in the holy place.
Three Orders
Based on this type, I would suggest that there are three orders or divisions, so to speak, of our communion, which, though consequent on one another, are still quite distinct. First, we have communion with Christ where He is, even in the heavenlies. Second, we apprehend and enter into His excellencies. Third, we have the consciousness of strength and support derived from Him, for He imparts to us of Himself for our support down here: This is eating in the holy place. These three divisions are 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; the soul has consciousness of participation with Him who is our life and in that place to which He has gone. But the second order is still higher; it is the consecration or filling. The apprehension of the excellency, power and affections of Christ 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.” This is a partaking of His mind, a sharing of His judgment of things.
It is evident that these two orders of communion are very different and quite distinct. In both cases I am, so to speak, in the company of Christ, but I may have a large measure of appreciation of my position without that 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, but Peter was ignorant of His mind, whereas John enjoyed intimacy. Thus also with the two disciples going to Emmaus, when their hearts “burned within them as He opened to them the Scriptures.” Though unconsciously to themselves, they were in communion with both His presence and His mind, advancing deeper into it. Many a soul is blessedly conscious of its participation with Him there who does not know that intimacy which enables it to enter into His feelings, tastes and judgments of all things. This is the difference between godliness and spirituality: Godliness refers everything to Him; spirituality feels and thinks with Him.
The Third Division
And now as to the third division of our communion, which is closely allied to the second, it is the residue of the ram of consecration, eaten by Aaron and his sons in the holy place (vs. 32). Here we get the strength and nourishment for our souls from the apprehension and communion typified by the other part of the ram, burned and waved; it is communion with one another, as well as with the High Priest. We feed on it together, for “in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). It is the effect of understanding with all saints “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,” and the effect is to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:18-1918May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:18‑19)).
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; second, 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; second, 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; third, 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.
Girdle of Truth (adapted)