The perfect grace in which we stand is wondrous. There is no condemnation for us; we are not to be condemned with the world. The bread and wine is the symbol and pledge of this—the memorial of the love of Christ who took the condemnation on Himself and left not a particle for us. He died for us—our sin and ourselves.
But, on the other hand, will God make light of the sins of His people? If they are not to be condemned for sin, won’t they be apt to think lightly of it? GOD’S sense of sin, the bread and wine show forth—the bruising of His beloved One, that we might not be under the weight of it; but He—has the means of making us feel that it is an evil and a bitter thing not to depart from iniquity, if we name the name of Christ. I am not now speaking of the intercession of Christ which restores us, but of the holy discipline of the Lord—the chastening of the Lord—just because we are NEVER to be condemned. It is a solemn thing, but a blessed thing. In Him is “no darkness at all.” In us there is darkness—although we ourselves are not darkness, but “light in the Lord.” Well, we are to judge this darkness in us—to “judge ourselves” —to deny ourselves first, and failing that in anything, to judge ourselves. If we do so, we judge the evil and are cleansed from it, and the claims of holiness and love are satisfied. But if we do not judge ourselves, then the Lord must; but not in wrath or condemnation. Oh, no; that could not be; but in love. It is chastening that we may not be condemned with the world. Why should we not then be always in the light and in the joy of heaven? Acts 2:42.
I would note how little of this “fellowship” has survived, or is reproduced, even where the other three things have place. But, in truth, it is the sphere in which the life of Christ is to develop itself, and if it is not there, if there is no home or family feeling in the church, and not that merely, no common devotedness to a paramount object, even the person of Christ and His glory, then the saint is in danger of falling back into the world in his affections and substantial citizenship,