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A seal is a mark of ownership. You can tell that something belongs to someone else when it is
marked with his seal. So those who come to the Table are clearly shown to be His people, since
this meal is for them and only for them.
A seal validates a promise. The personal appropriation of the blessings and promises signified in
the Table (as we considered above) is an outworking of this. The Table is one of the places
where the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God and therefore heirs of
all the blessings belonging to His offspring (see our text above).
It is clear from this that those who see the Lord's Supper as simply a memorial really approach it
as only a sign and not as a seal. For them it points to the death of Jesus as a reminder but does
no more than that. The function of the Lord's Table as a means of grace is closely linked to its
operation as a seal to the people of God. This is where the Spirit's influences are felt, and where
I am strengthened to live more godly in Christ Jesus.
If we understand this more clearly, it must function as a powerful incentive for us to be present at
and to participate in the Lord's Supper, if indeed we are His children, and to marvel again not
just that the Son of God entered a sinful world in the likeness of sinful man and was unjustly
executed in order to free His people, but more than that - He did it for me!
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