Every covenant has signs and seals, symbols and rituals that declare and reinforce the invisible realities. So when a man and woman marry, they give each other rings. Those rings don’t make them married; if her wedding band falls off and is lost during a vigorous round of pickleball, they don’t need to get remarried, but the ring declares and reinforces the marriage covenant.

When a soldier addresses or approaches an officer of a higher rank, the lower salutes the higher, and then the higher returns the salute. This ritual also declares and reinforces the presence of an invisible reality.

Deeper and truer and richer than these are the signs and seals that God has prescribed in his word for the ordering of his covenants. Circumcision, the tabernacle, the temple, the holiness code, the sacrificial system, all these physical rites and rituals served to declare and reinforce God’s presence and blessing with his people. And now all those have been gathered up and concentrated into two: baptism and this meal here. Both do the same thing, baptism once and the Lord’s Supper again and again.

They declare that you are united with Christ and as such your sins are forgiven, your filth has been cleansed, your God is reconciled to you, your Father welcomes you home, and there is a card at the table with your name on it. Though in yourself you were unworthy, yet now you have been made worthy. Though before you were enemies and traitors, now you are welcome to eat of the captain’s bread with the whole company in preparation for the great conquest.

The covenant realities are real and thick and chewy. They are sweet and potent and warming. The covenant is so real that the declaration of it is something you can eat, something you can drink. This ritual is not something man made up. No. It’s too simple, too elegant, too perfect. This is the gift of your God through His Son by His Spirit.