SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

What is the purpose of the Lord’s Supper? I believe when we are asked thisquestion, most of us will answer with a one-liner: “To remember the Lord’sdeath.” This answer is not wrong (see 1 Cor 11:25–26). However, if this is allthere is to the Lord’s Supper, then why does the Apostle Paul warns us: “Hethat eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor 11:29)? This warning suggests that thereis more to the Lord’s Supper; and it was the reason why the Reformed Church hasgenerally rejected the purely memorial view of the Lord’s Supper, which Zwingliand the Anabaptists taught (see PCC Bulletin, vol. 1,no. 12; dated 19 September 1999).

Indeed, furtherstudies and reasoning on the Scriptures by the Reformers have unfolded atheology of the Lord’s Supper, which indicates that there is much more in itthan mere remembrance.

Reformed Consensus

The Belgic Confession, which was first composed in 1561, and aftercareful revision, adopted by the Synod of Dort in 1618, has this to sayconcerning the Lord’s Supper in Article 35, entitled “The Holy Supper of OurLord Jesus Christ”:

We believe and confess, that our Saviour Jesus Christ did ordain andinstitute the sacrament of the holy supper, to nourish and support those whomHe has already regenerated, and incorporated into His family, which is HisChurch.

Now those, who are regenerated, have in them a twofold life, the one corporaland temporal, which they have from the first birth and is common to all men;the other, spiritual and heavenly, which is given them in their second birth,which is effected by the Word of the gospel, in the communion of the body ofChrist; and this life is not common, but is peculiar to God’s elect. In likemanner God has given us, for the support of the bodily and earthly life,earthly and common bread, which is subservient thereto, and is common to allmen, even as life itself. But for the support of the spiritual and heavenlylife, which believers have, He has sent a living bread, which descended fromheaven, namely, Jesus Christ, who nourishes and strengthens the spiritual lifeof believers, when they eat Him, that is to say, when they appropriate andreceive Him by faith in the spirit.

In order that He might represent unto us this spiritual and heavenly bread,Christ has instituted an earthly and visible bread as a sacrament of His body,and wine as a sacrament of His blood, to testify by them unto us that, ascertainly as we receive and hold this sacrament in our hands, and eat and drinkthe same with our mouths, by which our life is afterwards nourished, wealso do as certainly receive by faith (which is the hand and mouth of our soul)the true body and blood of Christ our only Saviour in our souls, for thesupport of our spiritual life.

Now, as it is certain and beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ has not enjoinedto us the use of His sacraments in vain, so He works in us all that Herepresents to us by these holy signs, though the manner surpasses ourunderstanding and cannot be comprehended by us, as the operations of the HolySpirit are hidden and incomprehensible. In the meantime we err not,when we say, that what is eaten and drunk by us is the proper and natural body,and the proper blood of Christ. But the manner of our partaking of the sameis not by the mouth, but by the Spirit through faith. Thus, then, though Christalways sits at the right hand of His Father in the heavens, yet does He nottherefore cease to make us partakers of Himself by faith. This feast is aspiritual table, at which Christ communicates Himself with all Hisbenefits to us, and gives us there to enjoy both Himself, and the merits of Hissufferings and death: nourishing, strengthening, and comforting our poorcomfortless souls by the eating of His flesh, quickening and refreshing them bythe drinking of His blood.… (italics mine).

The Westminster Confession of Faith, of 1648, is in essentialagreement with this statement. But it states the significance of the Lord’sSupper more succinctly and more definitively in article 29.1:

Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein He was betrayed, instituted thesacrament of His body and blood, called the Lord’s Supper, to be observed inHis Church unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance of thesacrifice of Himself in His death; the sealing all benefits thereof unto truebelievers, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, their furtherengagement in and to all duties which they owe unto Him; and, to be a bond andpledge of their communion with Him, and with each other, as members of Hismystical body.

The Baptist Confession of Faith (BCF) of 1689, which is still beingused by many Reformed Baptist churches, states in article 30.1:

The Supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by Him the same night onwhich He was betrayed to be observed in His churches until the end of the worldfor the perpetual remembrance, and showing forth of the sacrifice of Himself inHis death. It was also instituted by Christ to confirm believers in all thebenefits of His death; for their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him; fortheir further engagement in and commitment to all the duties which they owe toHim; and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him and with theirfellow believers.

Biblical Proofs

Despite the pastconsensus, there have arisen in recent times individuals in fundamentalchurches, who have been taught to reject anything but clear biblicalstatements, who have begun to question the validity of the formerly accepteddoctrine. I am made aware of the vexation these individuals feel whenever theyattend a Lord’s Supper service where anything more than “remembering the Lord’sDeath” is mentioned as the purpose of the Supper. These individuals haveobjected to the statement in our Confession because they see no biblical basisfor them, and therefore conclude that those statements are extra-biblical andtherefore wrong.

What should ourresponse be to such objections? In the first place, I believe, we should notdiscourage this spirit of inquiry, as we should indeed base all our practicesand doctrine on the Scriptures alone; and if it can be proven that any of the statementsin our Confession is found to be contrary to Scripture or having no biblicalbasis, then we should reject those statements. And therefore it is necessaryfor us to prove the biblical basis of our confessional doctrines, whenever weare called to do so. Nevertheless, in the second place, we must be careful notto cultivate any attitude of conceit or arrogance by which we regard ourselvesto know the Scriptures better than the framers of our Confession, or to be morepure in our biblical knowledge. This balance is often not easy to achieve, butI believe it is not impossible if we all approach Scripture and the accepteddoctrine of the church with an attitude of meekness and a desire to learnrather than to condemn.

With this in mind, letme take this opportunity to explain the fivefold purpose of the Lord’s Supper,according to WCF 29.1. The astute member of the congregationwill realise that these purposes are repeated almost word for word as words ofintroduction at our Lord’s Supper services.

Signifying Christ’s Propitiatory Death

The Lord’s Supper wasinstituted by our Lord Jesus in the night wherein He was betrayed. The firstand undisputed reason for this sacrament is “the perpetual remembrance of thesacrifice of Himself in His death.”

The Lord Jesus died on the cross of Calvary as a propitiatory sacrifice for HisChurch (Isa 53:5, 11; Rom 3:25; 1 Jn 2:2; etc.). He died, in other words, topay for the penalty due to our sins, to satisfy God’s righteous wrath, that wemight be reconciled to Him. The death of Christ is, therefore, of centralimportance to the worship and existence of the Christian Church. Thus, veryappropriately, just before the Lord went to the cross, He instituted the Lord’sSupper, so that the Church may be solemnly and dramatically reminded of Hisdeath through the ordinance.

Each time weparticipate in the Lord’s Supper, therefore, we are to do so in remembrance ofChrist (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24–25). To facilitate this purpose, the Lord Supperis particularly designed as a sign or, if you like, a divinely sanctioned dramato “shew the Lord’s death till He come” (1 Cor 11:26). The sacramental actionof breaking the bread, together with the words of the institution: “broken foryou” (1 Cor 11:24; cf. Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19) and “shed for you” (Lk22:20; cf. Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24) should bring to our minds, very vividly, thefact that Christ died as a substitutionary atonement for us.

Sealing of all Benefits of Christ’s Death

The second purpose ofthe Lord’s Supper given in our Confession is: “[For] the sealing all benefits[of Christ’s death] unto true believers.” A seal authenticates, ratifies,attests, confirms or certifies something to be real. When we say that theLord’s Supper seals the benefits of Christ’s death unto the true believers, weare saying that it not only points to but affirms the genuineness of theapplication of the benefits of redemption on the participants. Moreparticularly, the Lord’s Supper seals the benefits related to sanctification orour spiritual growth, whereas baptism seals our regeneration and justification.These benefits were purchased by the Lord’s death (Rom 5:6, 11, 12, 21; 1 Cor1:30; Eph 3:6; etc.).

What is the biblical basis for saying that the Lord’s Supper seals anything atall? There is admittedly, no direct statement teaching this, but I believe theinference from the Scripture on this doctrine is unmistakable. In the firstplace, consider how the LORD identified circumcision with His covenant when Hesaid to Abraham:

This is my covenant, which ye shallkeep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among youshall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; andit shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you (Gen 17:10–11).

In a certain sense then, circumcision is a sign (representation) and seal ofGod’s covenant with Abraham. This covenant which God made with Abraham was noneother than a manifestation of the Covenant of Grace (Gal 3:16), which impliesthat circumcision does not only seal any promise concerning the land, but sealsthe benefits which would flow from the redemptive work of Christ in fulfilmentof the Covenant of Grace. The Apostle Paul was referring to this fact in Romans4:11:

And he received the sign of circumcision,a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised:that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be notcircumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.

Now, secondly, consider the fact that the Lord identified the Lord’s Supperwith the New Covenant. He says: “This cup is the new testament in my blood” (1Cor 11:25; Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20). The word rendered “testament” (Grk.diathêkê)can equally be rendered “covenant.” This identification of a sign with thecovenant of both circumcision and the Lord’s Supper suggests that they are ofthe same category of ordinances, namely sacraments. This implies that ifcircumcision is a seal of the righteousness of faith (i.e., justification),which is a benefit of the Covenant of Grace, then we may say the same of theLord’s Supper, namely, that it is a seal of the benefits of Christ’s death orof the Covenant of Grace.

The question may be asked: but what is the use of a seal, seeing that there isno way for us to ascertain if a partaker really receives anything since wecannot see if he is a true believer or is receiving by faith? We reply that itis a seal not for the beholder but only for the partaker, who himself has theassurance that he is a true believer. The true believer ought to be assured ofhis faith, and when he is given the privilege of partaking of the Lord’s Supperby the providence of God, he may view it as a seal that the Spirit of Christ isapplying the benefits of redemption unto him. This is one of the reasons theApostle Paul enjoins self-examination before we partake of the Lord’s Supper (1Cor 11:28).

But the Lord’s Supperis more than a seal.

Applying Spiritual Nourishment and Growth

It is a means of gracefor the “spiritual nourishment and growth” of worthy receivers as they are, byfaith, made partakers of His body and blood. WSC 92 makes itclear that the Westminster Assembly viewed the sacraments as more than meresigns and seals: “A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ;wherein, by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, arerepresented, sealed, and applied to believers” (italics mine).

But how do we prove from the Scripture that this is the case? Well, in thefirst place, the Apostle Paul teaches us: “The cup of blessing which we bless,is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is itnot the communion of the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16). The word rendered“communion” (Grk. koinônia) refers to intimate participation andfellowship. From what Paul says, it is most natural to understand him asmeaning that there is a spiritual mystical element involved in the Lord’sSupper. This must be the reason why Paul adds that unworthy partaking of the Lord’sSupper will have effect on our well-being:

For he that eateth and drinkethunworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’sbody. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (1 Cor11:29–30).

In the second place, when we eat the bread and drink of the cup, we should alsobe reminded of the Lord’s words: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eatthe flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (Jn6:53). It is often said that the Lord could not be directly referring to theLord’s Supper when He said those words, since it was only a year later that Heinstituted the Sacrament. However, the close parallel between what the Lordsaid and the sacrament He instituted is undeniable. Could it be that Heintended the Lord’s Supper to be a dramatic sermon of what he said in John 6?Or, could it be that one of the purposes of the Lord’s Supper is also tofacilitate what He taught in John 6? It may be objected to the second view, thatsince the Lord intimates that anyone, who does not eat of His flesh and drinkof His blood, has no life in Him, that taking a sacramental view would meanthat all who have not partaken of the Lord’s Supper (e.g., infants andchildren) will have no life. Not withstanding the superstitions of Rome, can wenot understand the Lord’s statement in the same way as we understand theimportance of baptism, that “although it be a great sin to contemn or neglectthis ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it,as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it” (WCF 28.5)?This ought to be a strong warning for any covenant child baptised as infants,who have grown of age, but refuse to believe and to seek admission to theLord’s Table by confirmation of faith.

There is, in other words, very good scriptural grounds for us to hold that, bythe effectual operation of the Holy Spirit, we actually become partakers of thebody and blood of Christ for our spiritual nourishment and growth.

Despite some ambiguity relating to his proofs, we can agree, in the main, withTheodore Beza, the colleague and successor of John Calvin, who wrote in 1558:

As, by a natural process, we take, eatand drink the natural signs which, by the digestion which is made, istransformed into our substance: so by a spiritual and heavenly process, JesusChrist Himself, who, according to the flesh, is now in Heaven and nowhere else(Acts 1:11; 3:20–21), is communicated to us in all truth, so that we may beflesh of His flesh (1 Cor 10:16; Eph 5:30) and bone of His bone; that is tosay, so that being united to Christ (Jn 17:21), and engrafted into His Body byfaith (Col 2:7), we draw thence life eternal; and also, so that in this worldwe may be so sanctified that His spirit governs our bodies and souls to free usand consecrate our entire life to His service (Rom 8:11–14)… (The Christian Faith, trans. By JamesClark [Christian Focus, 1992], 66).

Further Engagement in and to Duties Owed

The fourth purpose forthe Lord’s Supper, given in our Confession, is: “[our] further engagement inand to all duties which [we] owe unto Him.” This is clearly a development ofthe third purpose, but it is worth a quick look.

We do not have a direct scriptural statement to substantiate this purpose, butagain we can infer both from experience and from the scriptural duties,pertaining to the Lord’s Supper, that are required of us. In the first place,by the fact that we are spiritually nourished, we are strengthened and enabledto do what duties are required of us (Eph 3:16; Phil 4:13). In the secondplace, the call to self-examination before partaking the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor11:28) would imply also repentance and resolutions to make good what duties weowe the Lord. In the third place, as we are reminded of the Lord’s death for uson the cross to redeem us, would not every worthy receiver be filled once againwith gratitude to the Lord that we seek to glorify God with our bodies and inour spirit (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet 1:18–22).

Bond and Pledge of Spiritual Communion

Finally, the Lord’sSupper serves as “a bond and pledge of [our] communion with Him, and with eachother, as members of His mystical body.”

A bond is something shared by two or more parties, whichsymbolises their union. As such, the Lord’s Supper symbolises the union ofbelievers with Christ and with one another. In the first place, since theLord’s Supper is the communion of the blood and body of Christ (1 Cor 10:16),it is naturally a bond of our communion with Him. In the second place, asmembers of the same mystical body of Jesus Christ, our eating of the same breadand drinking of the same cup do symbolise our communion with each other. Paulputs it this way: “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are allpartakers of that one bread” (1 Cor 10:17). It is also for this significance ofthe Lord’s Supper that Paul chided the Corinthian church for divisions in thechurch, which became manifested when they gathered for the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor11:17–22).

We may add also the interesting, albeit speculative, insight of Theodore Beza:

The correspondence of the thingssignified with the signs is very evident. The fact that one loaf is made frommany grains gathered and united into one loaf, and that, in the same way, thewine is made from many grapes, well represents to us the union which we havewith Jesus Christ and the mutual love of all believers as members of the samebody (ibid.)

A pledge is a token, which points to a promise. As such, itgives the believing partakers the personal assurance that all the promises ofthe Covenant and all the riches of Christ are in their actual possession. Inthis sense the Lord’s Supper, as pledge, is not very different from its being aseal. But reciprocally, the Lord’s Supper serves as a badge of profession onthe part of those who partake the sacrament. Whenever we eat the bread or drinkthe wine, we profess our faith in Christ as our Saviour and pledge ourallegiance to Him as our King by resolving to obey all His commandments. At thesame time, we pledge our commitment to those who are partaking of the sametable with us, to participate in their lives by “maintain[ing] an holyfellowship and communion in the worship of God, [by] performing such otherspiritual services as tend to their mutual edification; [and by] relieving eachother in outward things, according to [our] several abilities and necessities”(WCF 26.2). It is partly because of this significance of eatingtogether that Paul exhorts that we should not eat with anyone who claims to bea Christian but is living in sin (1 Cor 5:11–12). Some believe that Paul isspeaking about having private meals together. But if that is so, how much morewe should not be found at the same table at a sacramental meal together.

Conclusion

We have shown thatthe WCF (and the BCF) is right in asserting thatthe Lord’s Supper is not purely commemorative so that the only purpose is toremember the death of the Lord. Rather, the Lord’s Supper has a rich fivefoldsignificance of signifying, sealing, applying, engaging, and bonding. May theLord grant that, when we gather for the Lord’s Supper, we henceforth do eat anddrink in faith and understanding for the benefits of our souls and the glory ofChrist who instituted the Supper to be observed by His Church.