Understanding the Lord’s Supper
CHAPTER 30: Of The Lord’s Supper
(Part One)
The Lord’s Supper (Communion) was instituted by Jesus on the night on which He was betrayed and arrested, before He was crucified. The Supper is to be observed in and by His Church in all local churches until He returns. The supper is an on-going remembrance of Him, of His sacrificial death on behalf of His people. The Supper is a confirmation of faith, and of the responsibilities of those who receive it in faith. Additionally, believers receive spiritual nourishment when they receive the Supper in faith. Further, the Supper is to be received in the church as a reminder and declaration of our solidarity with Christ and with each other.
Contrary to age-old false doctrine, Christ is not offered up to His Father, nor is His sacrifice repeated in the Supper. The Supper communicates no saving grace, nor are anyone’s sins forgiven by receiving it. Saving grace and forgiveness of sins were secured by Christ’s once-for-all, never to be repeated sacrifice on the cross. To believe otherwise is to declare that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was insufficient, and that we are somehow completing it through the sacrament.
(Part Two)
Except in emergency situations, the Supper should be administered by duly ordained officers of Christ’s church (i.e., by elders and or deacons). Why? Because the sacraments were not given merely to individuals, but to the church (1 Corinthians 11:20-29). Those who administer the Supper are to pray, bless the elements of bread and the fruit of the vine (thereby setting them apart from common use), and serve both the bread and the cup to those receiving the sacrament and to themselves (v.23-26).
The elements are not to be paraded about or lifted up in the church as though they are anything other than common bread and the fruit of the vine; except as they are received in faith by those who have been saved by God’s grace alone, received by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.
The bread and the fruit of the vine are not, nor do they become, the literal flesh and blood of Jesus, although they may be referred to as those figuratively. Any belief that the elements are or become the literal flesh and blood of Jesus is “repugnant not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason,” and is nothing but idolatry and foolish religious superstition.
(Part Three)
No one is intrinsically worthy to receive the Lord’s Supper. Our only worthiness is in Christ who justifies His people (declares them to be righteous in His eyes based on faith in what He has done to save us from our sins). The reference to receiving the Supper in a “worthy manner” (ESV 1 Corinthians 11:23-26) is a reference to the manner in which we receive the Supper—not to the worthiness of the person receiving it. Receiving the Supper in a worthy manner means, among other things, having confessed all known sin, receiving the Supper reverently, in faith, and with an appreciation for the Body of Christ, the Church (v.29).
Only believers who come confessing their sin and who are not under the discipline of the church should dare to receive the Supper. Conversely, non-believers, those harboring unconfessed sin in their hearts and lives, and those under the discipline of the church, must not receive the Supper until such time as they believe, confess their sin, and are restored to full fellowship in the church.
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