We will now call attention to the Lord's supper. Very little need be said in regard to it, since this ordinance is so well known. However, a few suggestions may be helpful. When Jesus had blessed the bread, He gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body;" and when He had given them the wine He said, "This is My blood of the new testament [covenant, A. R. V.], which is shed for many." (See Mark 14:22-24.) Note the following points:
1. There was no need for the Saviour to explain further what He meant by His "body" and "blood," for they fully understood it, according to Peter's own testimony.
2. The Passover lamb, slain in Egypt, had its blood sprinkled on the lintels and door posts of the homes of the Jews as a sign of faith in a Saviour from the plagues of Egypt. The body of the lamb was eaten without the blood. Blood was forbidden to be eaten by the Jews.
3. Christ is the antitypical Passover Lamb. (See 1 Cor. 5:8.) His literal blood was not shed when He instituted the Lord's supper. He never said that the wine was changed into His actual blood when He blessed the cup before giving it to the disciples. On the contrary, He recognized it as wine still, for He said, "Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Mark 14:25. There is not a trace of transubstantiation here.
4. The whole ordinance of the supper is a symbolic representation of the sealing of the law of God in human hearts, for the real blood was shed on Calvary's cross, and that blood sealed forever the perpetuity of God's law, and His promise in the new covenant is to write His law in human hearts. That this is the case we learn from Paul.
Paul's Exposition of the Supper
The apostle gives a short description of the Lord's supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23-31; we quote verses 27 and 29: "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." If eating and drinking unworthily of this bread and cup brings damnation to us, the important question is, What is the meaning of "not discerning the Lord's body"?
To answer this question, we quote from Psalms 40:6-8, which is partially repeated—in Hebrews 10:4-6: "Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire. . . . Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart." Hebrews 10:5 says, "A body hast Thou prepared Me."
This is a prophecy relating to Christ, and it conveys to us the truth that the law of God was written in His heart, or in His body or life. He was the Mediator of the new covenant, and as such He came to demonstrate that it was possible for a human being, by the grace of God, to have the law written in the human heart by the Holy Spirit. God's promise to do this was sealed by the blood of Christ on the cross of Calvary.
The Lord's supper is not only a memorial of the cross of Christ, but everyone who partakes of that supper worthily, is openly confessing that he is allowing the Holy Spirit to write the law of God in his heart, the same as it was written in the heart of Christ when He was on earth; whereas, he who comes to the Lord's table with a guilty conscience, harboring unconfessed sins, eats and drinks damnation to himself, for he publicly pretends to be what in reality he is not. Hence the apostle exhorts us, "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." Self-examination should precede the partaking of that bread and that cup. All known sins should be confessed, and the heart and soul made one with God.
The reason for writing this exposition of the supper was, as the apostle says, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." 1 Cor. 11:30. They did not understand the Lord's supper. It is not only a commemoration of the death of Christ on the cross of Calvary, but it is a renewal of the seal of the new covenant, that God will through His Holy Spirit write His law in the hearts of all who submit to Him.
The "body" of Christ was the instrument through which He gave expression to His holy, self-sacrificing life. And that divine-human life was sacrificed for us on the cross of Calvary. Hence the apostle admonishes us, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Rom. 12:1. To "partake," therefore, of the "body" of Christ is the symbolic expression of the experience of partaking of His life, which is imparted to us through the Holy Spirit. We publicly affirm that we do this "worthily," or with a guiltless conscience, when we so partake of the bread and wine.
Our next article will deal with the history of the eucharist from the time of Christ to the time when the dogma of transubstantiation became law in the Catholic Church. The Lutheran theory of consubstantiation will also be dealt with, together with the significance of the idolatry of the mass.
(To be continued)