To Be One in Christ: Partaking of the Lord’s Supper

To Be One in Christ: Partaking of the Lord’s Supper

The Lord has given us only two sacraments in a Christian’s life: one is being baptized; the other is partaking of the Lord’s supper (also called “the Holy Communion” or “the Breaking of Bread”). These are so that we could share Christ’s life and be part of His life, and in order that we could be one in Christ.

1. Partaking of the Lord’s supper (also called “the Holy Communion” or “the Breaking of Bread”) is a sacrament established by LORD Jesus Christ Himself. We do it in remembrance that LORD Jesus Christ shed blood and laid down his life on the cross to redeem us from our sins:

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. ” ( 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-29)

Partaking of the Lord’s supper (or called “the Holy Communion” and “the Breaking of Bread”) is a sacrament established by LORD Jesus Christ (Mat 26:26-28; Mar 14:22-24; Luk 22:19-20). On Lord’s supper of Passover, LORD proclaimed that he will give his life as a ransom for all the believers. “Bread” symbolizes the body of LORD Jesus for he laid down his life on the cross for us; wine in the “Cup” symbolizes the precious blood of LORD Jesus poured out for us-- the blood of a new covenant (Heb 9:14-15). LORD Jesus laid down his life on the cross and poured out his blood to accomplish the salvation for all the believers. Whoever believes in the holy name of LORD Jesus Christ will share the salvation that LORD had accomplished for us and their sins will be forgiven. Whenever we partake of the “bread” and “cup”, we do it in remembrance of the sacrificial death of LORD Jesus and his blood shed on the cross for our salvation.

Bread and cup proclaim “the Lord's death until he comes” (1Co 11:26). It means that the bread and cup imply the whole abundant meanings from Christ lowering himself to death, to his glorious Second Coming. “proclaim the Lord's death”: the foundation of the breaking of bread is Christ being crucified on the cross; “until he comes” : the glorious hope of the breaking of bread is the riches of the glory of Christ being revealed until he comes. All of us who share the braking of bread should “share in his suffering” to proclaim his death so that we could “share in his glory” (Rom 8:17) until He comes.

The true remembrance of LORD is through eating the bread and drinking the cup, we accept with thanksgiving the redemption He accomplished for us, examine ourselves and repent completely, take the LORD Himself who once died for us as our life and portion.

Among the gatherings in the church, the most important and most sacred one is the gathering of partaking of the Communion or the breaking of bread. The significance of partaking of the Communion or the breaking of bread is that we do it in remembrance of LORD (1Co 11:24). In remembrance of LORD, what is important is that with thanksgiving we eat Lord’s body and drink Lord’s blood, share in His abundance, commune with the total person of Christ as our spiritual nurture. If anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord and distinguishing it from the common food, or with a unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment of God on himself, and brings guilt upon himself(1Co 29-30). Before partaking of the Communion or the breaking of bread, we must examine ourselves: Do we understand and respect the spiritual meaning of the bread and the cup? Have we done anything that are not worthy of the salvation? Have we done anything that won’t please God and we need to repent?

2. LORD Jesus Christ is the bread of life. The spiritual meaning of the communion is that we share in the salvation and the eternal life in Christ:

“Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. ” ( JOHN 6:35)

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." ” ( JOHN 6:51)

The food nourishes and sustains the life of the physical body, without it one will be hungry and weakened. In the like manner, We must constantly commune with Christ, or we will spiritually weaken and die. “the bread of life” refers to what nourishes and sustains one’s life. Bread means that Christ is our spiritual nourishment; “flesh” and “blood” means that only Christ crucified on the cross is our spiritual nourishment. Therefore, the primary core of Gospel, is “Christ crucified on the cross” (1 Co 1:23). In order to be the bread of life, Christ gave his body to redeem man from sins; this also shows that only when man accepts the redemption (flesh) of Christ, Christ will be his nourishment of life. Our physical life need food to sustain; our spiritual life need to take LORD as the food to live. We should come to LORD frequently and regularly, enjoy Him, and take Him as our satisfaction so that our spiritual life will last forever.

“Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." ” ( JOHN 6:53-58)

“the flesh of the Son of Man” refers to the body that LORD Jesus gave for us; “his blood” refers to the precious blood of LORD Jesus shed on the cross for us. “eat” and “drink” mean to take in, share in or be part of. “eat the flesh of the Son of Man” symbolizes that through faith, we accept LORD Jesus gave his body for us; “drink his blood” symbolizes through faith, we accept all LORD had accomplished for our salvation through the blood he poured out. These both mean the same thing: accept the salvation accomplished by LORD through the cross for us.

“I in them” means that LORD Jesus in His resurrection as our nourishment of life.

“the one who feeds on me will live because of me”. “feeds on” means to take in the food and absorb the nourishment to sustain and maintain the life. Therefore, “feeds on me” means that to accept the salvation accomplished by LORD. In the meanwhile, take LORD inside so that the nourishment of His life will be absorbed by us, it maintains our life so that we can share in His life and be part of His body (1Co 12:12-27).

3. We partake of the body and blood of Christ to be one in Christ:

“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. ” ( 1 CORINTHIANS 10:16-17)

What is emphasized here, is not only that we break the bread, but also we participate in breaking one loaf -- one body of Christ. It implies communing. The same applied to the cup. We share in one loaf so that we are part of the communion in Christ. The blood of Christ symbolizes salvation, and the body of Christ symbolizes life. Not only we share in the salvation together, but also we have close communion of life together. Through eating the bread and drinking the cup, the believers commune in the body and blood of Christ. When they are united with Christ, they are also united with other saints; all saints are in the union with Christ, and also are in the union with other saints.

“we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. ” (1Co 10:17), here what is emphasized is “one”. In the verse of (1Co 10:16), it is about to participate in the body of Christ together, which refers to the communion in the body of Christ. In the verse of (1Co 10:17), “one loaf” and “one body” refer to being one in Christ. Here it means, all the children of God should be one in Christ, just like one bread. We only have one bread, I break some of it to eat, you break some of it to eat, he break some of it to eat. Put every piece of what we eat together, it is one. Although the bread scattered among everyone, it is one in Spirit.

No matter how many people participate in, the bread in the communion or the breaking of bread is always one. It symbolizes that all the believers being united together in one spiritual body of Christ, that is the church. How close is the relationship between us and it is unbreakable. One in Christ is the fact that has been accomplished by LORD (Eph 4:3-4). Our responsibility is to keep it, for though we are not the one who make it, but we can break it. LORD has distributed his life to us. We are united with LORD, so we are also united with each other. We commune with LORD, so we also commune with those in Christ. For a normal Christian, the more gatherings of the eating bread and drinking the cup he participates in, the more he will understand the love of LORD, and the more he wants to commune with other members who are also saved by the sacrificial death of LORD and the more he love others. Thus, all saints will become one in Christ.

This message is compiled and edited under the guidance of Holy Spirit. All thanks, praises and glories be to God!

Reference:

1. Jiale Huang: “Christians’ Digest of the Scripture Analysis Series”.