Troublesome Topic: Communion Is Multifaceted

When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, or holy communion, what exactly are we doing? In truth there are several layers of meaning involved, making it one of the richest experiences we can have in our journey toward greater closeness to God.

Communion Points Us to the One True Sacrifice

Communion is a chance to reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. I hope that a better understanding of the covenant will make communion more meaningful for you.

This means that Jesus not only died for us, He also died with us. Jesus died with us because we were already suffering spiritual death on account of Adam’s sin, and He died for us because our death accomplishes nothing to change the situation.

Such was the extent of His resolve to bring reconciliation to the relationship man had torn to pieces.

God asked Abraham to paint of picture of a costly sacrifice using his own son, and it felt to Abraham like God came very close to letting him follow through with it. However, there is a big difference between “almost” and “for real,” and in the case of His own son, God actually followed through with and completed what He did not let Abraham complete.

The sacrifice of a four-footed creature did not really do the job; it was just a symbolic representation. The sacrificing of our life would also have accomplished nothing, for we were already suffering spiritual death and were destined for physical death.

In the moments of silence during communion we should consider again the fact that we could do nothing to bring ourselves back into a proper relationship with God. God did not have to “straighten things out” for us, He could have just annihilated us, but He chose to redeem us, and at an extremely high price. Our most sincere expressions of gratitude seem inadequate; but thankfully, He is pleased by such weak attempts.

4. Jesus used His own blood to establish the New Covenant. The inauguration of the New Covenant did not involve a representative death, it was a real death; the blood that was shed was not that of some animal, but that of the very ones (Father and Son) establishing the covenant!

If the use of blood in covenant-making was intended to provide assurance that someone would do what he said he would do (and it was), then I must conclude that there was never a more sure thing in the history of the universe than this New Covenant! If the blood of animals could provide strong assurance, how much more the blood of the covenant Lord Himself!

This closeness is a result, not a primary act. The elimination of the separation came as a result of the fact that Jesus had accomplished atonement on our behalf. It is one of several important provisions for us that we should contemplate as we take the communion elements.

6. He paid the price to buy us back again. Both New Testament terms that are translated “redeem” point to the act of buying with the purpose of providing freedom or deliverance. All of us, like sheep, have wandered away (Is. 53:6) and there was a price involved in getting us back.

We discussed earlier how God told Hosea to take a prostitute named Gomer as his wife (it could have been a prostitute to make money, or a temple prostitute in the Baal cult). She left him and ended up on the auction block being sold as a slave. God told Hosea to buy her back. This was a perfect picture of God’s dealings with Israel which fits precisely with the use of the term “redeem,” which means to “buy back.”

A price must be paid since we have, by the decision of Adam first of all, and secondly by our own decisions, enslaved ourselves to sin. The payment does not go to Satan, for God does not owe Satan anything! But there was indeed a price to be paid for our freedom from sin’s dominion, and that price was extremely high. It is because of the high cost that was paid for our redemption that we are told to “do this in remembrance” of the one who paid that price. We dare not lose a sense of awe, wonder, amazement and inexpressible gratitude for what was done on that cross.

In the case of mankind, the bride-price was very high -it was paid in blood. It would be correct to say that God used the blood of His Son to pay the bride-price with which He acquired us as the wife of His son. It would also be correct to say that Jesus promised us His life, and promptly gave it for us. Both acts were accomplished by His crucifixion.

When we participate in communion and we drink from the cup, we should remember the words of the young lady in the custom described above. We should think of drinking from the cup as a statement from us to Jesus which declares, “I accept the giving of your life, and I give you my life in return.”

7 plus 1. This is a sign of the New Covenant, established as such when Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” 

Since a meal was sometimes used in antiquity to help inaugurate a covenant, a dramatization of that meal would be a natural sign of that covenant relationship. The way Jesus asked them to show their loyalty to this New Covenant was perfectly understood in their day. So every time we participate in communion, or the Lord’s Supper, we are not just remembering what He did for us, but we are publicly stating our loyalty to that relationship. Anyone who takes part in communion without an attitude of sober commitment to God is acting like those mentioned in I Cor. 11:20-33, whom the Apostle Paul chastised severely. It is much better to focus on how grateful we are to God for providing us with His eternal source of true nourishment and happiness – “bread of life,” whom we love more and more each day we keep Him close to us.

The next lesson in the Full Series on Covenants is: A New Perspective on the Curse of Death