What do we call it: The Lord’s Supper, an Ordinance, Sacrament, or Communion? This question is common. So let me try to answer it.
First, take a look at the 1689 Baptist Confession and notice the four things I emphasized in bold-italics:
CHAPTER 30 – Paragraph 1. The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him the same night wherein he was betrayed, to be observed in his churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing to all the world the sacrifice of himself in his death, confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment, and growth in him, their further engagement in, and to all duties which they owe to him; and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other. (emphasis mine)
You can see above that according to the Confession we can call this practice of the church by all four of the names stated in the above question. Let’s look at each one a little closer.
1. Lord’s Supper
The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:20, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.” (ESV) So Paul refers to this church practice as “the Lord’s supper.” And this is truly a feast for your souls. So you can call it what Paul calls it, The Lord’s Supper.
2. Ordinance
Paul also said to the Corinthians, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,” (1 Cor. 1:23, ESV) Paul “received” this from Christ himself. This church practice was instituted by Christ himself. We thus can call it an “ordinance of the church,” because that simply means that it was especially “ordained” or instituted by Christ.
3. Sacrament
The [Latin word] sacramentum meant both “a thing set apart as sacred,” and “a military oath of obedience as administered by the commander.” The term sacrament denotes a special act of obedience. So this begs the question, “What is so special about this ordinance that Jesus instituted it?”
Well, there are several views concerning this. For example, when Catholics and Lutherans use the word “sacrament” they mean that a blessing of grace is literally administered through the actual elements. They believe that the elements of bread and wine have supernatural powers after they are consecrated by a priest.
But the way we use “sacrament” leans toward treating the bread and the cup as a special means of helping the recipient to feed his soul on Christ spiritually, by faith, and in this way to appropriate grace. In other words, the elements themselves do not have special powers, but that the worship of Christ via this sacrament has sanctifying power because a believer is participating in a specially blessed form of worship that captures a persons entire attention of Jesus Christ.
Again lets notice the 1689 Baptist Confession: Chapter 30: Paragraph 7:
Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive, and feed upon Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death; the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.
What makes this Lord’s Supper special is not that its elements are supernatural but that as we eat them physically we also spiritually worship Christ in a special way. Jesus spoke clearly in John 6:63 that when he referred to His body and blood that he was only doing so in a figurative way. Jesus taught that to “feast” upon him one must do so by faith, faith in who He is and what He has done.
The Lord sanctified this form of worship and thus it has a unique and special blessing. So, if one asks, “Do believers receive a special grace in the Lord’s Supper?’ The answer is: yes, believers receive a special sanctifying grace that nourishes their soul and strengthens one’s faith. To partake of this sacrament is to participate in the work of Christ, to fellowship in the blessings of Calvary afresh and anew. See Paul’s explanation of that in 1 Corinthians 10:16.
In other words, this sacrament brings about a deep remembrance of the Lord Jesus and all that his life, death, resurrection, ascension was about. It is a remembrance, an intellectual awareness of historical biblical facts. Yet, it is not just an intellectual awareness of historical facts, but in the act we really feed our souls by faith on what the broken body and spilled blood achieved for us: a justified and sanctified fellowship with the risen Christ. Thus, in this sacrament a real spiritual worship takes place and the Spirit of God really administers sanctifying grace to me as I put my faith in HE whom these elements represent.
The bread represents the “body of work” of Jesus Christ: a body that was incarnated, a body that lived righteously, a body that was broken, and a body that was risen and glorified. And we now eat that bread as the spiritual body of Christ.
The wine or “fruit of the vine” represents the blood of Christ that was shed for the New Covenant. It bought our forgiveness, it bought our delight in God’s law, and it bought our personal relationship with God. It was shed so that God could stand over us as a church and say, “I am your God and you are my people.”
So Jesus says the participation in this sacrament is a remembrance of my death and remembrance of all that I am for you, and it should, thus, awaken our faith and draw us into deeper fellowship with Him! That is what faith is: faith is a being satisfied in all that God is for us in Christ.
John Calvin said that the problem with the sacramentalism of Roman Catholicism and even Lutheranism was that they brought Christ down into the elements. In reality the Lord’ Supper brings us up, to have spiritual fellowship with Christ and all who are in Him and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other.
I agree with Calvin: partaking in the Lord’s Supper is a true spiritual re-dedication. We are rededicating ourselves to Christ and to His church. Each time we partake of this sacrament we are in effect pulling ourselves up to the table with Christ and all the saints and saying, “I’m here. I’m committed to this family. I need this family. And I am here to nourish my soul on the realities of redemption so that I may go out and represent this family well.”
4. Communion
Which leads me to the last title: Communion. This ordinance is truly an act of communion with God, communion that we on earth below have with the saints above, and communion with one another in Jesus Christ. The Church is the covenant communion of those united to Christ, and we are thus recipients of all the benefits and blessings of Jesus Christ. Communion is shared life with those who possess the same new life in Christ.
Let me explain. A believer’s communion with God is through Jesus Christ. We are united to Christ by His Spirit and through Christ we thus have fellowship with God(1 John 1:3). Thus by our faith in Jesus Christ we have communion with a triune God. Therefore, when you participate in this meal, you feast and fellowship with God. Indeed, your worthiness to sit at this table with God is based on your relationship to Jesus.
Furthermore, by virtue of our union with Christ, believers are in communion with all other saints, even with the glorified Church in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-24). When we partake of Communion we are spiritually feasting with all the saints, even those already in heaven.
Finally, we believers have unity with other believers on earth; we are in communion with one another even in our local church. Thus have a responsibility to one another (1 Corinthians 12:7). Paul, in effect, told the Corinthian believers, “Yes, Corinthians, you’ve been given extraordinary gifts, but those gifts don’t belong to you; they belong to the body. God gave you that gift for the common good. In the same way that he can say in that mystical passage that the husband’s body belongs to the wife, and the wife’s body belongs to the husband, so also, all of My gifts belong to you, and all of your gifts belong to Me and all of our gifts collectively belong to one another; they are for the common good.
We are all of the same body, thus we all need each other. Does your local church manifest that reality? Is your church so close it can be called a body? Do you strengthen, exhort, encourage one another. Have you discovered how each and every Christian in your local church actually makes you a more healthy Christian? Do we realize that when one member of this body is at odds with another, a grievous wound is born by the body? Do you realize that your sin hurts us all?
We’re part of a body; we’re members. If my eye sins, my whole person is guilty. If my hand sins, my whole body is guilty. If one member of this body is sinning then we all bear a responsibility. Thus, the 1689 Confession reflects the Scriptural teaching about the warnings of partaking the Communion unworthily. We should judge ourselves and repent, and furthermore, keep each other accountable through biblical church accountability and discipline. Guard the table!
Taking Communion often will help us all remember our responsibility to be right with God, right with one another, fully dedicated grow in Christ, engaged in His ministry, and obedient to all the duties we owe him.
Call it what you want, but if we administer it properly, the Lord’s Supper is one of the most powerful means of keeping our churches healthy!
