Question 47

Question

Does the Lord’s Supper add anything to Christ’s atoning work?

Answer

No, Christ died once for all. The Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal celebrating Christ’s atoning work; as it is also a means of strengthening our faith as we look to him, and a foretaste of the future feast. But those who take part with unrepentant hearts eat and drink judgment on themselves.

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Proof Text: 1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. . . .

Prayer

Conqueror of Death, we celebrate your finished work when we take the Lord’s Supper. May our eating be a confession of faith, that though we are unworthy, we have been joined together with the worthiness of Christ. May we come to your table with repentant hearts, putting away pride and self-sufficiency, enjoying the free grace you offer to us. Amen.

Video Commentary

Tim King

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Leo Schuster

Who is Leo Schuster?

Transcript of
Leo Schuster’s
Video Commentary

I recently saw a restaurant advertisement that simply had the name of the restaurant and the words spiritual dining. It made me wonder about whether dining, at its best, is more than a mere material experience. And it made me think about the Lord’s Supper, the spiritual meal, and what it does and doesn’t do. There are actually three dimensions to what the Lord’s Supper does: past, present, and future.

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he told his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19), underscoring that what he was urging them to do would point back to what he had done for them. When we remember what Jesus did for us, we ground our lives in his finished work. The Lord’s Supper isn’t a way you can earn your salvation; it is spiritual dining for those who are saved. It doesn’t add anything to the finished work of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice, but confirms and strengthens us in him. It becomes a sort of gospel shorthand where, as an ancient writer put it, first we hear the gospel, then we taste the gospel, and so the gospel goes forward in our lives on two legs. As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (11:26). As Christians we eat and drink to remember Jesus’s triumph. That’s the past dimension.

Paul points to the present dimension of the Lord’s Supper when he writes in 1 Corinthians, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (10:16). That word participation could also be translated “fellowship” or “communion.” It’s where we get the term communion. Think of what that means—the Lord’s Supper is not only a symbolic reminder of what Jesus has done for us; it’s also a present communion with one another and with Jesus.

It’s important to note that the bread and wine don’t change in any way. Jesus isn’t present physically, but he’s present spiritually as the Holy Spirit exhibits him to us by faith. Now for those who are spiritually unresolved, the Lord’s Supper is a call to them to receive Christ rather than to participate in the meal. By witnessing Christians partaking, they’re encouraged to hear the echo of Jesus’s loving call: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). And when we as believers take communion by faith, Jesus meets with us, uniting us as a community, nourishing us with himself, and strengthening us to love and obey him. That’s the present dimension.

When Jesus gave his disciples the cup he said, “I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29). With these words he directed them to the future dimension of the Lord’s Supper, as a sign pointing forward to the great day of anticipation. It’s a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb and the everlasting feast believers will enjoy with Christ in glory. Now we’re broken creatures due to sin. Through Christ’s broken body we’re made whole again. Yet in this life we continue to experience the brokenness of our fallen condition. The future dimension of the Lord’s Supper points us forward in hope to a day when we will be made completely whole and when we’ll enjoy, with our Savior and with one another, dining at its very best.

Historical Commentary by qqq J. C. Ryle

Who is J. C. Ryle?

Let us settle it firmly in our minds that the Lord’s Supper was not given to be a means either of justification or of conversion. It was never meant to give grace where there is no grace already, or to provide pardon when pardon is not already enjoyed. It cannot possibly provide what is lacking with the absence of repentance to God, and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an ordinance for the penitent, not for the impenitent, for the believing, not for the unbelieving, for the converted, not for the unconverted. The unconverted man, who fancies that he can find a shortcut road to heaven by taking the Sacrament, without treading the well-worn steps of repentance and faith, will find to his cost one day that he is totally deceived. The Lord’s Supper was meant to increase and help the grace that a man has, but not to impart the grace that he has not. It was certainly never intended to make our peace with God, to justify, or to convert.

The simplest statement of the benefit which a truehearted communicant may expect to receive from the Lord’s Supper . . . is the strengthening and refreshing of our souls. Clearer views of Christ and His atonement, clearer views of all the offices which Christ fills as our Mediator and Advocate, clearer views of the complete redemption Christ has obtained for us by His vicarious death on the cross, clearer views of our full and perfect acceptance in Christ before God, fresh reasons for deep repentance for sin, fresh reasons for lively faith, fresh reasons for living a holy, consecrated, Christ-like life,—these are among the leading returns which a believer may confidently expect to get from his attendance at the Lord’s Table. He that eats the bread and drinks the wine in a right spirit will find himself drawn into closer communion with Christ, and will feel to know Him more, and understand Him better. . . .

In eating that bread and drinking that cup, such a man will have his repentance deepened, his faith increased, his knowledge enlarged, his habit of holy living strengthened. He will realise more of the “real presence” of Christ in his heart. Eating that bread by faith, he will feel closer communion with the body of Christ. Drinking that wine by faith, he will feel closer communion with the blood of Christ. He will see more clearly what Christ is to him, and what he is to Christ. He will understand more thoroughly what it is to be “one with Christ, and Christ one with him.” He will feel the roots of his soul’s spiritual life watered, and the work of grace in his heart established, built up, and carried forward. All these things may seem and sound like foolishness to a natural man, but to a true Christian these things are light, and health, and life, and peace.

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Question 47

Does the Lord’s Supper add anything to Christ’s atoning work?

Answer

No, Christ died once for all.

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Question 46

Question

What is the Lord’s Supper?

Answer

Christ commanded all Christians to eat bread and to drink from the cup in thankful remembrance of him and his death. The Lord’s Supper is a celebration of the presence of God in our midst; bringing us into communion with God and with one another; feeding and nourishing our souls. It also anticipates the day when we will eat and drink with Christ in his Father’s kingdom.

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Proof Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23–26

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, 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 also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Prayer

Bread of Life, we take the Lord’s Supper in reverent obedience. We do not want to receive it unworthily, so we come in repentance and faith. Help us to forgive the sins of those who have sinned against us, especially the believers with whom we share the bread and the cup. May our partaking of this meal proclaim your saving death and our desperate need of it. Amen.

Video Commentary

Tim King

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Ligon Duncan

Who is Ligon Duncan?

Transcript of
Ligon Duncan’s
Video Commentary

The Lord’s Supper is a covenant sign and seal. That means that it both represents and confirms to us the precious promise of God that, through Jesus Christ, he will be our God, and we are his people. In the Lord’s Supper we have a remembrance, a celebration of God’s presence, and an experience of communion. We also have something that nourishes us, and in the Lord’s Supper, we anticipate the glory to come.

First, we have a remembrance in the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus told his disciples that they were going to proclaim his death until he comes. The bread and the wine, the body and the blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, is a representation of a covenant sacrifice. The two constituent parts indicate that Jesus’s death was a deliberate act on his part. He gave himself as a sacrifice in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. And so every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we are to remember the meaning and significance of the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We are to remember him. “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). We celebrate the glorious work of atonement that Jesus Christ accomplished for us.

Second, the Lord’s Supper is also a celebration of God’s presence. Isn’t it amazing that we’re invited to slide our knees up under the table of God? That is especially amazing in light of our rebellion. In Genesis 3, Satan said to Eve and to Adam, “Take and eat this fruit.” They ate the fruit against God’s command, and what was the result? Did it result in their satisfaction and fulfillment? No. It resulted in their being driven away from the presence of God. But at the Lord’s Table the Lord himself invites us back into his presence. When Jesus says to his disciples, “Take and eat,” he reverses the words of the Serpent in the garden. Derek Kidner has this wonderful line: “God will taste poverty and death before ‘take and eat’ become verbs of salvation.” We experience that every time we come to the Lord’s Table, every time we hear the minister say, “Take and eat, all of you.” It’s a celebration of our reunion with God, his presence with us, and our enjoyment of his near fellowship.

Third, the Lord’s Supper is a communion. It’s a communion with God and with his people. We not only commune with the living God by grace, we not only commune with the living God by what Jesus has done for us on the cross, but we commune with one another. When we’re united to the Lord Jesus Christ, we’re united to everyone who is united to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why Paul says to the Corinthians, “You must discern the body” (1 Cor. 11:29). He’s not telling them that they need to understand some mystical thing about the elements in the Lord’s Supper. What’s the body that he’s talking about? The body of Christ, the church, the fellowship of believers.

Finally, the Lord’s Supper is spiritual nourishment. It’s a means of grace. It’s one of God’s appointed ways by which he builds us up and nourishes us, confirms our faith, and strengthens us for growth. And the Lord’s Supper is an anticipation of the glory to come. Jesus washed his disciples’ feet on the night that he was betrayed, and he served them the elements of the Lord’s Supper. Interestingly, when Jesus speaks of the marriage supper of the Lamb in consummation (Luke 12:37), in glory, when the great end has come and all have acknowledged him to be King, he says that on that day he will bid us all to recline, just like the disciples reclined on the night of the Lord’s Supper, and he will gird himself and serve us.

Yes, in the Lord’s Supper, we anticipate the marriage supper of the Lamb, where we will sit down with one another in glory, and our Savior will serve us again everything that we need. What a joy it is to come to the Lord’s Table.

Historical Commentary by
Richard Baxter

Who is Richard Baxter?

O what unspeakable mysteries and treasures of mercy are here presented to us in a sacrament! Here we have communion with a reconciled God, and are brought into his presence by the great Reconciler. Here we have communion with our blessed Redeemer, as crucified and glorified, and offered to us, as our quickening, preserving, strengthening Head. Here we have communion with the Holy Ghost, applying to our souls the benefits of redemption, drawing us to the Son, and communicating light, and life, and strength from him unto us; increasing and actuating his graces in us. Here we have communion with the body of Christ, his sanctified people, the heirs of life. When the minister of Christ by his commission representeth a crucified Christ to our eyes, by the bread and wine appointed to this use, we see Christ crucified as it were before us, and our faith layeth hold on him, and we perceive the truth of the remedy; and build our souls upon this rock. When the same minister by Christ’s commission, doth offer us his body, and blood, and benefits, it is as firm and valid to us, as if the mouth of Christ himself had offered them. And when our souls receive him, by that faith which the Holy Ghost exciteth in us, the participation is as true as that of our bodies receiving the bread and wine which represent him.

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Question 46

What is the Lord’s Supper?

Answer

Christ commanded all Christians to eat bread and to drink from the cup in thankful remembrance of him.

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Question 45

Question

Is baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?

Answer

No, only the blood of Christ and the renewal of the Holy Spirit can cleanse us from sin.

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Proof Text: Luke 3:16

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Prayer

Lamb of God, our baptism is a sign that we are saved not by our own righteousness, but because we have been given the righteousness of Christ. Let us not make baptism the object of our trust, but look instead to the cleansing work of Jesus, beautifully depicted in baptism. Amen.

Video Commentary

Tim King

Who is Timothy King?

R. Kent Hughes

Who is R. Kent Hughes?

Transcript of
R. Kent Hughes’s
Video Commentary

The great classic text that celebrates and announces the believer’s baptism into Christ is 1 Corinthians 12:13: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” That speaks of the Spirit’s initiating us into the body of Christ, and that happened to me when I was just twelve years old. I’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I was indeed baptized by the Holy Spirit. And now as the years have gone by, what was an objective fact has become a subjective reality in my life.

When I was baptized by the Spirit, I was regenerated, born again. I was born of the Spirit, John 3 says. What a beautiful picture. The metaphor of being born again describes a divine obstetrics because I was taken out of darkness and I was brought into light, and I began to see things.

At the same time I was regenerated, I was indwelled by the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John 14 that the Spirit “will live with you” and “will be in you.” I lost my father when I was a little boy and had a sense of being alone in this world. When I became indwelt, a sense of paternity overtook my soul, of being adopted. I didn’t know that I’d been tagged by the Holy Spirit or sealed by the Holy Spirit. As it says in Ephesians 1:13–14: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” That further gave me a sense of protection and reality, that I was tagged for eternity by the Holy Spirit when I was baptized by the Spirit.

When I was baptized in the Spirit, I was also prayed for. Romans 8:26 says, “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.” The Holy Spirit prays with groanings that cannot be uttered because he knows our hearts (Rom. 8:26).

And then, at the same time, I was enlightened. I can remember as a boy at a camp going back to my cabin, getting out my Bible, underlining in it, and having the Word come alive to me, as it has continued to come alive in my life. Now when John the Baptist pointedly said, “I baptize you with water, but [Christ] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire,” he was talking about the superiority of Jesus’s baptism. Water can wash only the outside, but the Spirit and fire regenerate and cleanse the inside. And so that is the great abiding reality and joy of being baptized with the Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit is making all things new and constantly conforming us to the image of Christ.

Historical Commentary by
John Calvin

Who is John Calvin?

“He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” It is asked, why did not John equally say, that it is Christ alone who washes souls with his blood? The reason is, that this very washing is performed by the power of the Spirit, and John reckoned it enough to express the whole effect of baptism by the single word Spirit. The meaning is clear, that Christ alone bestows all the grace which is figuratively represented by outward baptism, because it is he who “sprinkles the conscience” with his blood. It is he also who mortifies the old man, and bestows the Spirit of regeneration. The word fire is added as an epithet, and is applied to the Spirit, because he takes away our pollutions, as fire purifies gold.

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Question 45

Is baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?

Answer

No, only the blood of Christ can cleanse us from sin.

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Question 44

Question

What is baptism?

Answer

Baptism is the washing with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; it signifies and seals our adoption into Christ, our cleansing from sin, and our commitment to belong to the Lord and to his church.

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Proof Text: Matthew 28:19

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. . . .

Prayer

Cleansing One, we cannot purify our own hearts, but must come to you to wash away our sin. Thank you for water baptism, which does not save us but portrays our salvation and unites us as one people, your adopted sons and daughters. Amen.

Video Commentary

Tim King

Who is Timothy King?

David Bisgrove

Who is David Bisgrove?

Transcript of
David Bisgrove’s
Video Commentary

I’ve lived in New York City for close to 25 years and one of the paradoxes of life in a city like New York is that you can be surrounded by thousands of people every day and still feel lonely and disconnected from everybody else around you.  One of the beautiful things about Christianity is that it offers you a way out of that isolation because regardless of your past moral record, your socioeconomic status, your ethnicity; everyone’s invited into and made part of the family of Jesus through faith in what he’s done for us on the cross.  

Paul wrote about that in Galatians 3 and noted that the external sign of the reality that we’re no longer alone is baptism into Jesus.  This is why Jesus commanded his disciples that as they went about the work of sharing their faith, they were to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit.  This reminds us that God is saving the world through the establishment of a new humanity, the church.  God doesn’t simply want us to be saved as individuals into a personal relationship with him but into a covenant community or we’re bound to God and one another.  

Now, specifically baptism signifies that a Christian is someone who’s united with Christ in his death and resurrection.  That’s at the heart of what it means to be baptized into the name of Jesus.  This union with Christ and his death and resurrection and the beginning of a new life in which someone has been cleansed of sin and is now part of a new community is the controlling idea in baptism. 

Baptism is a watershed moment as it signifies a new creation and grafting into Christ’s risen life in his community.  So, in those moments of doubt or discouragement or loneliness, remember the significance of the fact that you’re a baptized Christian; that you’re united with Christ in his death and resurrection; that you are clothed with him and that the Holy Spirit of God has made you a child of God and part of his everlasting family.

Additional Commentary by Collin Hansen

Who is Collin Hansen?

When I told my pastor I wanted to become a church member, he offered a simple explanation for why I should then seek baptism: because Jesus did so. Why, though, did Jesus wade into the Jordan and ask his cousin John to lower him beneath the waters? After all, he had no sin to confess, no need to repent.

I’ve always sympathized with John’s incredulous response to Jesus’s request. “I need to be baptized by you,” said John, who prepared the way for the Christ, “and do you come to me?” (Matt. 3:14).

Yes, Jesus responded, “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15).

In his baptism, Jesus identified with all of us who, because of sin, will someday die as a result of God’s judgment (Gen. 3:19). Water has been a sign of God’s judgment since Genesis 6–7, when God judged the wickedness of man and sent a flood to destroy all but Noah and his family. Though he never would sin, Jesus would nevertheless die at the hands of sinful men as he absorbed the wrath of God for the sinful world.

Water, of course, is also necessary for life. Before there was light, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters (Gen. 1:2). And one day when the resurrected and ascended Jesus returns to inaugurate the new heavens and the new earth, a river of life will flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1–2). Any who follow him into the waves as enemies of God will emerge as brothers and sisters of the Son of God, fellow heirs of his eternal inheritance.

Baptism is a sign and seal that we have been adopted into the family of God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have loved one another in perfect unity since before creation, before God molded Adam from the dust. At Jesus’s baptism we notice all three persons. As Jesus emerges from the water, the Spirit of God descends like a dove and rests on him (Matt 3:16). So that no one will mistake the meaning of the sign, the Father boasts from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).

Every time I remember my baptism, I hear these words of blessing. Jesus was plunged beneath the waters of judgment, so that I might drink the waters of everlasting life. Because Jesus calls me brother, I can call God my Father. Because the Spirit descended on him as a dove, I have peace with God, who once regarded me as his enemy.

Once I was outside the people of God, estranged from this family due to my sin. But now I am a brother to all who have been likewise baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church is our home, the place where, despite our disagreements and disputes, we come together to confess that we have one Lord and one faith (Eph. 4:5). To us has been given the Great Commission to follow in John’s footsteps and call others to repentance while we point them to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). We baptize so they might always know that God loves them, that he is well pleased with them because they now belong to Christ.

Historical Commentary by
George Herbert

Who is George Herbert?

Poem: H. Baptism

As he that sees a dark and shady grove,
Stays not, but looks beyond it on the sky
So when I view my sins, mine eyes remove
More backward still, and to that water fly,
Which is above the heav’ns, whose spring and rent
Is in my dear Redeemer’s pierced side.
O blessed streams! either ye do prevent
And stop our sins from growing thick and wide,
Or else give tears to drown them, as they grow.
In you Redemption measures all my time,
And spreads the plaster equal to the crime:
You taught the book of life my name, that so,
Whatever future sins should me miscall,
Your first acquaintance might discredit all.

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Question 44

What is baptism?

Answer

Baptism is the washing with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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