A. Introduction:
1. Since with Baptism, the Lord’s Supper is the sacrament God has instituted in His Church, it follows that a discussion of the Lord’s Supper will come in connection with baptism.
a. Baptism is first since it is a sign and seal of our entrance into God’s Covenant, into the spiritual family of God; the Lord’s Supper follows because it is a sign and seal of our abiding within the fellowship of that covenant, our being fed daily in God’s household.
b. Thus also Baptism is administered once while the Lord’s Supper is repeatedly celebrated.
c. Moreover, this is also the reason why Baptism is administered to children in the line of the covenant, while the Lord’s Supper is celebrated by confessing believers.
2. While not directly expressed, this article nevertheless opposes the errors that have risen in the Church with regard to this sacrament.
a. Transubstantiation-the error of Roman Catholicism which teaches that the bread and wine of the sacrament are actually changed into the body and blood of Christ. From this it follows that the grace imparted by the sacrament is imparted automatically and to all who partake.
b. Consubstantiation-the error of Lutheranism which teaches that while the bread and wine are not actually changed into the body and blood of Christ, nevertheless the body and blood of Christ are under in and with the bread and wine. This is principally no different from Lutheranism.
c. Zwingli went to the opposite extreme and taught that the sacrament is not really a means of grace, but is only a memorial feast similar to Christmas, during which the Church recalls the sufferings of Christ her Lord.
B. The article speaks of the need of the sacrament by discussing the “two-fold life” of the regenerated elect.
1. They have a natural life.
a. This life is common to all men, temporal and corporal, received from first birth.
b. It is supported by earthly bread and drink.
2. They also have a spiritual life.
a. It is given to them in their second birth.
b. It is “effected by the Word of the gospel, in the communion of the body of Christ.”
c. It is peculiar to God’s elect.
d. This life is nourished and strengthened by eating Jesus Christ Who is the true Bread from heaven.
C. The working of the sacrament.
1. The elements of the sacrament are signs and seals.
a. These elements are: the bread, the wine, the breaking of the bread, the pouring out of the wine, the communion of the saints about the table.
b. They are signs because they point to spiritual and invisible realities.
1) The bread points to the body of Christ; the wine to his blood.
2) The breaking of the bread points to the breaking of Christ’s body on the cross; the pouring out of the wine to the shedding of His blood. (Note: these taken together point to the meritorious and vicarious suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross.)
3) The gathering of the saints about the table point to the fellowship of the saints in the body of Christ.
c. They are seals because they are visible pledges and guarantees of God that He will actually give that which is signified.
2. The eating and drinking of the bread and wine.
a. We do not literally eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, but eat and drink by faith for faith is “the hand and mouth of our soul”.
b. This means that by faith we lay hold on Christ and all the blessings of His cross and make them our own.
c. This is accomplished by the operation of the Spirit in our hearts and through the Word of the minister, which Word is the Word of Christ Who is the Host at this spiritual banquet.
d. This operation of the Spirit “surpasses our understanding, and cannot be comprehended by us, as the operations of the Holy Ghost are hidden and incomprehensible.”
3. The blessings received.
a. Our spiritual life and faith are nourished and fed by these visible signs and seals.
b. Our Lord Jesus Christ Who is in heaven comes to us and makes us partakers of Himself and all His blessings-“gives us there to enjoy both himself, and the merits of his sufferings and death, nourishing, strengthening and comforting our poor comfortless souls by the eating of his flesh, quickening and refreshing them by the drinking of His blood.”
D. The proper partakers of the Lord’s Supper.
1. There is a two-fold operation of the sacrament.
a. Those who partake in faith are spiritually blessed.
b. Those who do not partake at all for any reason, or those who partake in unbelief are condemned-condemned the greater for having partaken. The sacraments also are savors of death unto death.
2. True self-examination is therefore necessary for believers.
a. This self examination must be to discover whether we are “in the faith”.
b. This includes whether we know our sins and miseries; whether we are truly sorry for them; whether we earnestly desire to walk in the way of God’s commandments.