Most of our difficulties with understanding the Supper of the Lord stem from philosophical assumptions that we all carry about with us. One of the principal culprits has been the division of the world we inhabit into two parts—the spiritual and mental, the material and physical. But the world is not to be divided up …
In Person
We too often fall into the trap of thinking that a description is the same thing as an explanation. If confronted with the inadequacy of our description, we resort (oddly) to a more detailed and “scientific” description. But this makes no sense. When we let go of an object, we readily assume that our scientific …
The Miracle Continues
The Incarnation was a stupendous event, a miracle of miracles. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the foundation of all our hope, rest upon this prior foundation. Christ became a man in order to be able to die. He became a man in order to come back from the dead, leading us all out …
His Flesh Is The Veil
I said last week that in the Lord’s Supper we partake of a living Christ, not a dead Christ. Scripture teaches this in the tenth chapter of Hebrews, a chapter rich in sacramental doctrine. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (v. 10), which was offered once for all by …
What Kind of Miracle?
What are we doing here? Or, more importantly, what is being done to us here? The Church has historically been divided as to the meaning and import of this Supper. Some believe that no miracle occurs here, others believe that a miracle happens, but it is the wrong category of miracle. A third group believes …
Eating Life
We are the bride of Jesus Christ, and we are in the process of being knit together with Him, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. This glorious and supernatural process is being accomplished by the Holy Spirit and the Word, the Holy Spirit and the sacrament. There are things being accomplished here …
Receiving At the Table
In the old covenant, the sacrifices were a type of the coming sacrifice of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus. A pure animal was selected, set apart, killed and offered up to God on an altar. In this the priest was enacting a type, a foreshadowing, of the coming propitiation accomplished by Christ when He was …
Still Being Broken
We are here sitting down with Jesus Christ, and we are doing so in His kingdom. He is Messiah the Prince, and all authority has been bestowed on Him. From the River to the ends of the earth, He is the Lord. From the east to the west, He is the king over all of …
Becoming Human
The Holy Spirit is active in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. This word sacrament that we use comes from the Latin word sacramentum, which in its turn is the translation of the Greek word mysterion, or mystery. In what way is this a mystery, and how does the power of the Holy Spirit come …
Reminding the God Who Never Forgets
When we come to this Table, we are fed by the Lord. When we eat the bread and drink the wine, we are nourished by Him. This is a memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection, but this is not the same thing that many have assumed it to be. A memorial in scriptural language is …