LS-12-A Communion

A Communion The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ?--1 Corinthians 10:16-17. The experience of Christian people throughout the ages bears witness to the fact that our Lord Jesus may be known in the emblems of the broken body and shed blood with a fulness that may not be obtained in any other way. The "mystic sweet communion" has been realised, even when it may not have been clearly understood. The attempts to explain this mystery have given rise to some strange doctrines. The Romanist, for instance, believes that when the priest utters the words of consecration, the elements of the bread and wine are converted into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, so that what is partaken of by the worshipper Is actually the body and blood of Christ, under the species of bread and wine. This is the doctrine of the "real presence," so-called. Some of the reformers, in endeavouring to correct this obvious error, taught that while the nature of the elements indeed remains unchanged, in some mysterious way the human nature of Christ is conjoined with them. The worshipper partakes of bread and wine indeed, but the body and blood of Christ are present in the elements of the Lord’s Supper. We may discard this, too, as another philosophical explanation which misses the real meaning and spiritual significance of the Lord’s Table. In what sense, then, is the cup of blessing a communion of the blood of Christ--the bread a communion of the body of Christ? It seems evident that the apostle believed that in some way communion with the body and blood of Christ was established through partaking of the bread and of the cup. That communion, we verily believe, is a spiritual one. There comes to the worshipper, in so partaking, an inward consciousness of participating in the body and blood of reconciliation, the consciousness that through the Divine Redeemer we become sharers in the life of God. Here at the Lord’s Table it seems specially true that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, and that He is in us the fountain of life and blessing.

Sit at the feast, dear Lord,
Break Thou the bread;
Fill Thou the cup that brings
Life to the dead:
That we may find in Thee
Pardon and peace;
And from all bondage win
A full release.