Preparation for the Lord’s Supper

The New Covenant: Bought in Christ’s Sacrifice, Administered in His Blood

Followers of Christ are brought into the New Covenant by the Atonement. This is possible through the breaking or sacrifice of Jesus’ Body, to finally satisfy the Justice demanded by God for our sins. This Covenant with us is sealed in His Blood, the same Blood that was spilled out to pay the terrible cost of the world’s sin. It is this same Blood we must be covered in to escape Judgment, to participate in the Next Passover.

The Lord’s Table: A Remembrance of Jesus and His Work – Past, Present, and Future

The Lord’s Table, the Holy Eucharist, is one of the two Sacraments He has given to the Church to declare our surrender to Him and to continue in our reverent remembrance of what He has done through the Cross. As the Passover celebration renewed Israel’s remembrance of the Lord’s mighty work in Egypt, so too does the remembrance of His Sacrifice meet the Living Spirit’s testimony in us who have been Saved by the Passover Lamb Jesus. This Table represents the culmination of God’s Work in creation, the reason why He spared humankind despite our continual rebellion against Him, the Promise of the first Covenanting fulfilled in seeing Abram’s spiritual children gathered as God’s people.

The Celebration is for Believers, Alone

We who believe have received the confirmation of our forgiveness by receiving His Spirit in us. As well, only those who know Jesus as their Savior can rightfully acknowledge His Sacrifice, and rightfully participate in the Supper which celebrates our Lord on the Cross.

The Last Supper focuses it’s entirety on the betrayal of Jesus and the Sacrifice He was about to become. Even though He knew exactly what was ahead of Him, He did not proceed without giving thanks to the Father.

The Cross, its Sacrifice, and the Worthy Blood begin the Pinnacle of God’s Redemptive Work

Christ is the Bridge between the Old Covenant and the New. His Work on the Cross fully satisfied the demand of Sacrifice by the Law in His punishment, this is the bread, and the forgiveness we may have is now available through faith in His Grace, this is the cup. The Lord’s Supper tells us this Truth again and again as we do it in remembrance of Him.

Christ is the Bridge between Salvation for the Jews and Salvation for the World

Both the bread and the cup are offered in relation to what He was sent to do. The bread represents His Body as food for our spirit. His Body was soon to be broken physically in death and spiritually in God’s punishment, which would make Him eligible to transfer forgiveness to those He had suffered for.

The cup represents His Blood, spilled out to make payment for those He represented when He stood in our place for the punishment of Hell. His Blood also seals us in the Promise of the New Covenant, our reconciliation to God and our assurance of escaping Judgment.

As the blood of the Passover lamb spread on the doorposts caused Death to pass over Israel’s children, so too will those covered in the Blood of God’s Lamb be delivered safely past the coming death of Judgment. In this Supper, the Lord wants us to see and remember the reason He came here. The Supper shows Him standing on both sides of the Cross: His Body broken to satisfy God’s demand of payment for sin, and His Blood of the New Covenant, in the Promise of Salvation for those covered in It. All of this we do in remembering the Lamb and His Promise of the Passover to come.