“What makes a Baptist Church…Baptist?” These beliefs have historically identified baptists and distinguished them from other denominations:
- Bible as the only rule for faith and practice
- Regenerate and immersed church membership
- Autonomy of the local church
- Priesthood of the believer
- Soul liberty
- Immersion and the Lord’s supper are the only two ordinances
- Separation, both ecclesiastical and ethical
After the resurrection Jesus instructed his disciples to practice water baptism as the initiatory rite of disciple-making, and he assured them of his ongoing presence and authority “even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). Another ordinance instituted by Christ during his earthly ministry is what we call the Lord’s supper.
On the night he was betrayed to be crucified, Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover meal together. It was at the end of this meal that our Lord took two of the elements from the table and attached the symbolism of his approaching sacrificial death: bread to represent his body and a cup of wine to represent his blood. He told those who were present1 that they were to do this as a memorial after his crucifixion (Lk. 22:19), and that he would no longer eat and drink these things with them until the coming of his Father’s kingdom (Mk. 14:25).
This last statement especially is significant, because it indicates that the disciples were to repeat what Jesus had shown them that night until his second coming. The apostle Paul confirmed this when he taught the Corinthian church how to properly practice the supper, saying, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). In other words, we are right to see the Lord’s supper as an ordinance like baptism, to be observed by all Christians.
We are right to see the Lord’s supper as an ongoing ordinance like baptism, to be observed by all Christians.
The language of 1 Cor. 11:25-26 reveals something about the nature of the ordinance. Twice Paul uses the adverb “as often as” to describe its practice. This gives a clear indication that the supper is to be repeated with some regularity from its inception on the night of Christ’s betrayal to his 2nd coming in glory. There is no mention of just how frequent this observation is to be, so there is some measure of freedom for autonomous congregations to decide, but if we do err, it seems best to be on the side of greater frequency rather than less.
Another point is that the Lord’s supper consists of both the bread and the cup. Simon Kistemaker observes that “He repeats the words as often as and links them to both the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup. These two actions must always be equal elements of this sacrament.” During the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church began the practice of serving wine to priests only, while the lay people received bread. This practice continued well into the 20th century in many Catholic churches.
Another key point of distinction about the supper has to do with exactly how Jesus is present. Roman Catholics believe in what they call “the real presence” of Jesus in the bread and the cup, which Medieval theologians called transubstantiation. They believe that when the elements are blessed, God changes the substance of them from bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus, while the outward appearance remains unchanged.
In the 16th century Martin Luther tried to correct this view of the supper by saying that the substance of the elements did not change when blessed, but rather that the presence of Jesus was joined to them. He would argue that the bread and wine coexist with the body and blood of Christ, a view which was called consubstantiation. So while Lutherans would say that the substance of the elements remains the same, they still contend that Christ’s body and blood are truly present whenever the supper is eaten.
The Reformed tradition also argues for the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s supper. These churches teach that when Jesus said the bread was his body, he was using the language of sacraments, so that a true union exists between the sign (bread or wine) and the thing signified (Jesus’ body and blood). Unlike the Lutheran view which holds that Christ’s physical body is brought down into the supper alongside the bread and the cup, Reformed churches hold that we enter heaven in the Spirit to feed on Jesus’ ascended body.
Calvinist theologian Kim Riddlebarger explains: “Christ can be in heaven and the believer can receive his true body and blood, because the same Holy Spirit ensures that those already in union with Christ receive his true body and blood when they take bread and wine in faith.” And he further states that, “when we eat the consecrated bread and drink the wine, through faith, the Holy Spirit ensures that we receive the true body and blood of Christ which is in heaven because we are in union with him.”2
“We eat bread and drink wine as a reminder, not as the literal or real thing.”
Peter Gentry
In contrast to all these views, Baptists believe that the Lord’s supper is intended as a memorial rather than a physical act through which one can receive grace, even if done in faith. There are several reasons for this. First, the most natural way to take Jesus’ words is as a metaphor. “This is my body” is like saying “The LORD is my shepherd.” No one thinks that David believed Yahweh was an actual shepherd or that he was a sheep, and we have no reason to think Jesus meant us to take his words differently.
Second, the Lord’s supper was instituted at the Passover, a memorial feast which was heavily symbolic. It would have taken a very clear explanation to demonstrate that the elements were anything other than symbols. And finally, Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me” twice, emphasizing the supper’s memorial nature. Peter Gentry notes that “We eat bread and drink wine as a reminder, not as the literal or real thing.”3 We receive the gifts of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and not by partaking of the bread and cup of the Lord’s supper.
The question which we still must address is whether there are more than these two ordinances. This will be the subject of our next installment.
1 Judas was dismissed from the meal immediately after receiving the dipped bread from Jesus according to John 13:30, which Matthew and Mark indicate took place prior to the first instance of the Lord’s supper.
2Riddlebarger explains in more detail the Reformed view here. https://www.wscal.edu/blog/basics-of-the-reformed-faith-the-lords-supper
3https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/baptist-faith-and-message-article-7b-the-lords-supper/