Why did God promise a new covenant when the covenant at Sinai came from Him? His Law was good, but Israel broke it. The people needed forgiveness and an inward change that commands alone could not produce. The New Covenant answers that need. Through Christ’s blood, God provides forgiveness and new life that we could never obtain by trying harder to obey.
God Promised a New Covenant
Jeremiah announced the New Covenant while Judah was rebelling and judgment was approaching. The people still possessed the written Law, and priests still offered sacrifices at the temple. Those privileges had not kept them faithful to the LORD. Israel and Judah had broken the covenant made when God brought their fathers out of Egypt, and Jerusalem faced judgment.
A covenant is a binding pledge or arrangement; the Hebrew word is בְּרִית (berith). God establishes the relationship, giving His promises and setting out what He requires of His people. Jeremiah calls the coming covenant new, using חָדָשׁ (chadash), and contrasts it with the covenant the people had broken. God promises more than a small repair to the existing order.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah–
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34
God names Israel and Judah, identifies the broken covenant as the one made at the exodus, and promises to write His law within His people. They will know Him, belong to Him, and receive forgiveness. The New Covenant does not abandon holiness. It supplies the inward work and restored fellowship sinful people need.
I keep returning to His promise, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” A long religious history could not remove Israel’s guilt. Neither can familiarity with Scripture or participation in worship remove mine. We need God to forgive actual wrongdoing and renew the heart from which it comes.
The Law was holy, righteous, and good. It governed Israel’s national life, made God’s requirements known, and exposed the people’s transgressions. Its inability to justify sinners was not a defect in God’s righteousness.
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Romans 3:20
To be justified is to be declared righteous before God. Obeying a command now cannot erase our guilt for the ones we have already broken. The Law also provided sacrifices, but those offerings had to be repeated. Paul explains their limitation in Hebrews.
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
Hebrews 10:1
God appointed those sacrifices to teach Israel about sin and uncleanness, and about the need for a life to be given for sinners. Yet even when offered year after year, animal sacrifices could not obtain eternal redemption. Christ would provide the sacrifice they anticipated. Jeremiah’s promise therefore fulfills God’s saving purpose without dishonoring the instruction He gave at Sinai. A Complete Bible Study on the Mosaic Covenant examines that earlier covenant more fully.
The New Covenant Changes the Heart
Ezekiel describes the inward renewal Jeremiah announced. God will cleanse His people from their filthiness and idols, replace their heart of stone, and put His Spirit within them.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Ezekiel 36:25-27
A heart of stone cannot give itself spiritual life. God promises to give His people a new heart and place His Spirit within them. The obedience He produces grows out of that new life. We do not pay for forgiveness by obeying, but genuine renewal changes our willingness to listen to God and do what He says.
Paul points to the Corinthian believers as evidence of this work. Their changed lives were a letter of Christ, written by the Spirit rather than with ink.
Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
2 Corinthians 3:3
He is describing the Spirit’s work in people, not disparaging God’s written instruction. Commands inscribed on stone could expose sin and pronounce judgment, but they could not give the inward life the Spirit provides. God does not merely give sinners a better religious appearance. He makes those who receive Christ new from within.
When I speak of regeneration, I mean genuine new birth. Calling myself a Christian cannot accomplish it, and a religious label is not evidence that it has happened. The Spirit’s work should become evident in a changed response to God and in how we treat other people. We must not turn that evidence into the means of earning the new life it displays.
Jesus Established the Covenant in His Blood
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus connected His approaching death with the covenant God had promised. After supper, He took the cup and told His disciples what His shed blood would accomplish.
Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
Luke 22:20
Matthew records the purpose for which His blood would be shed.
For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Matthew 26:28
Remission means forgiveness. The words “for the remission of sins” explain why He would give His life. The eternal Son of God had become fully man without ceasing to be fully God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, He lived without sin and willingly offered His own life as the perfect sacrifice for us.
Wicked men betrayed and mocked Him, then beat and scourged Him before crucifying and killing Him. He physically bore the punishment for our sins in His innocent body as He shed His blood and died. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit acted in unity to redeem us. His saving sacrifice was complete at His death. He was then buried and rose bodily on the third day.
Blood had marked the covenant ceremony at Sinai, where Moses called the sacrificial blood “the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8). Sin had to be dealt with for the people to have fellowship with a holy God. Jesus established the New Covenant through His own blood. Animal sacrifices could not provide that complete redemption.
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:12
Christ entered heaven having already obtained eternal redemption through His death. His priestly presence in heaven does not complete an unfinished sacrifice or require another death. The Lord’s Supper remembers His offering without repeating it. No church ritual can finish His sacrifice, and our suffering cannot add merit to it. His blood is sufficient because of who He is and the perfection of what He gave. A Complete Bible Study on the Blood of Christ for Salvation considers that sufficiency further.
Christ died for the sins of the whole world, so God’s offer of salvation is genuine for every person. People can resist His grace and reject Him. Everyone who repents and believes in Jesus receives forgiveness and new birth. We receive His saving work by faith; we cannot make ourselves acceptable to God by resolving to improve.
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Romans 10:9-10, 13
Jesus Is the Mediator of the Better Covenant
In Hebrews, Paul quotes Jeremiah 31 at length and explains the better ministry by which Jesus fulfills that promise. Jesus is both the High Priest who represents His people and the Mediator through whom they approach God.
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Hebrews 8:6
As Mediator, Jesus stands between God and us. He represents us as One who is fully human, yet He is also God the Son, whose person and work have divine worth. He brings us to God on the basis of His own completed sacrifice, rather than through the blood of another. His ministry secures the eternal inheritance God has promised.
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 9:15
Those who trusted God under the first covenant also depended on Christ’s death for redemption. Animal offerings did not earn their eternal forgiveness. Christ accomplished what those sacrifices could not, so the living Son is the Savior they needed as well as the One we need.
The Greek word diatheke, translated covenant, can also mean a testament or will. Hebrews 9:16-17 draws on that meaning when explaining death and inheritance: a testament takes effect upon the death of the person who made it. Christ’s death secured the covenant’s promised blessing. We receive that grace freely because He gave His life, and the One who died now lives forever as our Mediator.
The priests who served under the former covenant died and had to be replaced. Jesus lives forever, so His priesthood never passes to another. We approach God through His living Son on the strength of His completed sacrifice, without bringing another offering to keep the covenant in force.
Gentile Believers Share the Blessing Without Replacing Israel
God’s promise still names Israel and Judah. I do not accept an explanation that removes the future He pledged to the very people Jeremiah named. Their reunion, forgiveness, and knowledge of the LORD belong to the hope He gave them.
The apostles also apply New Covenant blessings to believers in Christ now. His blood brings Gentiles near, and faith joins them to the Messiah. They need not become ethnic Israel or place themselves under the Mosaic Law to receive His salvation. Paul uses the picture of an olive tree to explain their inclusion.
And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
do not boast against the branches.
Romans 11:17-18
Gentiles share the richness of God’s saving promise through faith and mercy. Paul therefore forbids boasting against the natural branches. Israel’s hardening is partial, and God is able to graft the natural branches in again. Receiving mercy from Israel’s Messiah gives us reason for gratitude toward God, not contempt for Israel.
The church’s participation in these blessings is real. Gentile believers receive full forgiveness and the indwelling Spirit because they belong to Christ; they are not second-class recipients of His grace. That does not rewrite Jeremiah or cancel God’s future work with Israel and Judah. Israel will know the covenant promise in its fullness when the nation turns to the Messiah.
This inclusion of the nations was no late change in God’s purpose. The Noahic Covenant preserved the world in which redemption would unfold. Abraham received the promise of blessing for all nations through his Seed. The Mosaic Covenant revealed God’s holiness and the need for sacrifice, while David received the promise of an enduring royal house. Jesus fulfills these promises as the Seed through whom the nations are blessed and the sacrifice that deals with sin. He is also the Mediator who brings us to God and the risen Son of David whose kingdom will endure.
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
2 Corinthians 1:20
Grace Produces Obedience and Future Hope
The church remembers the covenant’s foundation whenever believers share the Lord’s Supper. Jesus commanded remembrance, and Paul explains that the bread and cup proclaim His death until He comes.
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
1 Corinthians 11:25-26
Communion directs us back to Christ’s once-for-all death and forward to His return. The meal does not become another sacrifice for sin or save someone apart from repentance and faith. We take part in obedience to Him, with gratitude for the Savior whose blood established our fellowship with God. A Complete Bible Study on Communion examines the observance further.
I would not assign the cup exactly the same covenant role as circumcision under Abraham or the Sabbath under Moses. The New Testament tells us to remember Christ and proclaim His death. We should understand the cup through that instruction, rather than assume that each covenant’s outward observances must function identically.
The grace proclaimed at the Table also governs the way believers live. We are not under the Mosaic Covenant as Israel’s national law, yet the God who forgives us writes His truth on the heart and gives His Spirit to produce obedience.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:14
Someone genuinely born again is forgiven, indwelt by the Spirit, and sealed in Christ. That believer is eternally secure because salvation rests on Christ’s blood and promise. Our performance neither purchases that salvation nor keeps it in force. This assurance gives no permission for lawlessness. Simply saying we are Christians does not establish that we have been made new. Genuine faith becomes evident as we turn from sin, love others, endure difficulties, and grow in our willingness to obey. Believers still stumble and need correction; new birth does not mean we have reached sinless perfection.
I can confess sin honestly because my hope rests in the Savior rather than in a claim to have made myself righteous. If I have lied, treated someone cruelly, or excused conduct Scripture condemns, belonging to Christ gives me reason to admit the wrong and turn from it. His grace does not require me to defend my sin to protect a religious reputation. The Spirit renews believers and teaches them to pursue holiness. A Complete Bible Study on Soteriology: The Study of Salvation considers this saving work more fully.
The covenant is established, and everyone who repents and believes receives its saving blessings now. We await the bodily return of our living Mediator, who will raise His people and bring us into the kingdom’s promised fullness. Our hope reaches beyond this present life.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Hebrews 12:28
Paul joins confidence in an unshakable kingdom with reverent service to God. The words “till He comes” at the Lord’s Table direct us toward that future. We proclaim the death of One who rose bodily and will return. Because our inheritance is secure, we can serve Him with gratitude and take His commands seriously while we wait.
My Final Thoughts
The New Covenant directs me to what Christ has accomplished and to the new life He gives. God’s Law exposed our sin; the Savior shed His blood to obtain our forgiveness and bring us to God through His completed sacrifice. His grace gives genuine believers security and a reason to obey from the heart. I do not have to prove myself worthy before I can come to Him. I can confess the sin He exposes, receive His correction, and obey because I belong to Him. At His Table, I remember the death that secured this mercy and proclaim it while waiting for our living Mediator to return.
Jesus gave the Lord’s Supper to disciples who would soon see Him arrested and crucified. He told them to remember Him through the bread and cup, and Paul later instructed the church to proclaim His death until He comes. I want to receive Communion with that purpose in mind. Taking the elements should direct us to Christ and make us consider whether the way we treat His people agrees with what we claim to believe.
Bread, Wine, and the New Covenant
Communion, also called the Lord’s Supper, is an ordinance, a practice Jesus commanded His church to observe. We share bread and a cup to remember His body given for us and His blood shed for us. The meal also expresses our fellowship as people who belong to the same Savior.
I don’t believe receiving the elements can save us or supply forgiveness. But dismissing the Lord’s Supper as an insignificant ritual disregards a command Jesus gave His church. We need to understand what He intended us to remember and how He wants His people to receive it.
Bread and wine appear together much earlier in Scripture, when Abram returned from rescuing Lot and defeating the kings who had carried him away. The king of Sodom came out to meet him, along with Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Genesis 14:18-20
Melchizedek blessed Abram and credited God with the victory. Abram then refused Sodom’s offer because he would not let its king claim to have made him rich. The bread and wine accompanied a priestly blessing, but Genesis does not describe the institution of Communion. The encounter introduces Melchizedek serving as both king and priest before the Law was given, combining offices that would later be separated in Israel. Hebrews returns to his priesthood when explaining Christ’s.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God… first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
Hebrews 7:1-3
I believe Melchizedek is the preincarnate Son of God. His encounter with Abram was a Christophany, meaning Christ appeared before He became man. The description of a priest without beginning or end, who remains continually, leads me to that conclusion. Some read it as a description of how a human priest is presented in Genesis, without a recorded genealogy. The study on Melchizedek explains why I believe Hebrews points beyond an ordinary human priest.
The more immediate background to the Lord’s Supper is Passover, which God instituted when He delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. The Israelites killed unblemished lambs and marked their doorposts and lintels, the beams above their doorways, with blood. When judgment struck Egypt’s firstborn, the LORD passed over the homes marked by blood. Israel’s protection depended on receiving God’s provision in trust and obedience, rather than on being better people than the Egyptians.
God commanded Israel to remember that deliverance through an annual meal. When Jesus shared Passover with His disciples, He explained the bread and cup in relation to the death He was about to suffer.
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
Luke 22:19-20
The earlier Passover lamb pointed forward to Him. The bread now directed the disciples to His body given for them, and the cup to His blood shed for them.
Jesus also identified the cup with the new covenant in His blood. A covenant is a binding commitment. Jeremiah had announced God’s promise to forgive sin and write His law on His people’s hearts. Jesus identified His blood as the basis of that covenant, and the church remembers the death by which He established it. We aren’t establishing a new covenant each time we receive Communion.
Calling these elements symbols doesn’t make the suffering they represent symbolic. Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God, who became fully man and lived without sin. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, but He willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. His sinlessness and His sacrificial death are the basis of our forgiveness. His innocent blood was physically shed, and He died.
The Father and Son were united in providing our redemption. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Christ completed His saving sacrifice through His shed blood and death before He was buried and rose bodily from the grave. He died for the whole world, and salvation is received through repentance and faith. The bread and cup add nothing to what He accomplished. The study on life being in the blood explains the significance of His shed blood further.
Remember the Lord’s Death Until He Comes
The Greek word translated remembrance is anamnesis. Jesus calls us to remember Him deliberately, giving attention to what He did rather than allowing the familiar act of eating and drinking to pass without thought. Paul handed on the instruction he had received about the Supper, then explained what the church announces by observing it.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
1 Corinthians 11:26
By receiving the meal together, we confess that Christ died for sinners and established the new covenant through His blood. We also confess our expectation that He will return. The Supper keeps His death before the church while we wait for the risen Savior. Because we share it as His people, examining ourselves includes considering how we treat one another.
That confession belongs to believers. Eating bread or drinking from a cup cannot create saving faith, forgive sin, or bring about regeneration. By regeneration, I mean genuine new birth, through which God makes the believer a new creation. The Holy Spirit indwells and seals that person for the day of redemption, and genuine salvation is eternally secure. A Christian label or a long record of taking Communion cannot demonstrate that new life on its own. Nor can I appeal to eternal security to excuse lawlessness.
We need to explain the meal from Scripture because the elements don’t explain themselves. People can leave an elaborate service admiring the ceremony without understanding why Christ died. A simple gathering can honor Him when His words are explained and the church receives the bread and cup in faith. If we have neglected that explanation, making the service more impressive won’t correct the problem.
His command, “in remembrance of Me,” should also correct anyone who wants to make himself the center of the service. A pastor, priest, or worship leader is there to direct attention to Christ. Personal performance, inherited traditions, and the emotional atmosphere cannot be allowed to obscure the One we are remembering.
When Paul says “as often as” we eat and drink, he assumes the church will continue observing the Supper. His wording doesn’t require every church to adopt the same weekly or monthly schedule. We should receive Communion regularly as part of obedient worship, taking care to explain what we are doing. Increasing its frequency won’t correct irreverence if we continue taking it without understanding.
One Sacrifice and the Meaning of John 6
What we believe about Christ’s sacrifice determines what we should expect from the Supper. Hebrews describes old covenant priests standing at their work day after day because their offerings could not finally remove sin. Christ offered Himself once.
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:10
But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.
Hebrews 10:12
Christ sat down because His offering was complete. A church ceremony cannot continue His sacrificial work or provide another propitiatory offering, meaning an offering to atone for sin. His blood has already been shed, and the Father accepted His sacrifice. The church remembers and proclaims what He accomplished; Communion doesn’t make the cross effective again whenever we gather.
I reject transubstantiation, the teaching that the substance of the bread and wine becomes Christ’s body and blood while their outward appearances remain. The Catholic Catechism also describes the Mass as making Christ’s one sacrifice present and offering it sacramentally. It does not teach that He undergoes another bloody death at every Mass. I still disagree with giving Communion that sacrificial role. I understand Christ’s command as remembrance and proclamation of His completed offering, not a sacramental offering of His body and blood.
John 6 is often used to support receiving His body and blood through the elements. Jesus gave that public teaching after feeding the five thousand, before the institution of the Supper in the upper room. He was confronting people who wanted bread but would not truly believe in Him. His own explanation helps us understand the language He used.
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
John 6:35
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
John 6:47
In verse 47, Jesus promises everlasting life to the person who believes in Him. Together with His explanation about coming and believing in verse 35, that promise guides how I read His words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He calls sinners to receive Him by faith as their only source of life. He isn’t commanding cannibalism or instituting Communion in this discourse. Later He says:
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:63
Jesus isn’t denying the value of the body He would give for the world. He is explaining that life comes through the Spirit and that His words communicate spiritual truth. John had already recorded His conversation with Nicodemus about new birth and His offer of living water to the Samaritan woman. Later Jesus would describe Himself as the door for the sheep, their Shepherd, and the true Vine. His language about eating and drinking likewise directs us to faith in Him. That reading agrees with the finished sacrifice in Hebrews and the remembrance commanded in Luke and 1 Corinthians.
Other Christians believe Christ’s body and blood are present with the elements without accepting transubstantiation. The Lutheran confession teaches that His true body and blood are received with the bread and wine while the bread remains bread. The word consubstantiation is sometimes used in discussions of this view, but the confession calls it a sacramental union. I disagree with that bodily reception as well. The bread remains bread and the cup remains the fruit of the vine; we receive the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice by faith.
Calling the elements symbols doesn’t give us permission to discard the meal or replace it with an illustration of our own choosing. Jesus chose the bread and cup and commanded this remembrance, so we honor Him by continuing it as He instructed. Those symbols direct us to Christ and the sacrifice He completed.
One Body and a Serious Warning
Paul also connects the bread and cup with our fellowship in Christ. The Greek word koinonia means sharing, fellowship, or participation and explains why we call the meal Communion.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
I understand this as believers sharing by faith in the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice and expressing that fellowship through the meal. Paul does not say that the elements change into His physical body and blood. He does say that we belong to one body. If Christ purchased these people with His blood, I cannot honor Him by treating some of them as beneath me.
The church in Corinth observed the Supper as part of a larger meal. Some went ahead with their own food while others remained hungry, and some even became drunk. People with plenty were willing to let poorer members go without at the gathering that proclaimed their fellowship in the same Savior. Paul rebuked them for humiliating those who had nothing.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
1 Corinthians 11:27-28
Paul warns against an unworthy manner of partaking. He isn’t requiring a sinless record before anyone may come. He tells them to examine themselves and then eat and drink as they should. The selfishness and irreverence in Corinth contradicted what the meal proclaimed, and calling it the Lord’s Supper didn’t excuse what they were doing.
The Lord’s discipline was severe. Some were weak or sick, and some died. Paul distinguished that chastening of believers from the condemnation of the world.
But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
1 Corinthians 11:32
God keeps the people His Spirit has sealed, but eternal security doesn’t give us permission to treat holy things carelessly. Corinth demonstrates how serious the repercussions can be. We need to confess known sin and seek peace where possible, including putting right how we treat other believers.
It would be reckless, though, to tell a sick believer he is being punished for mishandling Communion simply because he is sick. Paul identified a particular judgment in Corinth. He did not give us an explanation for every illness or death. This passage calls each of us to examine our own conduct, rather than presume to know the reason for someone else’s suffering.
How Believers Should Come
We come as people who have trusted the crucified and risen Christ. Someone who has not believed needs repentance and faith, and taking Communion cannot substitute for that conversion. The study on baptism considers another ordinance through which we publicly express faith without creating salvation.
As we receive the bread and cup, we remember that the Son of God suffered in His body, shed His blood, and died for our sins before rising bodily. Familiarity should not make us indifferent to what He endured. We are thanking Him for salvation we could not provide for ourselves.
When examination exposes sin, we can confess it honestly to the God who already knows. We aren’t bargaining for a place at His table or promising enough improvement to earn forgiveness. Our confidence rests in Christ’s blood and God’s promise to cleanse us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
A believer with a tender conscience may hear Paul’s warning and conclude that he ought to stay away whenever he feels unworthy. But Paul tells us to examine ourselves so that we can partake properly. If I have sinned against someone, sitting out Communion won’t settle the offense. I need to confess and repent, seeking reconciliation where it is needed, then come trusting the Savior whose blood cleanses me. I cannot make myself worthy by waiting until I feel better about my record.
That examination also has to reach beyond a private moment of reflection. If I receive the cup while continuing to humiliate another believer or cultivate bitterness against him, I am ignoring the fellowship the meal declares. Sharing the table calls us to love the people Christ has made members of His body.
We also receive it with hope. Paul tells the church to proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes, so we remember a Savior who lives and will return. His sacrifice remains sufficient while we wait. Continuing to share the bread and cup expresses our confidence in that completed work and His promise to come again.
My Final Thoughts
I want to receive Communion with gratitude for what Christ accomplished and a willingness to face honestly what His Word exposes in me. The bread and cup point to His body and blood; they neither save us nor become His physical body and blood. We remember His one completed sacrifice as people who belong to Him together. If I claim that fellowship at His table, I need to show it in how I treat His people while we wait for His return.
