A Faith to Confess: The Baptist Confession
of Faith of 1689
Rewritten in Modern English
©1975, Carey Publications, Ltd.,
75 Woodhill Road, Leeds, U.K., LS16 7BZ
THE Lord's supper was instituted by the Lord on the same
night in which He was betrayed. It is to be observed in His
churches to the world's end, for a perpetual remembrance of Him
and to show forth the sacrifice of Himself in His death. It was
instituted also to confirm saints in the belief that all the benefits
stemming from Christ's sacrifice belong to them. Furthermore,
it is meant to promote their spiritual nourishment and growth in
Christ, and to strengthen the ties that bind them to all the duties
they owe to Him. The Lord's supper is also a bond and pledge
of the fellowship which believers have with Christ and with one
another.
1 Cor. 10:16,17,21; 1 Cor. 11:23-26.
In this ordinance Christ is not offered up to His Father, nor
is any real sacrifice made in any sense of that term for remission
of sin of the living or the dead. The supper is only a memorial
of the one offering up of Christ, by Himself, upon the cross, once
for all. It is also a spiritual offering up of all possible praise to
God for the once-for-all work of Calvary. Hence the popish
sacrifice of the mass, as it is called, is utterly abominable, and
injurious to Christ's own sacrifice which is the sole propitiation
for all the sins of the elect.
Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 11:24; Heb. 9:25,26,28.
In this ordinance the Lord Jesus has directed his ministers to
pray, and to bless the elements of bread and wine, and in this
way to set them apart from a common to a holy use. They are
to take and break the bread, then to take the cup, and to give both
to the communicants, they themselves at the same time participating in the communion.
1 Cor. 11:23-26.
The denial of the cup to the people, the worshipping of the
elements, the lifting up of the elements, the carrying of them
about for the purpose of adoration, and the reserving of them for
any pretended religious use, are all contrary to the nature of the
ordinance and to Christ's intention in appointing it.
Exod. 20:4,5; Matt. 15:9; 26:26-28.
The outward elements in the Lord's supper-bread and wine-duly set apart
for the use appointed by Christ, bear such a
relation to the Lord crucified that, in a true sense although in
terms used figuratively, they are sometimes called by the names
of the things they represent, namely, the body and blood of
Christ, even though, in substance and nature, they still remain
truly and only bread and wine, as they were before being set
apart for their special use.
1 Cor. 11:26-28.
The doctrine commonly called transubstantiation which maintains
that in the supper the substance of bread and wine is changed
into the substance of Christ's body and blood through consecration by
a priest or in any other way, is repugnant not to Scripture
alone, but even to common sense and reason. Furthermore, it
overthrows the nature of the ordinance, and has been, and is, the
cause of all kinds of superstitions and gross idolatries.
Luke 24:6,39; Acts 3:21; 1 Cor. 11:24,25.
Those who, as worthy participants, outwardly eat and drink
the visible bread and wine in this ordinance, at the same time
receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and receive all the benefits
accruing from His death. This they do really and indeed, not as
if feeding upon the actual flesh and blood of a person's body, but
inwardly and by faith. In the supper the body and blood of
Christ are present to the faith of believers, not in any actual
physical way, but in a way of spiritual apprehension, just as the
bread and wine themselves are present to their outward physical
senses.
1 Cor. 10:16; 11:23-26.
All persons who participate at the Lord's table unworthily sin
against the body and blood of the Lord, and their eating and
drinking brings them under divine judgment. It follows,therefore,
that all ignorant and ungodly persons, being unfit to enjoy
fellowship with Christ, are similarly unworthy to be communicants
at the Lord's table; and while they remain as they are they
cannot rightly be admitted to partake of Christ's holy ordinance,
for thereby great sin against Christ would be committed.
Matt. 7:6; 1 Cor. 11:29; 2 Cor. 6:14,15.
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