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


CHAPTER 30 - THE LORD'S SUPPER


  1. 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.


  2. 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.


  3. 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.


  4. 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.


  5. 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.


  6. 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.


  7. 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.


  8. 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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