For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; (24) and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said “Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (25) 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.” (26) For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim rhe Lord’s death till He comes.

The letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle PauL. The doctrine of communion came directly from Christ to Paul. There were already divisions in the early church as to the meaning of the Lord’s command to do this “in remembrance of me.” The fullest instruction concerning the correct observation of the Lord’s Supper given in Scripture intends to call the Lord vividly to the minds and hearts of His people. Both the Lord’s Supper and baptism were designed to continue in the church until the end of the present age – until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ by our gathering together unto Him. Neither has anything to do with the salvation of our souls except they picture the way in which we are saved through the death and resurrection of Christ. But they are of great importance because they give us a more vivid realization of our identification of Him.

There are various views of communion and interpretation of the words Jesus spoke. The Roman Catholics viewpoint is that of true substantiation but Paul is talking about symbolism and figure. Their key word is transformation-the bread and wine are transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus. Many think the Lord is expressing spiritual truth. This viewpoint means the continued literal offering of Jesus. The Catholic Church would like to finish the unfinished work of our Lord but Scripture – especially Hebrews -tell us the Lord’s work on the cross is once and for all. What He really said when we take the bread and cup is we are to trust Him. The Catholic result of the whole matter is worship of the elements. The Lutheran church views the bread and cup are not specifically the body and blood of Jesus but the Lord is in those elements. Calvinists believe that Christ is spiritually present and we receive – in communion- spiritual blessings. Zwingli believed the elements are simply memorials. Most Protestant evangelicals believe what we are doing in communion is essentially remembering what the Lord has done in.His saving works – Communion is ministry from the Lord as we partake of the elements.

“Do this in memory of me” is placed at the center of worship as the bread and cup of the New Testament. We are nowhere told that Jesus partook of neither the bread nor cup. He didn’t need to partake as He is the one of whom the bread and wine speaks. C.S. Lewis wrote “The Law, having a shadow of good things to come.’ We are all quite familiar with this idea, that the old Jewish priesthood was a mere symbol and that Christianity is the reality which it symbolized. It is importantly, however, to notice what an astonishing, even impudent, claim it must have seemed as long as the temple at Jerusalem was still standing. In the temple you saw real sacrifice being offered – real animals really had their throats cut and their actual flesh and blood were used in the ritual; in Christian assemblies a ceremony with wine and bits of bread was conducted. It must have been all but Impossible to resist the conviction that the Jewish service was reality and the Christian one a mere substitute – wine is so obviously a substitute for blood and bread for flesh! Yet the Christians had the audacity to maintain it was the other way around – that their – little ritual meal in private houses was the reality which sacrifice and all the slaughtering, incense, music and shouting in the temple was merely the substitute.