When
does a couple actually get married? Is it when they say “I do”? When
the minister pronounces them husband and wife? When they consummate the
marriage?
There’s a sense in which each of those moments is essential to the
formation of a marriage. But each also depends on the others. That’s
why, for example, if a marriage is never consummated, there’s a sense in
which the couple is not yet fully married. And this distinction carries
legal weight; severing such a bond is an annulment, not a divorce.
What
on earth does all this have to do with the Lord’s Supper? It seems to
me that many Christians think of the Lord’s Supper as an intensified
private devotion. I go to church, I hear the Word, I eat the bread and
drink the wine, I’m reminded of Christ’s death and the forgiveness of my
sins, I go home. Of course, we also associate the Lord’s Supper with
the church, at least in the sense that it’s something we do when we “go
to church.” For most Christians, though, that’s as far as they go when
it comes to putting together the Lord’s Supper and the local church.
But I want to argue that the Lord’s Supper actually plays a crucial
role in putting the church together. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper
together is an essential step in making a church a church. In a very
significant sense, the Lord’s Supper is the moment when a group of
Christians become one body. The Lord’s Supper makes many one.
I’m focusing on this idea for two reasons. First, it’s widely
neglected among evangelical Christians. I think Paul clearly teaches
that the Lord’s Supper binds many into one, as we’ll see in a moment.
But too few pastors and churches seem to pick up Paul’s point and let it
shape their views of the Lord’s Supper and the church. Second, this
point about how the Lord’s Supper constitutes a local church is crucial
to many of the practical questions pastors and church will face: who may
participate in the Supper? who should lead it? what church-like
gatherings are permitted to celebrate it?
In order to think wisely about how to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we need this biblical lens fixed firmly in front of our eyes.
HOW THE THE LORD’S SUPPER MAKES MANY ONE
Recall Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:16–17: “The cup of blessing
that we give thanks for, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The
bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?” Paul
reminds the Corinthians that to eat the bread and drink the cup is to
enjoy fellowship with Christ, to experience the benefits of his death.
From this “vertical” fellowship between Christ and believers, Paul
then draws a “horizontal” conclusion in verse 17: “Because there is one
bread, we who are many are one body, for all of us share that one
bread.” Paul’s central claim in this verse is that we who are many are
one body. And he twice grounds or supports this assertion by referring
to our joint participation in the Lord’s Supper: “Because there is one
bread . . . for all of us share that one bread.” The fact that Paul
repeats his reason twice weighs against seeing the bread as merely
representing or picturing the church’s unity. Instead, Paul roots the
church’s unity in its celebration of the Lord’s Supper. There is one
body because there is one bread.
Paul is saying that the Lord’s Supper actually makes many one. The
Lord’s Supper gathers up the “we who are many” and makes us into one
body. In other words, the Lord’s Supper constitutes a local church. Of
course, Paul’s point is not about the mechanics of bread and eating, as
if a larger church that needed more than one loaf to celebrate the
Lord’s Supper was no longer one church but many. Instead, Paul uses “one
bread” as shorthand for the church’s corporate, all-together
celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Paul’s point is that, in the Lord’s
Supper, because we all share in fellowship with Christ together, our
unity in Christ creates the unified body of the church.
In other words, the Lord’s Supper is the renewing oath-sign of the
new covenant. In the Lord’s Supper, we renew our commitment to Christ
and each other. And it is this twofold commitment that makes a church a
church.
THE LOCAL CHURCH, IN TWO STEPS
God creates a local church in two steps. In the first step, he
creates Christians. How? He sends preachers who proclaim Christ (Rom.
10:14–17). He sends his Spirit to enable some who hear to receive and
confess Christ (1 Cor. 12:3). He causes his Word to become effective in
their lives, granting them new life in Christ (James 1:18). God creates
his church by sending his Word and sending his Spirit to make his Word
effective. God creates gospel people, people who have been saved through
trusting Christ. That’s step one.
When people come to Christ, they become members of his universal
body. They are spiritually one with him. But in order to create a
church, people have to come not only to Christ but also to each other.
They have to come
together, and that coming together requires
commitment. A local church doesn’t automatically spring into existence
whenever two or more Christians are in the same town, or same room.
Otherwise, whenever you bumped into a Christian at the grocery store a
new church would emerge, and it would dissolve as soon as you walked
down another aisle. A church is more than simply “Christians” in the
plural. It’s more than the sum of its parts. There has to be something
binding people together.
GOSPEL PEOPLE & GOSPEL POLITY
Therefore, in order to create a church, gospel people have to form a
gospel polity. A church is born when Christians commit to be a church
together. That’s step two. Think back to the example of marriage. A
marriage is born when a man and woman commit to be husband and wife. The
vow creates the marriage. Similarly, a church is born when a group of
Christians commit to one another, to do all that Jesus commanded his
churches do together: gather for worship, build up each other in love,
bear each other’s burdens, and celebrate baptism and the Lord’s Supper
together.
All this is still God’s work, since it’s his saving and empowering
work that enables our right response to the gospel, including the right
response of committing to one another. God’s work and our work aren’t in
competition. We can only come together as Christians because God has
first made us Christians. God creates a church by creating Christians,
and by enabling those Christians to commit to each other.
BAPTISM & THE LORD’S SUPPER
But how exactly does a group of Christians enact this commitment? The
ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper play crucial roles. In
baptism, you publicly commit to Christ and his people. Baptism is where
faith goes public. It’s how a new believer shows up on the world and the
church’s radar as a believer. In other words, baptism marks off a
believer from the world. In baptism, the church says to the world, “This
one belongs to Jesus!”
In the Lord’s Supper, we renew our commitment to Christ and his
people. But, distinct from baptism, the Lord’s Supper is something we
all do together. The Lord’s Supper marks off an entire group of
Christians as one body, drawing a line between them and the world around
them. And by drawing a line between the church and the world, baptism
and the Lord’s Supper draw a line around the church. The ordinances make
it possible to point to something and say “church” rather than only
pointing to many somethings and saying “Christians.”
Imagine one Christian goes to a new city, preaches the gospel, and a
handful of people all come to Christ around the same time. This new
Christian baptizes each of them. How and when will this handful
of baptized Christians become a church? I’d suggest the most basic, most
essential answer is: when they celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.
Remember that celebrating the Lord’s Supper expresses our commitment to
Christ and to each other. To receive Christ’s benefits in the Lord’s
Supper is to receive Christ’s people as brothers and sisters. In the
Lord’s Supper itself we make the commitment to each other that takes us
across the line between “handful of Christians” and “local church.” In
the Lord’s Supper itself we come together as one body. As Paul says,
“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for all of us
share that one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17).
As a matter of prudence, I think it’s generally wise for churches to
clarify what they’re doing when they first constitute as a church
through a verbal pledge the members make to each other. In the
Congregationalist and Baptist traditions, this is often called a “church
covenant,” and is sometimes recited by the whole church each time they
celebrate the Lord’s Supper. I think that’s a great practice. But it’s
not that our verbal commitment creates the church apart from our joint
participation in the Lord’s Supper. Instead, the explicit verbal
commitment of a church covenant simply makes explicit what is implicit
in the Lord’s Supper. A verbal church covenant aids our understanding,
reminding us of exactly what we’re doing when we partake of the bread
and wine together.
Again, I think the beginning of a church is a bit like the beginning
of a marriage. The analogy is imperfect, as all are, but it gets us
pretty far. A marriage is born when a man and woman pronounce vows, a
minister or other legal official pronounces them married, and the couple
consummates their marriage. The vow “I do” initiates the new
relationship, but that new relationship is not confirmed until the
husband and wife seal their union physically.
Similarly, a gathering of believers are not a local church until they
seal their union with each other through the Lord’s Supper. If a group
of believers who meant to be a church never celebrated the Lord’s Supper
together, not only would they be disobeying Jesus, but there’s a real
sense in which they would not yet be a church. The Lord’s Supper
consummates the commitment by which Christians become a church.
How does the Lord’s Supper make a local church? Together
with baptism, the Lord’s Supper is how a gospel people form a gospel
polity. The Lord’s Supper is how Christians come together, commit to
each other, and cross the line from “many” to “one.” In the Lord’s
Supper, our fellowship with Christ creates fellowship with each other.
The Lord’s Supper makes many one.
GORGEOUS SIMPLICITY
There’s a gorgeous simplicity to God’s design for the church. What
does it take to make a church? Gospel preaching that creates gospel
people who participate in gospel ordinances. The church is the shape
into which the gospel and its ordinances form God’s people. Baptism
binds one to many, and the Lord’s Supper binds many into one.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper inscribe the gospel into the very shape
and structure of the church. What makes many one are the signs of the
gospel. When Christians come together to form a church, they aren’t
moving beyond the gospel but deeper into it.
* * * * *
Editor’s note: This article has been adapted from Bobby Jamieson’s new book
Understanding the Lord’s Supper, in the Church Basics series (B&H, 2016). Reprinted by permission of B&H.
