August 9
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IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE LORD JESUS
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
-1 Corinthians 11:23-26
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In this letter, Paul declares how he was charged to deliver the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of what Jesus did for sinners. Paul repeats Jesus words to his disciples during the Last Supper in this letter. When Jesus said these words, he connected the Passover of the Old Testament with the New Testament covenant. When the Israelites escaped from the slavery of the Egyptians in Exodus, it was the blood of the lamb that caused God’s angel of death to “pass” the house of the Israelites, so that the firstborn Egyptian children may be slain. In Exodus 12, we hear the story how the Israelites collected the blood, the lamb had to be sacrificed and killed. Then, during the Passover feast, the meat of the lamb would be cooked and eaten with unleavened bread in preparation for the journey out of Egyptian bondage. The lamb had to be a male, without blemish meaning it could not be sick or diseased in any way. At the last supper, the unleavened bread represented the body of Christ which is sinless and perfect. It was broken on the cross. And wine represented His blood, the blood of an ‘unblemished lamb.’
Paul couldn’t stress more the importance for believers to remember the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ when we partake of the Lord’s supper. He reminds us that as often as we remember the sacrifice that Jesus did to save us from sin, the more we will partake of that act of sacrifice He did for us to be freed from the bondage of sin.
We need to remember that God paid a high price for our freedom from sin by letting his only begotten Son be that unblemished lamb to be sacrificed. We couldn’t pay for it because we are not pure. The only thing God wants us to do is to believe that it is finished already and we need to abide in Christ so that we will always live in His grace and mercy. The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance of the unconditional love God gave his people.
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REFLECTION
• Why is partaking in the Lord’s Supper a very important act of worshiping the Lord? What happens when we forsake remembering this act of love?