In the answer to the ninety-seventh question of the Shorter Catechism it is stated as one of the duties required of those who would worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper that “they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body.” The Scripture proof given is, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29. Time and again the question is asked by some trembling Christian, What is it to discern the Lord’s body? It is little wonder though such a question should be asked when one considers that the “not discerning the Lord’s body” is the cause of eating and drinking unworthily, and that partaking unworthily is to eat and drink damnation to oneself. The true child of God, while knowing very well that there is no good in him any more than in the rest of Adam’s fallen race, is different from the nominal Christian in this respect, that he is concerned as to how to approach the Lord’s Table worthily, and it costs him many a prayer at a Throne of Grace, pleading that the Lord would enable him to approach His own Table worthily. It is in this connection that the question often arises in his mind, Do I discern the Lord’s body?
It is true that none can approach the Lord’s Table worthily who are not in a state of grace. It is for the Lord’s true people, savingly wrought upon by the Holy Spirit, that the Supper has been instituted. As Dr. Love puts it, “He who is Lord in the Church, provides this royal feast at which He entertains His subjects. And His subjects are those, who, from having been like devils, are made in Him to be as angels: and now He is the object of their united complacency.” Memorials, Vol. II. p. 224. None are worthy to approach the Lord’s Table who have not felt the exceedingly sinfulness of sin, nor realised their own utter inability to save themselves, and who have not cast themselves on Christ as their only Saviour, saying with another, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Job xiii. 15.
One may, however, be in a state of grace and yet, through harbouring sin, may approach the Lord’s Table unworthily, and for this reason one should be always examining oneself to search for any old leaven that is to be purged out. Peter was in a state of grace when he sat down with the other disciples the first time the Lord’s Supper was celebrated, but
when Peter denied his Master with oaths and curses he was not in a fit state to sit down at the Lord’s Table, until his bitter weeping gave evidence of the genuineness of his repentance. As it is the duty of the Lord’s people to purge out the old leaven, it is plainly their duty to examine themselves as to their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body. The bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper are not the actual body and blood of Christ as the Roman Catholic Church maintains in its doctrine of Transubstantiation. Christ is not present in a corporal and carnal manner, but spiritually, in the symbols of His broken body and shed blood, and therefore, those who discern the Lord’s body distinguish between the outward signs and the spiritual things signified. In this they differ from the nominal Christian who is satisfied with sitting down at a communion table to partake of a little bread and wine. In discerning the Lord’s body, His people view Christ as offering Himself as a sacrifice for their sins, for He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John i. 29. They see in His offering a perfect sacrifice which for ever satisfied the Justice of God, because it made a perfect atonement for all the sins of the whole elect of God, leaving no room for the Roman Catholic blasphemous sacrifice of the Mass.
In these outward signs of bread and wine the worthy believers are enabled to see the matchless beauty and transcendent excellency which is in Christ, for they see in these symbols the beauty of His love in His sufferings and death for His own. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Here they will be remembering with sorrow and with wonder that when He suffered, they were not friends but enemies, and that His sufferings were those of “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” They see His excellency in the bread and wine for as there is nothing like these to sustain and refresh the body, so Christ is presented to the view of His own as sustaining and refreshing their souls, providing for them a feast so that they are enabled to say, “He brought me to the banqueting-house (Hebrew; the house of wine) and His banner over me was love.” Song ii. 4.
Those who truly discern the Lord’s body are enabled in some measure to see in the symbols the greatness of His sufferings, for He “poured out His soul unto death.” He suffered without the camp, bearing the reproach of His people, and became a curse for them so that they might be redeemed from the curses of the law. They cannot view the greatness of these sufferings without viewing also the procuring cause of them, that is, their own sins, any one of which deserves the wrath and curse of God both in this life and that which is to come. Oh! the weight of that burden which was laid upon Christ when the wrath and curse of God due to every sin of the whole elect of God was laid upon Him, for “the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah liii. 6. A certain divine observes that one drop of that wrath was enough to break the axle of the universe.
Those who worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper will be much taken up with the wisdom of God in devising that plan of salvation which was finished in the death of Christ. Those to be saved were sinners, under the curse of a broken law and debtors to the Justice of God. So deplorable was their condition that neither men nor angels were capable of
devising a way by which they could be saved. Now that this wonderful plan has been unfolded, angels and redeemed men desire to look into it and wonderingly adore the wisdom which devised it. This, then, is a fit subject to meditate on when remembering the dying love of the Saviour of sinners. Along with this they meditate on the Justice and mercy of God in accepting a substitute for sinners, for it would be just on the part of God to deal with each sinner in their own persons, and if He had done so none could stand before Him in judgment. It pleased Him, however, to accept of a Substitute, and such was the Substitute, and such the nature of His atoning work, that the Justice of God was eternally satisfied, and a way opened for God’s mercy to flow to guilty sinners. It has often afforded sweet meditation to the pilgrim travelling Zionward, to consider, when at the Lord’s Table, the complete and heavenly harmony among the Attributes of the Godhead in connection with the satisfaction rendered by Christ, and where there is such meditation and the affections warmed by it, there is a discerning of the Lord’s body. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” Psalm lxxxv. 10, 11.
When rightly exercised, communicants at the Lord’s Table, look upon the bread and wine, not as the symbols of the body and blood of a mere human being, but as the symbols of the broken body and shed blood of the Lord of Glory. This brings before them the glory of His Person as the Eternal God manifested in the flesh. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” I. Tim. iii. 16. Along with this they meditate on the dignity of His offices as Prophet, Priest and King, which as their Redeemer, He executes both in His humiliation and exaltation, for it is not a dead Saviour whose body they discern, but One “which was dead and is alive.”
On the part of those who have a knowledge to discern the Lord’s body there is a humble and believing application of His merits to themselves, and, Oh! how this ought to cause them to be swallowed up in wonder, that He Who is the Father’s love from all eternity, and the Object of the adoration of myriads of holy angels should, while not ceasing to be what He was, become what He was not, by being found in fashion as a man, and suffering for the sins of His elect people, make it possible that, through the symbols of His broken body and shed blood, these same elect people, who, by nature, were self-ruined and hell-deserving, should by faith be feeding on Christ, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.” Rom. xi. 33.
Many, however, of the Lord’s people have not a clear view of their interest in Christ, and are afraid on that account that they have no knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, and this has caused many a true child of God to keep back from publicly witnessing on the side of Christ in this world. Such would do well to study carefully and prayerfully the answer to Question 172 of the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Divines. In answer to the question, “May one who doubteth of his being
in Christ, or of his due preparation, come to the Lord’s Supper?” it is replied, “One who doubteth of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, may have true interest in Christ, though he be not yet assured thereof; and in God’s account hath it, if he be duly affected with the apprehension of the want of it, and unfeignedly desires to be found in Christ, and to depart from iniquity: in which case (because promises are made, and this sacrament is appointed, for the relief even of weak and doubting Christians he is to bewail his unbelief, and labour to “have his doubts resolved; and, so doing, he may and ought to come to the Lord’s Supper, that he may be further strengthened.” If such weak and doubting Christians, as are intended in the above answer of the Westminster Divines, will come to the Lord’s Table humbly looking to Him alone for comfort and strength, they will realise in their own experience the truth of what is written, “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” Isaiah xl. 29.—J. C.