A Catechism for the Instruction of Communicants

Andrew Thomson, D.D.*

Questions 1 to 28

1. Q. What parts of the New Testament give us an account of the Sacrament of our Lord’s Supper?

A. Matthew 26: 26; Mark 14: 22; Luke 22: 19; 1 Corinthians 11: 23.

1. Q. By whom was this sacrament instituted?

A. By Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Saviour of the world.

1. Q. When did He institute it?

A. The same night in which Judas betrayed Him into the hands of His enemies.

1. Q. By what names is it usually known?

A. It is usually called the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, or the Communion.

1. Q. Why is it called the Lord’s Supper?

A. Because it was instituted by Christ immediately after He had eaten the Paschal Supper, with His disciples, and it is to be regarded by Christians as a feast in honour of their Lord.

1. Q. Why is it called the Eucharist?

A. Because it is an occasion of special and solemn thanksgiving to God for His goodness in giving up His own Son to death for our salvation – the term Eucharist being derived from a word which signifies thanksgiving.

1. Q. Why is it called communion?

A. Either because it is a communion with Christ the Saviour, or because it is a communion with one another as disciples of Christ.

1. Q. Was it intended to be of perpetual obligation in the Church?

A. Yes.

1. Q. Why do you think so?

A. Because the Apostle Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 11: 26, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come:” and because the Christians of the first ages, who enjoyed the best means of information, had this opinion of it, and continued to celebrate it after the disciples and Apostles had left the world.

1. Q. How often should it be observed?

A. Scripture gives us no particular instruction on that point; but certainly we may conclude from its nature and purposes, that we should observe it as often as opportunities occur, and circumstances permit.

1. Q. What are the elements made use of in the Sacrament?

A. Bread and wine.

1. Q. What did our Saviour do before He distributed the bread and wine?

A. He gave thanks and blessed them.

1. Q. What does this teach us?

A. To express our gratitude to God for His great and tender mercy before we partake of the ordinance, and to depend upon His blessing as that which alone can make it useful.

1. What do the bread and wine made use of in the Lord’s Supper represent?

A. The bread that is broken, and the wine that is poured out, represent the broken body and shed blood of Christ; or, more properly speaking, they represent that atoning sacrifice of Himself which Christ offered up for sin, when His body was broken, and His blood was shed upon the cross.

1. Whence does this appear?

A. From the words of the institution. When our Saviour gave the bread to His disciples, He said, “This is my body, which is given for you;” and when He gave the cup, He said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”

1. Q. What do you mean by Christ’s offering Himself up a sacrifice for sin?

A. I mean His submitting in our room and stead to that wrath and curse of God which was due to us for transgressing the divine law.

1. Q. Did Christ actually offer Himself up a sacrifice for sin?

A. Yes: we are told so in Scripture as plainly and distinctly as language can express it.

1. Q. What is the language of Scripture on this point?

A. “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God…” (Ephesians 5:2). “Even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” (1 Corinthians 5:7.). “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,” (1 Peter 3:18). “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;” (Hebrews 10:11,12).

1. Q. Is this sacrifice, which is represented in the Lord’s Supper, to be trusted in as perfectly sufficient to answer the ends for which it was offered up?

A. Yes: it is so, both because it was appointed, and because it has been accepted of by God.

1. Q. How do you know that it was appointed by God?

A. From such passages of Scripture as these: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). “The LORD hath laid on him [that is, on Christ] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6). “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth [or ordained] to be a propitiation.” (Romans 3:24,25).

1. Q. How do you know that God hath accepted of the sacrifice that Christ offered?

A. I discover this from the whole tenor of the gospel, as contained in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles, and particularly from such declarations as the following: “We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” (Romans 5:11). “He [that is, Christ] humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also [that is, in token of His approbation] hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:” (Philippians 2:8,9). “All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;” (2 Corinthians 5:18,19).

1. Q. Is the death or offering up of Christ upon the cross, to be considered as any thing more than an atonement for sin?

A. Yes: it is also to be considered as the finishing part of that obedience to the law of God which Christ undertook to render as “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6) and as He was then in a suffering state, it is usually called His passive [or suffering] obedience; as His fulfilment of the precepts of the law during His life is called His active obedience.

1. Q. Is not the death of Christ, therefore, held out in Scripture, as the great meritorious cause of all the blessings communicated through the gospel?

A. Yes: the Apostle Paul says, “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9,10).

1. Q. Is the pardon of sin ascribed to the death or sacrifice of Christ?

A. Yes: “In whom [that is, Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Ephesians 1:7).

1. Q. Is peace and reconciliation with God ascribed to the same cause?

A. Yes: “Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace,” (Ephesians 2:13,14), and, “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” (Romans 5:10).

1. Q. Is the gift of eternal life ascribed to the same cause?

A. Yes: for the Saviour Himself says, “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,” – that is, whoso confideth in the merits of my death – “hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54).

1. Q. Is a meetness for heaven ascribed to the same cause?

A. Yes: “The blood of Jesus Christ …cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7). “By the which will [that is, God’s] we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10) “By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14).

1. Q. Are not all these blessings, then, set before us in the holy Sacrament of the Supper?

A. Yes: in that ordinance Jesus Christ is held out to us, and we see Him by faith, as our salvation, in the most extensive sense of the word, as, “made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

To be continued

The Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology informs us that Andrew Thomson (1779-1831), a leading Evangelical in the Church of Scotland, was editor of the Edinburgh Christian Instructor, which served to foster the growth of the evangelical party in the Church of Scotland from a fairly small minority in the General Assembly to a majority. He was minister first of Sprouston (1802), then was translated to the East Church, Perth in 1808, to New Greyfriars, Edinburgh in 1810, and to St George’s, Edinburgh in 1814. There he remained until his death. He was the great champion of the evangelical party in the Church of Scotland in his day, and was described by Thomas Chalmers as a man of “colossal mind”. He was a most skillful teacher of the young. He wrote the above catechism, under the title, A Catechism for the Instruction of Communicants in the Nature and Uses of the Sacrament of our Lord’s Supper, for prospective communicants.