The Lord’s Supper: Baptist, Memorial view

sixsteps:

I hold to the Baptist, Memorial position on the Lord’s Supper.

The memorial view focuses on thanksgiving for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and expectation of the marriage supper of the lamb in the coming kingdom of God. Believers celebrate the Lord’s Supper in obedience to Christ’s command, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24).

The Lord’s Supper is merely symbolic and commemorative of the blood and body of Christ; Jesus meant the wine and bread represent his blood and body. Modern Baptists assert the memorial aspect of the Lord’s Supper: a sign pointing backward and forward to God’s redemptive purposes. This symbolic sign looks backward to the Passover meals, especially the Last Supper, and it notably looks forward to the future messianic banquet.[i]

The elements of bread and the vine are not Christ’s body and blood. Neither does salvation come through the Lord’s Supper. Contrary to Catholics and Lutherans, the Lord’s Supper is not a means of grace.

Foundational to the memorial view is the Reformer Ulrich Zwingli who argued that Christ’s words “This is my body” should be read, “This signifies my body.” He claimed that the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic memorial, an ongoing ceremony in which the believer pledges that he is a Christian and proclaims that he has been reconciled to God through Christ’s shed blood. Christ is present when the believers are gathered for communion, but not bodily, only through the Spirit of Christ. The value of this ordinance is in receiving by faith the benefits of Christ’s death.[ii]

[i] Moore, Russell D. “Baptist View: Christ’s Presence As Memorial.” In Understanding Four Views on the Lord’s Supper, edited by John H. Armstrong (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 29-44.

[ii] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1985), 1120-1121. More to the point: “The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.” Article VII, Baptist Faith and Message, 2000 edition.

Source: sixsteps

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