The Ordinances of the Church

The scriptures give two ordinances which the Church is to observe.  They are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  Christ commanded baptism to be observed in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19).  Christ also commanded that we observe the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19,20 and 1 Corinthians 11:24,25).

Receiving baptism by immersion by a believer in Christ is an act of obedience proclaiming with an outward and physical sign what has already been made a spiritual reality.  Through the act of baptism, the believer in Jesus Christ is saying that they have been spiritually baptized (immersed by the Holy Spirit) into Christ’s body by participating through faith in His death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6).  It is not water baptism that saves us but it is a spiritual baptism into Christ’s body that saves (1 Peter 3:21).  Christians are made alive by faith in the person of Jesus Christ and His redeeming work.  Believers are baptized once physically because they are baptized once spiritually into Christ’s body.  Christians do not move in and out of Christ’s body depending on their obedience or disobedience in daily living.  Once truly saved by grace through faith the Christian is in Christ not to be removed.  He will persevere in the faith.

The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance (memorial) of the Lord’s death.  It looks back at His great act of love in giving His body for ours to overcome death in the breaking of the bread.  In the drinking of the cup of the fruit of the vine it looks back to the shedding of His blood to ratify a New Covenant of grace through faith.  Just as the Passover feast was a symbol of the Old Covenant that God had with the nation of Israel, the Lord’s Supper is a symbol of the New.  Just as Christ gave thanks over this meal, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper promotes thanksgiving for His sacrifice in the Church.

The Lord’s Supper also looks to the Church’s great hope for the future for we are to keep it until He comes again for His Bride.  In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He looked forward to His coming and the coming of the Father’s kingdom.

While baptism is celebrated once in an individual believers life; the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated many times in the context of the fellowship of believers.  It is the ordinance where the corporate body partakes together.  To not discern the body of Christ while taking the Lord’s Supper is to take it in an unworthy manner and to bring judgment.  The Lord’s Supper is an ongoing proclamation of the Church’s dependence on Christ and His redeeming work.  To celebrate it often is to never get too far away from the main reason the Church exists:  to worship, love, and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.

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