Sunday, February 14, 2010

Bodily Self-Examination

Receiving Communion is not simply helpful for the saved, those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. It is also harmful for the lost, those who have not been regenerated. Receiving the Lord's Supper positively helps the faithful grow in faithfulness by reaffirming their covenantal faithfulness. But it also harms the unfaithful by contributing to their covenantal unfaithfulness. How? When the unfaithful disregard Paul's caution and assume their own personal worthiness apart from the regeneration of Christ they profane God's name. By taking the sacrament apart from the worthiness that only Christ provides through regeneration, they falsely claim the name of Jesus Christ for themselves, and add to their violation of God's Word by the sin of presumption (Romans 2:4, Deuteronomy 18:20).

This fact reinforces the truth that God's covenant through Jesus Christ carries both blessings and curses. It is a blessing to the faithful and a curse to the unfaithful. The salvation provided by Jesus Christ offers the last and only hope for redemption from the damnation that has been accruing to this world since the time of Adam's Fall. To ignore Christ, or to pretend or presume salvation apart from regeneration, is to continue on the road to damnation. And to disavow or disobey Christ is to get into the fast lane on the highway to damnation. The curse was set in motion by Adam. The blessing was set in motion by Christ. There are no other alternatives.

How can a person know if he or she is regenerate? Paul counsels us, "Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup" (1 Corinthians 11:28). Paul calls people to self-examination. And what is this examination looking for? It is looking for the worthiness to receive the sacrament. Because Christ alone provides that worthiness and because that worthiness must be present in those who receive the sacrament, it can only be concluded that Christ's worthiness must be present in the recipient through the power and presence of Christ alone through regeneration. The Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, must actually be present in the recipient.

Paul calls for self examination because no other examination can reveal Christ's presence through regeneration. Church elders examine prospective members and the children of believers prior to their participation in the Lord's Supper, but the elders' evaluation of the assurance of salvation is not perfect. It is fallible. The elders do not have insight into the secret things of God. Only the individual believer can know whether or not he or she is regenerate. But neither are there any infallible methods that can guarantee such assurance. Rather, the assurance of salvation is a function of faith, and "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). For those who are regenerate, no proof is necessary, and for those who are not, none is possible. Thus, Paul calls for self-examination. It is a matter between the individual and God, though it should be concurred by the elders.

But please do not think that the charismatic understanding of regeneration that is so popular in contemporary culture is the biblical teaching regarding regeneration. I'm not suggesting that charismatics are not regenerate -- some are, and some aren't (Matthew 7:21-ff). I'm only suggesting that God's regeneration is not programmable. It doesn't always happen in the same way. It is not always an Acts 2 Pentecostal tongues of fire experience. Sometimes it is a "fan(ing) into flame the gift of God" that has been given through baptism, as was the regeneration of Timothy (2 Timothy 1:6). Sometimes it is the simple response to God's call that is completely ordinary and unremarkable, as the regeneration of Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:16-18).

No bells, no whistles, no tongues of fire, just simple obedience. And we know that obedience to Christ is not possible apart from the power and presence of God's Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

Paul then expressed another thought about the unworthy taking of the sacrament. "For he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (1 Corinthians 11:29). Again, note that the sacrament effects not only believers, but unbelievers as well. It provides, not only assurance of salvation for the faithful, but condemnation for the unfaithful. Paul appends as an explanation for the condemnation the failure to correctly discern the Lord's body. Personal regeneration provides a particular insight and understanding -- a discernment -- of the Lord's body, the body of Christ.

The simple explanation is that the faithful (the regenerate) correctly understand themselves, their own bodies, to be included in the body of Christ. Whereas the unfaithful (the unregenerate) either completely ignore God or mistakenly presume themselves to be included in the body of Christ.

There are two important elements regarding this discernment of the Lord's body. One involves a correct understanding of the nature and extent of the body of Christ, and the other involves the individual's personal incorporation into the body of Christ. Regeneration is the central element of the second concern.

The first concern has proven to be more difficult to explain because it rests upon the trinitarian character of God. The correct understanding of the "Lord's body" requires a correct (or at least an adequate) understanding of the Trinity, an understanding given through regeneration. We can get at the issue by asking the question, "What is the Lord's body that Paul refers to?" Does Paul mean the physical body of Jesus, the man? Or the spiritual body of the resurrected Lord? Or the church as the body of Christ?

He means all of them. There is more to the body of Jesus than meets the eye. The body of Jesus walked on the sea (Matthew 14:25). The body of Jesus performed miracles (Matthew 8:3, 8:15, 9:20, 9:29, 14:36, 20:34, etc.). The body of Jesus rose from the dead (Acts 10:41, Romans 14:9). The body of Jesus will come in the clouds (Mark 13:26, 14:62, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Revelation 1:7). The body of Jesus is the "bread of life" (John 6:48).

Clearly, the Lord's body that Paul spoke of is more than the mere body of a man. Yes, the body of the Lord is the body of the man Jesus Christ, but it is more than what we usually think of as a person's body, more than an individual, physical body of flesh. Paul said in chapter ten, "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 11:16). Paul said in chapter twelve, speaking to the Corinthians, "you are the body of Christ, and members in part" (1 Corinthians 12:27); and in Ephesians 5:30, "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." Clearly, Paul's understanding of the Lord's body was not limited to the physical manifestation of mere flesh and blood of the person of Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth.

Paul understands the word "body" to also mean a group of persons associated by some common tie or occupation and regarded as an entity. A body includes all of the parts, the entire structure of an organism or entity. And the church -- the body of Christ, the people of God -- is not merely an organization, it is an organism, an entity.

When thinking of a body we are tempted to think in terms of the Greek word sarx when Scripture uses soma here. Both words refer to body, but sarx is more akin to flesh while soma, like the English word body can be used to describe people closely united into a society, or family; i.e., a social, political, ethical, or mystical body. Paul's use of the "Lord's body" employs the wider, more inclusive term (sōma). Paul uses it to suggest Christian unity, as if Christianity is a unity, a whole, a body, an organism or culture.

The discernment of the Lord's body has serious implications for the lives of believers and their understanding of Scripture. Our understanding of the Lord's body will impact our understanding regarding the biblical teachings of resurrection, the so-called rapture (meeting the Lord "in the air" -- 1 Thessalonians 4:17), and the second coming (Matthew 24:27).

From a trinitarian perspective the Lord's body is the body of Jesus of Nazareth, but it is also the body of God Himself (whatever that is), and it is the body of the Church, the fellowship of disciples. The body of Christ has both unity and particularity at the same time. It is mysterious and cannot be fully known, but it can be adequately known. And that is what Paul is talking about when he cautions people to correctly discern the Lord's body prior to receiving the sacrament of the Lord's supper.


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