Lord’s Table
Addresses
by
John Murray
Professor of Systematic
Theology
Westminster Theological Seminary
(1937-1966)
Taken from Volume 3 of Collected Writings of John
Murray
(Carlisle,
PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1982, pp. 280-288)
Table
Address 1
For the people of God, sensitive
to the gravity of sin as offence against God and
sensitive to the liabilities created by this offence,
there is nothing that comes between them and damnation
but the blood of Christ shed upon the accursed tree. The
shed blood must never be thought of apart from Christ in
his identity as the Son of God become man or apart from
all his offices. But we may likewise never think of him
in his identity and offices apart from the blood shed on
Calvary And it is the blood shed that is focal in the
purview of the believer as he thinks of sin in its
gravity and of the awful liabilities it creates. It is
of the precious blood of Christ he lays hold when he
thinks of sin
and its consequence. It is to this that the
Saviour himself directed the thought of his disciples at
the institution of the Supper: “This cup is the new
covenant in my blood which is shed for you” (Luke
22:20). The Lord’s Supper is the seal of the new
covenant and of the forginess of sins, and of both in
Jesus’ blood.
Covenant is oath-bound
certification of sovereign grace, grace that insures “I
will be your God and ye shall be my people.” It is the
covenant because it brings covenant grace to the apex of
its realization, and for that reason it is the
everlasting covenant. It will never give place to
another. How could it? Christ is given for a covenant
people and he himself is the guarantee, the surety, the
embodiment of all covenant grace. If Christ is ours he
is ours in all the completeness that is his, and in him
all things are ours. “Ye are complete in him.” All this
in his blood.
The
Lord’s Supper is the seal of forgiveness, because the
blood in which the covenant is given is shed for many
for the remission for sins. As you think of sin in its
gravity and liability, and as you plead Jesus’ blood and
reach forth to it in the desperation of need, this is
the assurance—there is forgiveness of sin. “As far as
the east is from the west, so far has he removed our
transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12). “Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases” (Ps.
103:2, 3,).
Table
Address 2
The Lord’s Supper commemorates
the death of Christ. “As often eat this bread and drink
this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (I
Cor. 11:26). The death of Christ has the same reference
as shedding of his blood, and Jesus said: “This cup is
the new covenant in my
blood.”
It is well for us to think of the
ways in which the three persons of the Godhead are
active in the death of
Christ.
God the Father was not a
spectator in the sufferings and death of Christ. There
are various ways in which the activity of God the Father
is set forth in the Scripture. It was the Father who
gave his Son, who sent him, who was reconciling the
world to himself in Christ. But we may think
particularly of the delivering up (Rom. 8:32, cf. 4:25).
He delivered him to the full judgment of justice against
sin. It is the Father who is in view when we read: “The
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all;” “it
pleased the Lord to bruise him;” “awake, O sword,
against my shepherd” (cf. Ps. 22). He delivered him to
the full power of the powers of
darkness!
But it is just here that we need
to note the action of the Son himself. It was not the
Father who wrenched life from him. Jesus gave his
ransom, he laid it down of himself. When he died it was
by his action. He died in obedience. His was a sacrifice
and he was the priest not the Father. He offered
himself. By himself he purged our
sins.
We might think that there was no
activity of the Holy Spirit. This would be impossible.
At Christ’s baptism the Spirit came upon him. The Spirit
drove him into the wilderness to be tempted. He returned
to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. By the Spirit he
cast out demons. He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. And we
could not think of the Holy Spirit as inactive in the
climactic requirement of his mission. But we have the
express witness in Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself . . .” He was furnished with all holy
resolution to offer himself without spot to God. He
testified beforehand.
It is necessary for our
appreciation of the great event of redemption to
consider how all three persons of the adorable Trinity
were involved. Oh, what a marvel of grace, love, and
wisdom, and each active in the way necessary and
appropriate to the distinguishing properties and
prerogatives of each person!
Table
Address 3
In the Lord’s Supper we are
commemorating the death of Christ. This is remarkable.
Do we commemorate the death of loved ones? Scarcely! We
remember the death and the date. But we do not
commemorate. However, it is not merely a commemoration.
It is a celebration; often as ye eat this bread, and
drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he
come” (I Cor. 11:26). We are proclaiming the Lord’s
death and therefore go on proclaiming. We do not go on
proclaiming the death of any other person. A death is
announced, and if we went on perpetually announcing, not
to speak of proclaiming, we would be properly regarded
as insane. But Jesus’ death we
proclaim.
All of this points up the
significance, the unique character of Jesus’ death. Why?
Oh, it is the redemptive character that imparts to it
this significance. “This cup is the new covenant in my
blood.” “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood.” This is a perpetual anthem and the mansions
of glory will everlastingly resound with this melody. It
is only as we have participation in this blood that we
entertain any living hope or lasting joy; there must be
participation in the blood shed and the body given. “The
cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it
not the communion of the body of Christ” (I Cor. 10:16).
“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink
his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53). We can
say commemoration and celebration because there is
perpetual participation in a feast that has no
equal.
But in the text quoted there is
more—“Until he come.” How much that betokens! We
celebrate the death, but not the death of a dead
Saviour. He is going to come again and therefore he is
alive. “Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the
living one, and I became dead and behold I am alive for
evermore, and I have the keys of death and of hell”
(Rev. 1:17, 18). If he were not alive we would not be
celebrating, because then the death would be bereft
of its virtue and power. “He was delivered up for our
offences and was raised for our justification” (Rom.
4:25).
But the main emphasis of the text
is that he will come again. The Lord’s supper is
retrospective—the memorial of Jesus’ death. It is
communion here and now in the present. But it is
also prospective—it is
charged with perpetual
anticipation; we are looking for, and hasting unto the
coming of the day of God. He will be manifested the
second time without sin for them that look for him unto
salvation.
Table
Address 4
The Lord’s Supper is
commemoration, communion, and
anticipation.
COMMEMORATION
“This do in remembrance of me,”
“For as often as ye eat this bread drink this cup ye do
show forth the Lord’s
death.”
Commemoration has reference to
the past, it is a reminder of an event. The event in
this case is the Lord’s death. And it is a once-for-all
historical event. All events are once-for-all—there is
never complete duplication or repetition. We may repeat
an action but not an event. But the Lord’s death is an
event with a finality and perfection that does not admit
of any repetition—“now once in the end of the world hath
he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”
(Heb. 9:26). But commemoration has more in it than that
of an event. Jesus said, “This do in remembrance of me.”
We are summoned in this ordinance to the thought of
himself. And we must never think of his death apart from
what he himself was and now is. The wide story of Jesus
is brought within our purview in this
ordinance.
COMMUNION
This means presence. The Lord’s
Supper is not as a reservoir of virtue and blessing
deposited. It is communion with himself as the
embodiment of all virtue and blessing. He is the living
one and we become possessors of himself. The person
whose death we commemorate is living and present. He was
dead but is alive again.
ANTICIPATION
“Till he come.” This points to a
different kind of presence to be realized in the future.
And we must remember this prospective reference to the
Lord’s supper. Jesus is present now mysteriously. But he will one day
be present bodily and visibly. This will end the need
for symbols and
signs.
Past,
present, and future are all embraced
and it is the preciousness of all three that we must
have in mind as we partake of this
ordinance.
