The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the CorinthiansDods, Marcus
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians
Dods, Marcus
Bible. Corinthians, 1st -- Commentaries
But especially, when Christ said, "Do this in remembrance of Me," did
He mean that His people to all time should remember that He had given
Himself wholly to them and for them. The symbols of His body and blood
were intended to keep us in mind that all that gave Him a place among
men He devoted to us. By giving His flesh and blood He means that He
gives us His all, Himself wholly; and by inviting us to partake of His
flesh and blood He means that we must receive Him into the most real
connection possible, must admit His self-sacrificing love into our
heart as our most cherished possession. He bade His disciples remember
Him, knowing that the death He was about to die would "draw all men
unto Him," would fill the despairing with hopes of purity and
happiness, would cause countless sinners to say to themselves with
soul-subduing rapture, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." He knew
that the love shown in His death and the hopes it creates would be
prized as the world's redemption, and that to all time men would be
found turning to Him and saying, "If I forget Thee, let my right hand
forget her cunning; if I do not remember Thee, let my tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth, if I do not prefer Thee above my chief joy." And
therefore He presents Himself to us as He died: as One whose love for
us actually brought Him to the deepest abasement and sorest suffering,
and whose death opens for us a way to the Father.
But these symbols were appointed to be for a remembrance of Christ in
order that, remembering Him, we might renew our fellowship with Him.
In the Sacrament there is not a mere representation of Christ or a
bare commemoration of events in which we are interested; but there is
also an actual, present communion between Christ and the soul.
Encouraged and stimulated by the outward signs, we, in our own soul
and for ourselves, accept Christ and the blessings He brings. There is
in the bread and wine themselves nothing that can profit us, but we
are by their means to "discern the Lord's body." When Christ is said
to be present in the bread and the wine, nothing mysterious or magical
is meant. It is meant that He is spiritually present to those who
believe. He is present in the Sacrament as He is present to faith at
any time and in any place; only, these signs which God puts into our
hands to assure us of His gift of Christ to us help us to believe that
Christ is given, and make it easier for us to rest in Him.
_CONCERNING SPIRITUAL GIFTS._
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