Understanding the Lord's Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper

If you were to try to summarize in a few words the entire Bible regarding faith and practice; how would you do it? Maybe a simple phrase like the following would do it for you: “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Someone might quote John 3:16. Some might say that this task is impossible. The entire Bible is too vast and diverse to summarize in just a few short sentences; it is impossible even to summarize its basic instructions for faith and practice. And furthermore, someone might object that summarizing the whole Bible has nothing to do with the Gospel which is the title of this chapter.

Remember when God told Adam, “ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Romans 6:23 states, “The wages of sin is death ….” In other words, the consequence of sin is death. Romans 5:12 shows how through man came sin; and then, death came through sin.

The word, “death,” here means not just physical death. This word encompasses all manner of curses, the curses of the Law, hell, the second death, hell on earth (otherwise known as war), sickness, poverty, confusion, boredom, torment, suffering, corruption of all manor; and the killing, stealing and destroying of the devil (John 10:10). When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately began to experience shame and fear, which are forms of death. When their son, Cain, sinned by becoming angry, jealous and committing murder; Abel experienced the consequences of his brother’s sin, i.e., physical death. Cain, for his sin, received a judgment that he felt was too much to bear. His judgment was to be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. This is what we might call alienation or loneliness; another form of death. To sum things up; “death” encompasses every horrible condition you can possibly imagine or give words to. All types of death are the consequences of all kinds of sins. Do certain types of sins lead to particular types of death? (Probably, particular types of death are called curses.)

Someone might object that they know of a person who did some wrong deed, and that person got away with it. No, sin always leads to death. There are no exceptions. It is just a matter of time. Somewhere down the line, that person will be caught and judged for that misdeed. Maybe, it will be in the afterlife. In due time, judgment and death will prevail. There are no exceptions; except through the Gospel.

Sin and death are all that is wrong with this world. If you were to eliminate these two conditions, this world would have no problems. These two words are a perfect summary of all of mankind’s problems. People do wrong (sin) and their wrong actions lead to horrible consequences and conditions (death). That’s it. This simple statement covers an enormous amount of territory. This statement covers a large part of Bible instruction and teaching.

This is just a small excerpt from The Gospel of His Body and His Blood with Lord's Supper. For more information on The Lord's Supper visit Chris Tento's comprehensive study here. Chris received a challenge from the Lord in about 1996, to believe God for understanding of the Word by daily praying the prayer found in Ephesians 1:16-23.

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18a the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is ….

The Lord challenged Chris to pray this prayer most every day and see where this would lead him.