The New Covenant: The Bread, The Wine, and The Water
Two symbols characterize the church since Christ instituted the New Covenant: communion and baptism. Depending on your particular faith tradition, you may have different views on how each is practiced. However, most can agree that the two symbols are integral parts of our faith practice.
Communion, the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist–this one practice goes by multiple names. When Jesus celebrated His final Passover with His disciples, He told them: “‘This is my body, which is given for you…This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Lk. 22:19b, 20b). Jesus commanded His disciples, “‘Do this in remembrance of me’” (1 Cor. 11:24b).
When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, typically, some form of bread and wine or grape juice is offered. Some traditions require you to be a member of their particular tradition, while others merely ask that you be a professing believer. I have been to some churches where you may not participate if you are not baptized into their tradition; others where you may participate but only after speaking with the pastor to ensure your faith; and still others that make it a matter of your conscience and standing before God. Regardless of the practice, faith is the most basic requirement.
During the celebration, we recall Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, and we anticipate His second coming. Paul writes, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Cor. 11:26). Paul further cautions any who partake in the Lord’s Supper to examine themselves. He says, “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord” (11:27).
Where communion is bread and wine, its significance far outweighs its physical form. Regardless of the beliefs attached to said bread and wine (e.g., transubstantiation, consubstantiation, etc.), what they signify is our focus. Communion should be a regular occurrence in the life of a believer. It is a regular reminder of Jesus’s sacrifice that gives us life.
When we observe this time during a church service, it is typically solemn, a time of prayer and contemplation. We are encouraged to examine our hearts–do we need to realign ourselves with Christ? Approaching this time casually, without thought toward our relationship with God, is not only discouraged, but according to Paul, also a sin. If we know that we have been in the wrong with God or others, it is the time to confess and realign ourselves with God. Our participation in the Lord’s Supper is a visual symbol of our allegiance to Christ. This is our time to publicly proclaim our faith in Christ.
Jesus’s last supper with His disciples was designed to parallel the Passover meal that the Israelites had celebrated for millennia. The Passover memorialized Israel’s exodus from Egypt by the power of God. It also foreshadowed the Messiah who would one day come and deliver them from the powers of darkness. Jesus was this ultimate deliverer. The apostle John recorded, “‘For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but ot save the world through him’” (3:16-17). We regularly proclaim our faith in Christ when we partake in the communion that recalls His sacrifice, which instituted the new covenant.
Personally, communion is probably my single favorite part of any church service. Some churches I have attended celebrated communion only once a month, or even once a quarter, and I always felt there was something missing from their services. The majority of the churches I’ve been to celebrate the Lord’s Supper weekly, but even these times are different. Most have some sort of devotional or reflection time before the actual communion. I have found that I prefer a liturgy, an order of worship, attached to the communion service.
In my later teenage years, my family and I attended a Lutheran church in our community. Now, whenever I think of communion, I still think of how we practiced communion at that church. The liturgy that accompanied the bread and the “wine” (juice in this case) was always solemn. There was always a time of confession, both personal and corporate. There was the assurance of forgiveness: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). There was the order:
“In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: ‘Take and eat; this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’
Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying: ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me.’
For as often as we eat of this bread and drink from this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”
Communion is ultimately a time when we can publicly proclaim our faith in Christ while reflecting on our relationship with Him, and how it is only through Christ’s sacrifice that we can even have a relationship with Him.
Baptism is the other main symbol of the New Covenant. Unlike communion, baptism is not a regular occurrence, but rather a one-time event. Baptism signifies a person’s entrance into the covenant community. At times, compared to circumcision for the Israelites, baptism is a symbol of a person’s new life in Christ.
Like communion, though, there are differing views on how baptism should be administered. There is infant baptism and believer’s baptism. There is sprinkling or immersing. Depending on a person’s faith tradition, these are all possibilities. I greatly appreciated Phylicia Masonheimer’s Quick Theology text, Understanding the Sacraments, in clarifying many of my questions regarding both the Lord’s Supper and baptism.
One of my biggest questions regarding baptism was its precedent in Jewish tradition. I can clearly see connections between the Lord’s Supper and the Passover meal (Ex. 12) and the covenant meal the Israelite elders enjoyed on Mt. Sinai (Ex. 24). I struggled, though, to understand the historical connection to baptism.
At best, I understood baptism to be a purification rite, which it was. The Jewish practice was called Mikvah. According to Phylicia Masonheimer, “It was a ritual cleansing used to symbolize the death of an old stage of life and the embracing of something new.” The practice was used before weddings and festivals and the like, but it was also used when a Gentile wished to become a part of the Jewish community. This was the aspect I was most interested in, as it most mimics our entrance into the new covenant community. Later, John the Baptist baptized people for repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Mk. 1:4).
Baptism symbolizes our new life in Christ and the fact that we are born again (Jn. 3:3). In Paul’s letter to the Romans he writes, “Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life” (6:4). I view baptism as a symbol of the grace given by God to a professing believer. Like communion, it is a time for a person to proclaim their faith and identify with Christ publicly.
I was baptized as a child, and I honestly cannot remember my exact age, but I know I was around 9 or 10. Before being immersed in the hot springs water, Pastor Jim asked me who God was to me, and my childish answer was, “My Boss.” Some 25 years later, I continue to think about my response, and I’ve decided it wasn’t a completely terrible answer. By proclaiming Christ as my Lord and Savior, He should be the one in charge of my life. I do need to cede control of everything to Him. Admittedly, I like to think I can be in charge of my life, but I also know I horrendously fail at it. Things really only ever work when I give everything over to God.
At the end of the day, baptism and communion are symbols of the New Covenant in Christ. They reflect our status as being “clothed with Christ” (Gal. 3:27). We are His, and we proclaim what He has done for us through baptism and continue to remember what He has done for us during communion. The next time you take communion, pause and let the weight of Christ’s sacrifice impress upon you. Consider all that Christ has done for you. Take some time to think back to when you were baptized: What did it mean to you then? What does it mean to you now?
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Author’s Note:
Please realize that the resource list is a work in progress, and not all the sources listed are ones that I necessarily used or heavily considered in the development of this series. A variety of schools of thought may be represented. I am not intentionally promoting one theological system over another. I also recognize that there are multiple approaches to studying covenants, and I am not here to promote one over another. My goal is to present a basic understanding of the various covenants and how they progressively reveal God's overarching plan of salvation for humanity.
