"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."
By Editor
This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply. 3244.—The Lord's Supper and the Passover
Does the Lord's Supper take the place of the Passover?
In a way, yes; and really, no. It takes its place simply as a commemorative ceremony binding God to His people. It did not mean, however, what the Passover meant. There were two things in the Passover. One was the commemoration of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage when Israel was made a free people. That was the great idea in the mind of the Jew generally. The Passover spoke to him of national deliverance, and it was therefore a great national feast. It also represented, which but few of them saw, the only One who can save from that deeper, darker Egypt of sin,—Jesus Christ; and therefore the paschal lamb was a type of Jesus Christ and was fulfilled in Him as the apostle declares, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." 1 Cor. 5: 7. The Lord's Supper is a memorial, not a type. It is to call to remembrance in a public way the great offering of Christ for us, but it is more than this; it is a representation, in actual bread and wine, of the life communion which ought to exist between brethren through Christ; and the broken bread representing Christ's broken body, and the life, His shed blood, that which binds together His children. There is also a forward aspect in the Lord's Supper. It points the believer forward to that time when Christ shall again meet with His disciples in the kingdom of God. Therefore "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." While there are likenesses between the Lord's Supper and the Passover, one should not be confounded with the other. It was after the Passover meal was ended that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.