When our Lord offered Himself up on the cross, He did so once for all. We do not need the continual offering of bulls and goats as Israel did, for the Lamb of God Himself has come. So we reject the teaching by some that this meal involves Christ being offered up as a sacrifice to the Father. Even so, this meal is a commemoration of that once for all sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. We remember here what Christ has done for us.

As you come to this table, recall that you do not have faith in an idea. You have faith in a man, a Godman. He was like you in every way. He sweat. He sorrowed. Nails hurt Him. Thorns caused Him pain. It took true manhood to face Golgotha. Many men may have undergone crucifixion in this world. But none of these men laid down their lives willingly on that Roman device of torture. He could have come down from the cross. He chose not to.

Then there is the cup of God’s wrath and all of the guilt, the heavy weight of shame that has driven many men to despair of life itself. Christ took all of that for His people. His righteous shoulders bore up that weight of gloom, wickedness, and suffering. 

We commemorate His glorious work now with bread and wine. Through His death, death itself suffered a deathblow. As we remember, resolve to die with Christ. You have already been crucified with Him. Go on laying down your life for one another as He did. Come proclaim His death, and as you do, proclaim what the disciple Thomas once did, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.