Why Is the Lord’s Supper Important?

Why is the Lord’s Supper so important for the Christian life? Today, W. Robert Godfrey considers the meaning and significance of this sacrament instituted by Christ.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: This week on the Ask Ligonier podcast, we’re recording live from Ligonier’s 2025 National Conference, and we’re joined by one of our teaching fellows, W. Robert Godfrey. Dr. Godfrey, why is the Lord’s Supper important?

W. ROBERT GODFREY: Well, the most obvious thing is that Jesus says it’s important. Jesus, on the night on which He was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And so, when we think of all that Jesus was experiencing, all that He was thinking, all that He was doing, to think that He paused in the midst of that, to institute this Supper for us, it’s clear it was very important for Him. And it was clear in the institution that the Supper would remain important for the people of God until He came again to eat the messianic banquet in the eternal kingdom with us. So, clearly, Jesus teaching an action makes it clear that the Lord’s Supper is important. And then the question comes, how is it important? What did Jesus intend for the Lord’s Supper to mean for us?

I think a useful place to start is the fact that Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11, does talk about that it was the night on which Jesus was betrayed. And so, I think part of what the Lord’s Supper is all about is that it’s a ceremony of commitment. As Judas betrayed Him, we’re to be loyal to Him. It’s a feast of loyalty to Jesus and of commitment to Jesus. And it’s a feast of Jesus’ loyalty and commitment to us, so that the Reformed have always said, rightly, that the sacraments confirm the promises of the gospel. And the promise of the gospel is that our salvation is in the body and blood of Christ.

And so, the Lord’s Supper is instituted to confirm that promise, and that’s why Jesus, for very weighty reasons, said of the bread, “This is My body,” and of the cup, “This is My blood”—not, we believe as Reformed people, that there’s a magical change of bread and wine away from being bread and wine into being body and blood, as our Catholic friends say. But nonetheless, He wants to establish a real relationship between His body and blood, His life—the life He gave and the giving of His body and blood—and the life He gives to us in the gospel promise and is confirmed to us in the institution of the Lord’s Supper. So, the Lord’s Supper comes close to us with the promise of God.

One of the problems people can have spiritually with the promises of God is to ask: “Does it really count for me? I believe Jesus is the Savior, but is Jesus my savior?” And I think the sacraments in part are instituted so that we can say: “Yes, Jesus, in the sacraments, has touched me with His promise. He’s drawn near to me with the promise. So the promise isn’t just for others, but the promise is for me if I receive it in faith.” And for us as Reformed Christians, that’s really crucial. There’s promise in the gospel, there’s promise in the sacraments, but those promises have to be received in faith to be a saving blessing.

And I think we sometimes can get into concern about the strength of the language of Jesus here. And then I like to remind people to read John 6. Now, John 6 is not primarily about the Lord’s Supper, but it has implications for the Lord’s Supper. And Jesus said there, “Unless you eat My body and drink My blood, you have no part in Me.” Now, that’s intended to be a really shocking statement. He wanted to get people’s attention, and He did. He offended some people by saying that.

But what He’s saying there is: “Unless you receive life from Me, from Me as I die on the cross, where My body is broken and My blood is shed, unless you are related to Me as intimately as eating My body and drinking My blood, you have no part in Me. You have to be utterly dependent on Me and what I’ve done.” And that’s what the Lord’s Supper reminds us, but not only reminds us, it brings to us and it connects us to Christ. So, just as the Word truly connects us to Christ, so the sacrament truly connects us to Christ.

And some American evangelicals get really nervous about that. And I always suggest reading Luther at that point, not that I’m a Lutheran altogether on the Lord’s Supper, but Luther is great on this. Luther says: “Look, we’re saved by things that are physical—a physical body of Jesus, physical blood of Jesus offered on a physical cross. His body is put in a physical tomb and then emerges on Resurrection Sunday triumphantly as a physical body that can be touched.” And Luther wants to say: “God acts through physical things. We shouldn’t be nervous about that. We shouldn’t over spiritualize things.” And so, God has given us a gift of bread and wine, and He wants us to use it for our encouragement in being loyal to Him, but even more importantly, to be confirmed that He is loyal to us.