Understanding Communion: What Jesus Gave for Us

By Robb Brunansky

Published November 7, 2024

As we continue studying the institution of our Lord’s Supper in Luke 22, we encounter a marvelous reality in the rest of verse 19: what Jesus gave to His disciples, He gave for all His future disciples.

These two phrases in our Lord’s statement are key: “Gave it to them,” and “Given for you.”

Them and you refer to the same group: Jesus’ disciples who are of a true faith. What Jesus gives to us in the Supper is what He gave for us on the cross in His body. We need to unpack the meaning of Christ giving Himself for us and to discover the significance of remembering this act at the table.

First, Christ is our representative.

When we read that Jesus gave Himself for us, we arrive at one of the most significant phrases in the entire New Testament. This phrase speaks to the doctrine of the atonement, which is the wonder of the Christian gospel – that we can be saved by the work of another.

In every other religious system, the only way we could experience bliss, joy, nirvana, heaven, or paradise is through our own efforts. Every other “gospel” is that of works. All other news is really bad news because the only way to make things right is to do right ourselves. We know this self-atonement isn’t possible in our fallen condition.

However, Christianity confronts those systems as lies that lead only to condemnation from the true and holy God. Christianity says we cannot save ourselves because we are grievous sinners. The good news of the gospel, though, is that God accomplished what was necessary for us to be reconciled to Him in His Son. We have been saved by the work of another – a representative.

In the ancient world, a representative would step forward to act on behalf of his people; and whatever happened to this representative, happened to his people. Perhaps the most vivid illustration of this concept of representation in Scripture is the account of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). David became the representative of Israel, defeating Goliath, and his people then subdued the Philistines through his victory.

Long before Jesus came, another man represented humanity: Adam. Whatever Adam did, in victory or defeat, would mean the same for his people. In the garden, Adam was defeated by Satan, falling under God’s curse, which transferred that reality to every man, woman, and child born of his seed. We are children of wrath by nature because of Adam’s sin.

Men and women can’t do better in and of ourselves because we are in Adam by nature. What we need is a new representative – someone standing where Adam stood but succeeding where Adam failed.

Jesus is that representative. The apostle Paul calls Jesus “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus gave Himself as our representative on the cross (Romans 5:18). Through Christ’s act of obedience, He brought justification that leads to life for all in Him. This spiritual representation is at the heart of the gospel.

Jesus won the greatest victory the world has ever known when He died on the cross and rose again. Giving His body speaks to Christ’s victory, not His defeat. That’s why when we take the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim His death until He comes again, because we are proclaiming His victory – as backwards as that seems to the world’s wisdom.

Since Jesus is our representative, like David represented Israel, His victory is ours. Through Christ, we have defeated death, the devil, and sin. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8). Everything He did, He did as our representative.

Additionally, Christ is our substitute.

Sin makes us guilty before God and brings divine wrath. This sin demands justice and a penalty. Scripture informs us that that penalty is eternal death, where we are cut off from everything blessed about God’s presence.

Something has to be done about that wrath. Someone must pay the penalty for our sins, because God is just, holy, and righteous. The Lord cannot simply dismiss our sin as trivial. Doing that would be to dismiss His holiness as insignificant and to treat His glory as if it were worthless, which is something He will never do.

A penalty is due for our sins. When Jesus says He gave His body for us, He means He became our substitute and took that penalty on Himself. The meaning of this is encapsulated brilliantly in 1 John 4:10. God’s wrath was upon us because of our sins, but He loved us at the same time in an inexpressible way. So, He decided to do something inconceivable, sending His only Son to pay that penalty, bear that wrath, and satisfy divine justice by taking our sins upon Himself on the cross and enduring the punishment we deserve. Jesus would stand as our substitute.

Notice the word “for” in Luke 22:19, which has attached to it, in Greek, the image of someone standing over another to shield that person from a blow by taking it for him. Jesus gave His very body for us in the sense that He stood over us, shielded us, and took the blow of God’s wrath, saving us from the crushing judgment our sins deserved at the hand of Almighty God. When Christ did all that, He inevitably and necessarily received the blow Himself, suffering the entirety of it in His own person.

We must wonder how Jesus felt as He passed the bread to His disciples and made this marvelous pronouncement, because He knew the fullness of the terror of God’s wrath to come upon Him in our place.

Finally, Communion is our remembrance of Jesus.

In communion, we have the greatest visual aid in the world to help us remember what Jesus has done and to assist us in our faith. We see, smell, and taste the elements, reminding us anew each time we partake of the Lord’s Table of our Savior’s glorious work.

When Jesus says to do this ordinance in remembrance of Him, He doesn’t mean to just merely intellectually remember Him or His sacrifice, as if He were absent. Rather, the memory is of one who is alive. We do this in memory of Christ saving us through His death and resurrection and promising to come again. We do this also as He by the Spirit reminds us of all that He is for us.

There is a sense in which Jesus’ work is very abstract and difficult to grasp, because we don’t see or touch it. Yet in communion, there is the sense it all becomes tangible and visible. Our faith is confirmed as we come to the Lord’s table to receive the benefits of His work by faith, and to be strengthened by His grace through the Spirit.

One reason some believers have such weak faith is because they don’t really understand the table, and they don’t come to the table often enough. We are prone to become cold to the gospel; but in Communion, the gospel comes to us and into us through the bread and the cup. Here we touch, smell, and taste the gospel.

Let us, therefore, rejoice in Jesus and give thanks to His holy name, for He has won the victory for us. Christ has satisfied God’s wrath against our sins by bearing it in our place. To Him be the glory forever.