In this chapter, we want to see something concerning the meaning of the Lord’s table. First Corinthians 11:23-29 says,
For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and having given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me. Similarly also the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes. So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and in this way let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not discern the body.
When the Lord said “this do” two times, He was referring first to taking the bread and eating and second to taking the cup and drinking.
The King James Version inaccurately translates verse 29 as, “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” (emphasis added). According to the Greek text of the better manuscripts, the word Lord’s should not appear in this verse. Hence, the verse should read “if he does not discern the body,” not “if he does not discern the Lord’s body.”
In this passage we are told that the bread that we take at the Lord’s table is the body of Jesus, which was nailed to the cross and sacrificed for us. However, in the previous chapter, Paul writes, “The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ? Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread” (vv. 16-17). Hence, the meaning of the bread in chapter eleven is different from the meaning of the bread in chapter ten. In chapter eleven the bread signifies Jesus’ body sacrificed on the cross for us, whereas in the tenth chapter the bread signifies us as the Body of Christ. We all must be clear concerning these two aspects of the meaning of the bread of the Lord’s table. The first aspect of the meaning of the bread is the Lord’s physical body that was sacrificed, nailed to the cross, and crucified for us. The second aspect of the meaning is that this bread signifies the Lord’s mystical Body, the church, which includes everyone who has been regenerated by God.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He had a physical body that He sacrificed for us on the cross with a view to imparting Himself to us as life. This is what we may call the Lord Jesus’ “first” body. However, after He died and resurrected, He regenerated us and brought us together so that we could become His mystical Body. Now the Lord Jesus has “another” body. This is not His physical body, which was small, limited, and restricted; this is His universally great, mystical Body, the church. We must see that with the Lord Jesus there are two bodies. One body is the physical body that was crucified for us. The other is His mystical Body which was raised up in His resurrection. The Lord sacrificed His physical body in order to bring forth this mystical Body.
When we come to the Lord’s table and take the bread, we need to have this full and clear realization. The bread on the table first signifies His physical body, which He gave to be crucified on the cross that He might impart Himself into us as life. The second aspect of the spiritual meaning of this bread is that after we have received Him into ourselves as life, we become members of His mystical Body. Once we have received Christ as life, we become the members who are composed together to be His mystical Body. Hence, when we come to the Lord’s table and take the bread, we must have the clear realization that the bread signifies, on the one hand, that the Lord’s physical body was crucified on the cross that we may have Him as our life and, on the other hand, that we all who have received Christ as our life are the Lord’s mystical Body.