THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Mark: Jesus, The Perfect Servant Of God

Part III: The Perfect Sacrifice Of Jesus, The Perfect Servant Of God, Mark 11:1-15:47

P. The Grace Of God's Salvation Seen In The Lord's Table Opposite False Religions

(Mark 14:22-25)

I. Introduction

A. Mark's Gospel was written by John Mark who was rebounding from having abandoned Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:13) due to Mark's lapse in following Christ over some difficulty.

B. That difficulty may have been in part his shock over the Acts 13:8 spiritual opposition of Elymas the sorcerer.

C. Paul's critique of Elymas showed he had perverted the truth (Acts 13:10), and Mark's account of the institution of the Lord's Table in Mark 14:22-25 upheld the truth of salvation by grace versus its perversion in human merit. We thus view the passage for insight and edification on the grace of God seen in the Lord's Table:

II. The Grace Of God's Salvation Seen In The Lord's Table Opposite False Religions, Mark 14:22-25.

A. Just before the Passover meal was eaten in the Jewish home of Jesus' day, the "head of the household explained its meaning regarding Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt," Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 177.

B. Building on this practice, Jesus began to explain while partaking of the meal a "new understanding of the bread and wine" (Ibid.), and that explanation reveals God's grace in contrast to false religions, Mark 14:22-25:

1. Jesus explained that the bread and cup He gave His disciples graciously symbolized His death for them:

a. Jesus was physically present in His body and His blood was still in His body when He stated that the bread what His body and the contents of His cup was His blood that was shed, Mark 14:22, 24; Ibid.

b. Also, partaking of actual blood was strictly forbidden by the Law, Leviticus 3:17; 7:26-27; Ibid.

c. Thus, Jesus held that the elements of the bread and the cup were mere symbols of His body and blood, countering the faith-plus-works salvation taught in Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation: (1) the Roman Catholic Church teaches the doctrine of "transubstantiation," that "the bread and wine are changed by priestly consecration into the very body and blood of Christ; that this consecration is a new offering of Christ's sacrifice; and that, by a physical partaking of the elements, the communicant receives saving grace from God," A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, 1970, p. 965. However, as we have just shown, Mark 14:22,24 shows no such change of the elements, and Hebrews 9:24-28 with Ephesians 2:8-9 reveals Christ suffered and died for sin once-for-all on the cross, and that one is saved by faith alone, not by faith plus the work of ingesting the elements. (2) The Lutheran and High Church view of "consubstantiation" holds that "the communicant, in partaking of the consecrated elements, eats the veritable [actual] body and drinks the veritable [actual] blood of Christ in and with the bread and wine, although the elements themselves do not cease to be material," Ibid., p. 968. Yet, Mark 14:22, 24 shows the elements are not associated with the real body and blood of Christ, but are just symbols of them, and Ephesians 2:8-9 claims one is saved by faith and not by works, countering the view that in ingesting the elements one obtains Christ's body and blood and so obtains Christ. (3) Thus, Mark 14:22, 24 with Ephesians 2:8-9 teach the Symbolic view, that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, not by faith plus the work of observing the Lord's Table.

2. Jesus explained that His death was done "for" (KJV), or better, "in behalf of" (huper being the Greek New Testament term, Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T.) the world, implying that men are so hopelessly lost in their own efforts that they need the substitutionary death of Christ to be saved by grace, Mark 14:24.

3. Jesus explained that His death produced the New Covenant, the word for "covenant" (Mark 14:24 KJV) being diathekes, a gracious agreement "established by one party, in this case God," Ibid., p. 178. If one's salvation depended in part on man along with God, the Greek term would have been syntheke to indicate multiple parties (Ibid.), but it is diathekes instead because salvation is only by God in His grace!

4. Since Jesus was explaining the Passover meal in instituting the Lord's Table (cf. Mark 14:16, 22), and the Passover Lamb's blood applied to the door in Israel's Exodus saved the household's firstborn in grace (Ex. 12:5-13, so Christ our Passover Lamb was slain for us that we might be saved by grace, 1 Corinthians 5:7.

Lesson: Opposite the false doctrines of salvation by human merit or by faith plus human merit, Christ in the context of the Passover meal instituted the Lord's Table to teach the GRACE of His salvation for sinners.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ and His atonement on the cross alone for salvation, John 3:16. (2) As we observe the Lord's Table, may we humbly worship and thank God for His gracious salvation to us in Christ.