What Is the Significance of the Holy Communion?

The love of Christ

To partake of the Holy Communion is to taste the extent of Jesus’ sacrifice. It is to realize the full dimensions of His love:

The depth to which the king of heaven descended to suffer as a sinner for our sins
The width of His arms spread on the cross to bring all humankind into His embrace
The height He rose to transcend death and Hades and lead us in triumphant life and glory

As we eat the bread, we remember the body that was broken by nails, His splintered flesh. As we drink of the cup, we remember the blood that poured from His wounds. We not only remember His suffering. We proclaim the eternal life in heaven the Lord Jesus Christ prepared for us through His death and resurrection.

The life of Christ

The spiritual effect of the sacrament is based on the Lord’s own words:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in Me, and I in him. (Jn 6:53-56)

Isn’t it a profound, wonderful mystery that Jesus Christ would give us His flesh and blood to eat and drink? It represents the completeness of His sacrificeHe gave us His all; His life. Through the Holy Communion, we connect with the Lord Jesus Christ not only in the memory of His death, but in the spiritual life He gives to us. By receiving the spiritual flesh and blood, Christ lives in us and we in Him. Only with the life of Christ in us can we have eternal life and resurrect on the last day. Therefore, all believers of Christ must partake of the Holy Communion.