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We have seen in the previous articles what is and what is not the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist. The Lord’s Supper is not a motive for pride and to dishonour those who don’t have anything, it is not a charm, or a medicine, but it is a holy act set up by the Lord Jesus Himself as a sign of remembrance for Christians about the covenant they have made with Him by faith and repentance. The Lord’s Supper is a special reason when Christians share with other people about the sacrifice of salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper has one more implication, that this holy act is a JUDGEMENT that takes place on two levels and in two instances.
Instance #1 – Personal judgement
The Lord’s Supper is a sign of remembrance about the covenant the Christians made with the Lord Jesus, that’s why, every Christian that approaches this holy act, has to make and evaluation, an examination, a personal judgement of the way how he respects the conditions of this covenant, so that he may inherit its promises. If a Christian doesn’t make an evaluation of his life, of his obedience to God of the way how he respects the conditions of the established covenant, in this way, he takes part in the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, as Apostle Paul says:
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment (convinction, sentence) to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. (1 Corinthians 11:27–29)(NASB)
In the context of this passage, to take part in the Lord’s Supper and not to judge His body and blood, means to do it as a tradition, and not to be aware of the sacrifice the Lord Jesus has brought for your salvation, and not to analyse your life and living in the light of this sacrifice and of the conditions of the established covenant. All these conditions are written on the pages of the Holy Scriptures. When we come to Eucharist, God wants us to analyse well our deeds, thoughts, words, relations we have or we don’t have with people and then to repent of what we don’t do or think, or speak according with his covenant, to repair the broken relations and only so, having such an attitude, to take part in the Lord’s Supper. He wants us to judge ourselves and to make ferm decisions concerning our further life and to change the way of living. I saw some Christians that “are so fearful” to God that they come to the Lord’s Supper, but they don’t taste the wine and the bread, because they don’t live in peace with others, or they have other sins, and they are afraid to take part, so that they may not drink the judgement, their convinction. If you are one of them, I want to tell you that the reason of the Lord’s Supper is firstly to put you face to face with the covenant you made with Jesus Christ and with the conditions of this covenant. No matter if you taste the wine or the bread, if you go home and don’t repent with all your heart, to change your behaviour and thinking, you go home sentenced. And if you don’t judge yourself so that you may bring a change in your personal life, the second level of judgement will interfere – God will come to judge you.
Instance #2 – God’s judgement (on the believer)
As we have seen in the previous cited passage, the Lord Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper so that every Christian may have a time to analyse, to judge and to condemn himself, so that he may change his behaviour, speaking and thinking. But if the Christian who entered the covenant with the Lord Jesus doesn’t judge himself, the judgement of God on him will interfere very soon, as the Apostle Paul says in the continuation of the same text from the I Epistle to Corinthians:
For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. (1 Corinthians 11:30)(NASB)
This verse shows up three levels of God’s judgment, that will take place on the life of the one who doesn’t want to judge himself and doesn’t want to live in accord with the covenant.
Weakness will be the first step. Have you seen people that whatever they want to do, it doesn’t work? And they say angrily: “How can it be? The unbelievers and pagans are more successful than me. I fail in everything, at school, at work, in the family, in all things, I feel like a failure in everything… ” Such people get up early in the morning, work till late at night, and they fail in all things, they have no result. Why? Because they don’t live in accord with the conditions of the established covenant and they don’t do anything to change the situation, they don’t analyse and don’t judge themselves. A month ago, after I had preached to a group of men about the danger of pornography, a man came to me, he was totally despaired and he told me that he had some very big business, that apparently went on well, but he was in a very heavy situation and he had so many debts, as he had never had and he didn’t rejoice in anything, absolutely in anything. He himself told me the reason, because he saw it when he analysed his life in the light of the covenant had made with the Lord Jesus. He used to watch bad things on Internet. He also said that he had no relation either with his wife or with his children and he saw himself a failure in all things. This is God’s judgement on him, because he doesn’t want to judge himself, to repent, to make a break with bad things and to begin living like a true Christian. If he doesn’t stop, the second level of God’s judgement will come very quickly.
Sickness follows up the weakness, or in some cases it may interfere immediately and this will be the next way how God judges His children for unfaithfulness to Him and to the covenant made with Him. And when I say sickness, I don’t refer to a simple cold, or flu. We talk about serious illnesses, that affect you gravely. It doesn’t mean that the cause of sicknesses is always this, but God warns, that if you don’t want to analyse and judge yourself and you continue to live in disobedience to Him and to His covenant, sickness will come. But if the Christian continues to be stubborn, as the Scripture says “hardens the neck” (this is spoken about the traction animals, that don’t react upon the lash of the master), then the last level of God’s judgement will interfere – physical death of the Christian.
Physical death of Christians usually is called “falling asleep” in the Holy Scriptures to make a distinction between physical death of the unbelievers, who go into Hades when they pass away and where they will wait the Great Judgement Day, and after this they will be thrown into the lake of fire, that is the second death. It is not the same with the physical death of Christians, they have a very different fate and that’s why, their physical death is called falling asleep. If a man who entered the covenant with the Lord Jesus fails the conditions of this covenant and doesn’t analyse and judge himself to change the bahaviour and attitude, it will pass not much time unitl physical death will interfere, and it will come suddenly. As a priest, I was witness to many cases when God worked exactly in the way it is written in this passage from the Bible and He did it very quickly. I want to tell you two of these cases.
Once, an old man, a Christian, told me that his wife went to God and he wanted to marry another woman, that was not Christian, but she was a kind woman. God says clearly and categorically that He doesn’t accept such marriages and that a believer, is free to marry whoever he wants, but only in the Lord, with a faithful woman in the Lord Jesus, who is a part of the same covenant with God. I told him once again that that was contrary to God’s will and he was going to suffer the consequences. Nevertheless, he acted as he wanted, he acted in accord with his stubbornness. Three months passed and in a day his heart stopped suddenly and he fell dead. Then, I have heard from people other bad testimonies about him, that don’t cope with a Christian’s behaviour.
Another case, Christian parents of a young man told me that he began to live in a immoral relation with a girl that didn’t go to church, he even began to smoke, etc. It was March. I took him once when I went to preach to a church from the country and on the way there I told him from the Scriptures and I warned him about what would happen. He said: “I will repent in a day, I will come back to God, but not now, I need some more time, I need some more time…” Haven’t you forgotten? It was March then. In August, while he was at his so called friend, they quarreled, he was standing on the windowsill and he sliiped from the fifth floor. He was crying desperately as he hung on the edge, but then he fell and he died in some hours.
I would have more similar cases to tell you, that I know them personally, but I think that they are sufficient to understand that God doesn’t joke, but He speaks absolutely cathegorically and decided in His Word, when He says further on:
But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:31–32)(NASB)
God punishes Christians that pass over the conditions of the covenants made with Him, so that He might not judge them with the world. The fate of those who didn’t enter the covenant with God is grave. After physical death their souls go to Hades to wait for the Great Day of Judgment, that was seen and described in the book of Revelation by the Apostle John:
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11–15)(NASB)
In the book of life are written the names of those who entered the covenant with the Lord Jesus by faith and by new birth. Is your name written there? If you are in covenant with the Lord Jesus, do you live in accord with this covenant? When was the last time you took part in the Lord’s Supper? Did you examine yourself? What were the domains you found yourself guilty of the Lord Jesus and of the conditions of the covenant made with Him? Judge yourself so that you may not be judged by God. And if you haven’t yet entered the covenant with the Lord Jesus, don’t put off and come to Him by repentance and faith with all your heart.
Translated by Djugostran Felicia