Remember, Examine, Proclaim – Part 1: Remember

There is something powerful about remembering.

Not the kind of remembering that simply recalls information, but the kind that reshapes how you see everything. The kind that brings you back to a moment so significant that it reorients your present life.

We all have moments like that. A place you revisit, a conversation you replay, a memory that changes how you feel even years later. Those moments do not just inform you, they form you.

This is the kind of remembering Jesus had in mind when He established communion.

For many in the church today, communion has become familiar, sometimes even routine. It is something we do regularly, yet often without fully engaging the depth of what it represents. It can quietly drift into something we observe rather than something we experience.

But when Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24, ESV), He was not calling for a casual recollection. He was instituting a sacred act rooted in the entire story of redemption.

To understand communion rightly, we must begin with remembrance. And to understand remembrance, we must go back to the cross, the covenant, and even further, to the Passover.

“This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 1 Corinthians 11:24–25 (ESV)

Biblical remembrance is not passive reflection but active participation in the reality of what God has done, shaping how we live in the present.

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Big Idea 1: Remembrance Is Rooted in the Cross

When Jesus speaks of remembrance, He is anchoring it firmly in His sacrificial death. Communion is not simply a reflective moment, it is a deliberate return to the cross. It calls us back again and again to the center of our faith, reminding us that we never move beyond the gospel, we only grow deeper into it.

The Apostle Paul makes this clear in passages such as Romans 3 and Romans 5, where he explains that the heart of the gospel is Christ’s substitutionary work. Jesus did not die merely to demonstrate love or provide an example of sacrifice. He died in our place, bearing the full penalty of sin so that we could receive His righteousness. This is the great exchange at the center of salvation. Our sin was placed upon Him, and His righteousness was credited to us. This is what theologians call justification, and it is the foundation of our relationship with God.

Understanding this gives depth to Jesus’ command to remember.

The Greek word used in 1 Corinthians 11 for remembrance is anamnesis, a term that goes beyond simple mental recall. In its original context, it carried the idea of bringing a past event into present significance. It is not simply about thinking back, it is about experiencing the meaning of that event in the present moment.

This means that when we take the bread and the cup, we are not merely acknowledging that Jesus died long ago. We are stepping into the ongoing reality of what His death accomplished. We are bringing the significance of the cross into the present, allowing it to shape how we think, how we feel, and how we live.

In that moment, we remember that His body was broken for us and His blood was shed for us. We remember that our sin was not ignored or minimized, it was fully dealt with. We remember that grace is not cheap, but costly, purchased through the suffering of Christ.

This kind of remembrance has a profound effect on us. It humbles us by reminding us that we could not save ourselves. Rememberance confronts our tendency toward pride and self-reliance. It exposes any drift in our hearts that has moved us away from the centrality of the gospel.

At the same time, it recenters us. Because the greatest danger in the Christian life is not always open rejection of the gospel, but quiet drift away from its importance. Over time, it is possible to build a life that revolves around church activity, personal effort, or even moral improvement, while losing sight of the cross.

Communion interrupts that drift. It calls us back. It places the cross again at the center of our lives and reminds us that everything we are and everything we have flows from what Christ has done.

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Big Idea 2: Remembrance Is Connected to Covenant

Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” and with that statement He anchors communion not only in the cross, but in the entire biblical framework of covenant. To understand communion fully, we must understand covenant as Scripture presents it. In the Bible, covenant is the primary way God establishes and sustains relationship with His people. It is not casual or temporary. It is binding, initiated by God, and often sealed with blood, signifying both the seriousness and the cost of the relationship.

In the Old Testament, covenants defined identity, belonging, and responsibility. When God made a covenant with Abraham, with Israel at Sinai, and later with David, He was not simply making promises. He was forming a people who would live in relationship with Him under His authority and grace. These covenants carried blessings, but they also carried expectations, and they revealed both God’s faithfulness and humanity’s inability to remain faithful on their own.

Against that backdrop, Jesus’ words at the table take on profound significance. When He speaks of the “new covenant,” He is directly fulfilling the promise of Jeremiah 31:31–34, where God declares that He will establish a covenant marked by the forgiveness of sins and the transformation of the human heart. This new covenant would not merely regulate behavior from the outside, it would renew people from the inside.

The death of Christ is the moment when that promise becomes reality.

Under the old covenant, sacrifices had to be offered repeatedly because they could never fully remove sin. They pointed forward to something greater. Under the new covenant, Christ offers Himself once and for all. As Hebrews 10:14 declares, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” The repetition of sacrifice is replaced by the sufficiency of Christ.

This is why Hebrews 9:22 reminds us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Communion brings us face to face with the cost of that forgiveness. It is free to us, but it was not cheap. It was purchased through the blood of Jesus.

When we take the cup, we are not merely recalling a historical event. We are remembering that we are living in a covenant relationship with God that has been secured and guaranteed by the blood of Christ. This reshapes how we understand our standing before God. Our relationship with Him is not fragile, dependent on our performance or consistency. It is anchored in the finished work of Jesus.

This also reshapes our identity. We are not simply forgiven individuals trying to do better. We are covenant people who belong to God. As Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Communion reminds us that we have been brought near, not by effort, but by sacrifice.

So when we remember the cup, we are remembering more than forgiveness. We are remembering that we are part of a new covenant, living in a restored relationship with God, and invited to live out of that reality every day.

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Big Idea 3: Remembrance Is Foreshadowed in Passover

Communion is deeply connected to the Passover, and this connection helps us see the full weight of what Jesus was doing at the Last Supper.

In Exodus 12, God instructed the people of Israel to sacrifice a lamb without blemish and apply its blood to the doorposts of their homes. When judgment came, those who were covered by the blood were spared. This moment marked the beginning of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt and became a defining event that shaped their identity as a people. Year after year, they would celebrate Passover to remember how God rescued them.

Now consider what happens at the Last Supper. Jesus takes the elements of that Passover meal and redefines them around Himself. He is not merely participating in a tradition, He is revealing its fulfillment. He is saying that He is the Lamb, that His blood brings deliverance, and that His sacrifice brings true and lasting freedom.

This is why John the Baptist declares in John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” and why Paul later writes in 1 Corinthians 5:7, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” These are not random connections. They are theological anchors that show us that everything in the Passover was pointing forward to Jesus.

Communion, then, is the fulfillment of Passover.

Just as the blood of the lamb protected Israel from physical death, the blood of Christ delivers us from spiritual death. Just as Passover marked the beginning of Israel’s freedom, the cross marks the beginning of our new life in Christ.

This means that communion is not merely about personal forgiveness, though it certainly includes that. It is about deliverance, identity, and transformation. It is about being brought out of slavery and into freedom, out of darkness and into light, and into a new life that is defined by what Christ has done.

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Bringing It Together

We remember His sacrifice, we examine our hearts, and we respond with our lives.

Remembrance is the foundation. Before anything else, we must come back to the cross.

We remember the cost of our salvation, the covenant that defines us, and we remember the Lamb who delivered us.

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Conclusion

Communion is not a ritual to move through simply observing traditions; it is a purposeful reality to recognize and remember.

When we remember rightly, it does not leave us where we are. It reorders our loves, it confronts our sin, and it renews our hope. Remembrance is not a glance backward; it is a return to the center.

We cannot remember the cross and cling to pride, because the cross humbles us. We cannot remember the cross and remain indifferent, because the cross awakens us. And, we cannot remember the cross and stay unchanged, because the cross transforms us.

At the table, we meet again the Christ who was crucified for us, the covenant sealed by His blood, and the Lamb who takes away our sin. And from that meeting place, we are sent back into our lives marked by grace, shaped by truth, and compelled to live differently.

Remembrance brings us back to the center of our faith, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and from that center, it sends us out to live as people who have truly been changed.

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The next time you take communion, slow down.

Ask yourself what you are remembering and how it should shape your life.

Let remembrance move beyond ritual and into transformation.

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Prayer

Lord, thank You for the cross. Thank You for the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for our salvation. Teach us to remember rightly. Keep us from treating holy things as common. Help us to live in the reality of what You have done for us. Shape our lives through the power of the gospel. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Next Post in the Series: Remember, Examine, Proclaim – Part 2: Examine

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Blessings,

Chad 

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