Sometimes there is encouragement embedded in a warning, and that is exactly the case with these words from Mark Dever: “It is true that the Lord’s Supper is only for sinners. But within that group, it is only for repentant sinners.” Many Christians feel they are too unholy or too sinful to participate in the Lord’s Supper. They come to the table downcast, convinced that their sin makes them unworthy. They may refuse to participate at all.
But the reality is that being a sinner and having an awareness of that sin is not a hindrance to the Lord’s Supper, but a prerequisite. It is sinners who are invited to the table because it is sinners who need the table. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). The Savior who calls sinners to himself calls sinners to his table. Yet as Dever points out, it is a particular kind of sinner—a repentant sinner.
We dare not come if we are reveling in our sin, enjoying it, refusing to turn from it. But we dare not refuse to come if we hate our sin, if we are living lives of repentance, if we know our need of the Savior, who says, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).
