Getting Baptized Before Taking Communion

Paying Attention to a Biblical Pattern

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Should people take the Lord’s Supper if they haven’t been baptized? The short answer is no, and the reasoning is rooted in the Old Testament. Let’s have a look.

In Joshua 3–4, the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River and were preparing to take the land God promised to their fathers. But the first city didn’t fall until Joshua 6. What happened between the crossing of the Jordan and the conquest of Jericho? The Israelites were circumcised, and they celebrated the Passover (Josh. 5:1–12)—in that order. First the sign, then the feast.

The sign of circumcision recalls the days of Abraham when God told him:

“This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant” (Gen. 17:10–14).

A couple observations that are especially relevant for our purposes in this article: circumcision was a covenant sign, and those who rejected the covenant sign were “cut off from his people.” The sign represented a Hebrew male’s participation in the covenant, and the lack of the sign represented covenant rejection (“he has broken my covenant”).

In Joshua 5, the Israelites have arrived in the promised land, but they are uncircumcised. They lack the covenant sign. How did this travesty come about? The biblical author explains:

For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way (Josh. 5:6–7).

The wilderness generation was disobedient, and one expression of their disobedience was their neglect of the covenant sign: they had not circumcised their children. So, in Joshua 5:7–9, the Israelites were circumcised. The ritual was a collective “setting apart” of the nation. Before the Feast of Passover in 5:10, the Lord told them to circumcise the sons of Israel (5:2–3).

It would have been strange if the Israelites were keeping the covenant feasts while lacking the covenant sign. Such an inconsistency wouldn’t be a neutral situation. It would have been a problem needing a remedy—the remedy of the circumcision ritual. The covenant sign identified them as the covenant people, and the Feast of Passover was a remembrance ceremony that recalled the covenant people’s history.

Circumcision was a reminder of who they were: they were a people set apart for the Lord with promises. And Passover reminded them of what God had done: he had redeemed them from the bondage of slavery. A covenant sign and covenant meal make sense together, and they make sense in a certain order.

Fast forward to the reality of the New Covenant. As disciples of Christ Jesus, we have a covenant sign and a covenant meal. The sign of baptism is applied to disciples of Christ (Matt. 28:19–20), and communion (also known as the Lord’s Supper) is the meal that disciples enjoy together. Christ was our ultimate Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), and the Last Supper established the new Passover meal (Luke 22:14–20; 1 Cor. 11:23–26).

It would be strange if someone professed to know Jesus and took the Lord’s Supper, all the while refusing to be baptized. Baptism is our public identification with the people of God. We take on the sign of the covenant. If someone refuses to be identified with Christ and Christ’s people through baptism, that person shouldn’t partake in the covenant meal. Putting it another way: if you’re not baptized, you shouldn’t take the Lord’s Supper.

Baptism is the entrance into household membership, and the Lord’s Supper is what the household gathers around the table to receive. Communion is a family meal, and baptism is our public profession that we belong to Christ and to the family he has redeemed. Through baptism, we are professing who we are: we are a people in Christ, having died with him and been buried with him and been raised with him. Through communion, we are remembering what Christ has done: he has given his body and blood for our salvation.

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