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Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind... Romans 12:2

Early Reformers and the Lord's Supper

Adapted from lecture notes by Douglas Wilson.
Used with permission.

Many Christians today believe that the Lord's Supper primarily assists us in leading us to reflect upon the death of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We see the Eucharist as spurring us to remember the price of our redemption, and through our meditative reflection we are edified. The historic view of the Reformers, however, is quite different. They believed that the Supper was a means of grace, that Jesus was truly present in the bread and the wine, and that the celebrants really fed upon Him. Since this view has fallen upon hard times recently, we would do well to re-familiarize ourselves with it.

Reformed Sacramentalism
First Confession of Basel: "In the Lord's Supper, (in which with the bread and wine of the Lord are represented and offered to us by the minister of the church the true body and blood of Christ,) bread and wine remained unchanged. We firmly believe, however, that Christ himself is the food of believing souls unto eternal life; and that our souls, by true faith upon Christ crucified, are made to eat and drink the flesh and blood of Christ."

First Helvetic (1536): "[Sacraments] consist of signs and real things ... In the Lord's Supper or Eucharist the bread and wine are the signs, but the spiritual realities are the communion of the body and blood of Christ, the salvation procured on the cross and the forgiveness of sins. These real spiritual things are received by faith, as the signs are in a bodily way."

Calvin's Institutes (IV.17.10): "Now this sacred communication of his flesh and blood, by which Christ transfuses his life into us, just as if he penetrated our bones and marrow, he testifies and seals also in the holy supper; not by the exhibition of a vain and empty sign, but by putting forth there such an energy of his Spirit as fulfills what he promises. What is thus attested he offers and exhibits to all who approach the spiritual banquet. It is however fruitfully received by believers only, who accept such vast grace with inward gratitude and trust."

Gallic Confession (1559): "He nourishes and vivifies us by the substance of his body and blood. We say, however, that this is done spiritually, not as substituting thus an imagination or thought for the power of the fact, but rather because this mystery of our coalition with Christ is so sublime, that it transcends all our senses, and so also the whole course of nature."

Old Scots Confession (1560): "The bread which we break is the communion of his body and the cup which we bless the communion of his blood; and so we confess that believers in the right use of the Lord's Supper thus eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus Christ, and we believe surely that he dwells in them and they in him, yea, that they become thus flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones."

Belgic Confession (1563): "We may say, however, that what is eaten is the very natural body of Christ, and what is drunk, his true blood; only the instrument of medium by which we eat and drink these is not the corporeal mouth, but our own spirit itself, and this by faith" (Art. 35).

Second Helvetic (1562): "Believers receive what is given by the minister of the Lord, and eat the Lord's bread and drink of the Lord's cup; inwardly, however, in the mean time, by the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit, they partake also of the Lord's flesh and blood, and are fed by these unto eternal life. For the flesh and blood of Christ are true meat and drink unto eternal life; and Christ himself, as delivered up for us and our salvation, is that which mainly makes the Supper, nor do we suffer any thing else to be put in his room" (Art. 21).

Heidelberg Catechism (1563): Christ "feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life, with his crucified body and shed blood, as assuredly as I receive from the hands of the minister, and taste with my mouth, the bread and cup of the Lord, as certain signs of the body and blood of Christ" (Q75).

Westminster Confession (1647): "Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this sacrament, do then inwardly also by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified and all benefits of his death; the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet as really but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses" (29.7).

Conclusion
Clearly, the historic view of the reformation is no longer in vogue. The confessions speak with one voice: Jesus Christ is present, and gives Himself to us in His supper. The supper is a means of grace. By faith we receive true spiritual food, not primarily through our subjective reflection on "what God has done for me," but through God's objective imparting of Himself to us at His table. Those who seek to uphold the views of reformers are often accused of Roman Catholic sympathies. This reveals great ignorance. The statements of Calvin and the confessions were written in the midst of the battle against a corrupt Roman Church. To state the obvious: the Reformers were not defending Rome! Whether or not we agree with the Reformers we must recognize that the contemporary church has largely abandoned its confessional heritage.

Return to Volume 9, Number 1.