In the Lord's Supper we are said to
receive Christ and the benefits of His redemption to our spiritual nourishment
and growth in grace. As our natural food imparts life and strength to our bodies,
so this sacrament is one of the divinely appointed means to strengthen the
principle of life in the soul of the believer and to confirm his faith in the
promises of the gospel. By partaking of the bread and wine, the symbols of
Christ's body and blood given for us, we are united to Him as our head, our
life. He then works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. He works
in us according to the laws of our nature in the production of everything that
is good, so that it is from Him that all holy desires, all good counsels, and
all just works proceed. It is not, therefore, we that live, but Christ that
liveth in us.
What our Lord said to the apostles He says
in the most impressive manner in this ordinance to every believing communicant:
"This is my body, broken for you... this is my blood shed for you."
These words when received by faith fill the heart with joy, confidence,
gratitude, love, and devotion, so that the believer rises from the Lord's table
refreshed by the infusion of a new life.
The efficacy of this sacrament, according
to the Reformed doctrine, is not to be referred to any virtue in the ordinance
itself, whether in its elements or actions; much less to any virtue in the
administrator; nor to the mere power of the truths which it signifies; nor to
the inherent divine power in the word or promise by which it is attended; nor
to the real presence of the material body and blood of Christ (i.e., of the
body born of the Virgin), whether by the way of transubstatination,
consubstantiaition. or impanation; but only to the blessing of Christ and the
working of His Spirit in them that receive the sacrament of His body and blood.
To summarize the Reformed position: The
Lord's Supper is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ as a memorial of His
death wherein, under the symbols of bread and wine, His body as broken and His
blood as shed for the remission of sins are signified and, by the power of the
Holy Ghost. sealed and applied to believers. Thereby their union with Christ
and their mutual fellowship are set forth and confirmed, their faith
strengthened, and their souls nourished unto eternal life.
In this sacrament Christ is present not
bodily, but spiritually - not in the sense of local nearness, but of
efficacious operation. His people receive Him not with the mouth, but by faith;
they do not receive His flesh and blood as material particles, but His body as
broken and His blood as shed. The union thus signified and effected is not a
corporeal union, not a mixture of substances, but a spiritual and mystical
union due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The efficacy of this sacrament
as a means of grace is not in the signs, nor in the service, nor in the
minister, nor in the word, but in the attending influence of the Holy Ghost.
Charles Hodge (1797-1878)