A Reformed Theology Of The Lord's Supper

For the Reformed tradition, the bread and wine are signs that point to Christ's spiritual presence, but have no power apart from the accompanying Word of God. Christ is divinely present. However since his ascension, his humanity has been localized in heaven. In order to protect the sovereign freedom of God, Reformed theology resists both Lutheran and Catholic views of the objective efficacy of the sacrament. The Lord's Supper is neither a converting sacrament, nor mere ceremony. It renews and seals Christ's promise to us, exercises Christian's faith, and incites growth in the Christian life.

Sign and Substance For the Reformed, Jesus Christ, the sole mediator between God and man, is personally present today, governing and sustaining the church through the Word of God and two sacraments. The sacraments are accessories to the preaching of the Word of God, which establishes the church. Recognizing the believer's anxiety and weakness, God employs these physical signs of grace throughout the church's history to confirm his promised grace and to claim for himself all of us, soul and body. Christ instituted the Lord's Supper as a sign that, through his death and resurrection, he fulfills the new covenant, establishing reconciliation between wayward humans and a holy God (Matt. 26:28). All the components of this service—the basic foods, the breaking of the bread, the distribution, and the eating as a community—powerfully signify Christ as the believers' spiritual life and present nourishment. The Reformed insist that the bread and wine are physical signs which have no power in themselves, but point to Christ's spiritual presence. In this symbolic view, the Word must accompany the elements. The Word constitutes the elements as a sacrament by identifying the promised reality this service mirrors. With this definition, the Reformed reject transubstantiation and adoration of the consecrated elements, considering a failure to distinguish sign and substance as idolatrous. Characteristically, the Reformed identify idolatry as any tendency to trust in something created, instead of worshiping God, who is spirit. Christ's Presence The substance of the Lord's Supper is "Christ communicating himself with all his benefits to us" (Belgic Confession [1561]: art. 35). This sacrament does not just intellectually remind the believer of Christ; "here the faithful … have such union with Christ Jesus as the natural man cannot apprehend" (Scots Confession [1560]: chap. 21). Even though his human body is in heaven, the Spirit "transfuses life into us from the flesh of Christ" (Calvin's Tracts 2:249). With this thesis, the Reformed reject the Arminian conception of the Lord's Supper as an ordinance. Frequently, Zwingli is also labeled a memorialist on the ground that he views the elements as bare signs representing what is absent. Recent scholarship questions this assessment of the later Zwingli. Certainly, he affirms that this ceremony brings to mind historical events. However, believers are not confined to that sphere. Those "taught inwardly by the Spirit … know and believe that Christ suffered for us: it is they alone who receive Christ" (Exposition of the Faith, Library of Christian Classics 24:261). Since "the true body of Christ is present by the contemplation of faith" (The Latin Works of Huldreich Zwingli 2:49), the believer comes "to the Lord's Supper to feed spiritually upon Christ" (Exposition of Faith 24:259). As Locher documents, Zwingli's idea of recollection is not that of the Enlightenment, but instead the Augustinian concept of memoria, in which the Spirit illuminates the mind and makes Christ present (Gottfried W. Lochner, Zwingli's Thought: New Perspectives [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981], 222–24). This understanding of Jesus' personal presence contests the Lutheran view. Since the benefits of salvation are mediated solely by Christ, the Lutherans argue that the divine and even the human nature must be locally present with the elements. First, the Reformed point out that the hypostatic union grounds the unity of the two natures of Christ and Christ's presence in the Eucharist. Just as Jesus' human nature has salvific efficacy for humans only through his deity, in the same way, Jesus' human nature can spiritually nourish humans through the Spirit's work in the Eucharist. Second, Scripture carefully demonstrates that Jesus' humanity is like ours, not ubiquitous, but delimited by place (Luke 24:6; Mark 16:6). Furthermore, Scripture demonstrates that Jesus' human nature is now in heaven (Acts 1:9–11). In addition, through the Supper believers "proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). Thus Jesus' words of institution must be interpreted figuratively. Third, if Christ's humanity is not like ours, the salvation of humanity is endangered. God's Grace The Reformed also underscore God's sovereign freedom and the reality of grace. Since the Lord's Supper depends entirely on Christ's initiative, the signs carry no power in themselves. Rather, the Spirit freely creates faith in us and links us to the person of Jesus Christ through the sign. The elements, then, are the instruments Christ uses to make believers partakers of himself. According to medieval theology, the priest's sacrificial work and the church's oblation to God in the Mass were instrumental for imparting and perfecting Christ's benefits. The Reformed repudiate this view as promoting justification by works. The church has nothing meritorious to offer God. Christ is the sole mediator; his sacrifice is unique and its efficacy eternal. This sacrament is a supper, not a sacrifice; served at a table, not an altar. Nor are others needed to transmit Christ's benefits (Calvin's Tracts 2:184), for Christ is present in his Word and sacraments. Moreover, the church's oblation is not meritorious, but a response of gratitude for Christ's prior and present work (Calvin, Institutes 5.18.16). Simply put, we live by grace solely through Christ's work. This Reformed distinctive also opposes the Lutheran view. Seeking to preserve the objectivity and truthfulness of God's promise in the Lord's Supper, Luther maintains that wherever this visible Word is presented, Christ is automatically present. Consequently, he concludes that even the wicked feed on Christ (monducatio impiorum), but receive judgment. Reformed theologians reject this reciprocal linking of sign and substance, because it precludes God's sovereign freedom and the Supper as a means of grace. They also reject the other extreme that separates the sign and substance dualistically because it suggests that God's Word is deceptive. Generally, the Reformed follow Calvin's proposal: "If the Lord truly represents the participation in this body through the breaking of the bread, there ought not to be the least doubt that he truly presents and shows his body." But faith alone apprehends this objective reality. Thus, only if the Spirit has already created faith can one feed on Christ (Institutes 4.17.10). Purpose The Reformed do not elevate the Lord's Supper to a converting sacrament, nor reduce it to a bare ceremony mandated by our Lord. Christ instituted the Lord's Supper for nourishing the believer in the following three ways. First, speaking through the words of institution, Christ declares that his sacrifice at Calvary, which ratified the covenant long ago, was given for believers. Through communion with believers, Christ renews and seals that original promise. Now, "I see with my eyes that the bread of the Lord is broken for me and that the cup is shared with me" (Heidelberg Catechism [1563]: 75). Second, the Lord's Supper exercises our faith and incites growth in the Christian life. Traditionally, the Reformed emphasize Paul's exhortation to "examine" oneself (1 Cor. 11:28). The Scots Confession even "fences in" the table (chapter 23). The point is that communion with Christ presupposes believers who are conscious of their sinfulness, repentant, aware that Christ is the sole source of eternal life, and endeavoring to make their "whole life conformable to … Christ" (Calvin, Calvin's Tracts 2:174). Because Christ is present here, faith is "kindled and grows more and more, and is refreshed by spiritual food" (Second Helvetic Confession [1566]: chap. 21). Having been assured of reconciliation and empowered by Christ—despite being sinners—the Lord's Supper now issues in acts of gratitude, eucharistia, for Christ's work: "a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God" (Westminster Confession of Faith [1646]: chap. 29.2) and "a fervent love towards God and our neighbor" (Belgic Confession: art. 35). The church gratefully demonstrates Christ's love to others by "coalescing into one body" and "regarding a brother as a member—eye, hand or foot …" (Zwingli, The Latin Works of Huldreich Zwingli 3:394). While originating in God's action, this sacrament concludes with believers attesting to the reality of their faith.