Catechism #44

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The Supper: partaking of Christ

Question 96 teaches that in the Lord's Supper, by giving and receiving bread and wine as Christ appointed, his death is shown forth, and that worthy receivers are made partakers of his body and blood with all his benefits, not in a bodily way but by faith, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.

In a whitewashed church with a timber roof, the congregation sits around long tables beneath brass chandeliers to share the Lord's Supper.
Johannes Bosboom, The Geertekerk in Utrecht during the Lord's Supper, 1849 · Source

This week's questions

What is the Lord's Supper? The Lord's Supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ's appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace.

Question 96

After baptism (last week), this week and next teach the Lord's Supper: Question 96 what it is, Question 97 how to come to it worthily.

Given, received, and showing his death

A tall cylindrical silver flagon with a hinged lid and a curved handle, its body engraved with a coat of arms and an inscription.
John Webber, Communion Flagon, 1737–38 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) · Source

Question 96 first pictures the Supper as an action, bread and wine given and received ‘according to Christ's appointment’. In the first proof text Paul hands on the words of institution:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

1 Corinthians 11:23-24

The English minister Matthew Henry, after the Saviour's actions, lists ours: "The actions of the communicants were, to take the bread and eat, to take the cup and drink, and to do both in remembrance of Christ" Matthew Henry. The Lord gives, we receive, and so "you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Not in a bodily way, but by faith

Question 96 says that those who receive are made partakers of Christ's body and blood. Paul asks in the last proof text:

Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

1 Corinthians 10:16

Many also read the Lord's words in John 6 in this light (John 6:53-56). The partaking is ‘not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith’, and this spiritual presence is no less true for being the Spirit's work. The Heidelberg Catechism says that those who so eat are, though he is in heaven, "flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones", living by one Spirit Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 76. The Belgic Confession of the Dutch Reformed churches says we receive his true body and blood by "faith (which is the hand and mouth of our soul)" art. 35. So at the table our eyes rise from the bread to Christ at God's right hand. Calvin's Short Treatise of 1541 Calvin, Short Treatise on the Holy Supper and the Genevan service's call to lift up our hearts before the Supper The Genevan Form of Prayers were meant to teach this partaking. The Reformed Baptists' Second London Confession confesses the same spiritual feeding 30.7.

‘All his benefits’, forgiveness, life and comfort, are at that table. The Supper is not a prize for the strong but bread for the journey, given for nourishment and growth in grace.

The churches confess Christ's presence differently. The Catholic Church teaches that by consecration the substance of the bread and wine becomes the substance of Christ's body and blood, the change it names transubstantiation Council of Trent. The thirteenth-century Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote that this presence "cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority" Summa Theologica III.75.1. The Catholic Church also teaches that the Mass is a true sacrifice: the victim is one and the same as on the cross, now offered by the ministry of priests and without the shedding of blood Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacrifice of the Mass. The Orthodox confess a real change in the gifts and leave its manner a mystery, undefined. Lutherans confess "the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine" Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, truly present and given to those who eat Augsburg Confession, art. 10; others call this consubstantiation, a name Lutherans do not use. Zwingli's heirs and many free churches see the Supper above all as a memorial of the Lord's death (memorialism).

At Marburg in 1529 Lutheran and Reformed agreed on fourteen articles and parted over the bodily presence The Marburg Articles; in 1549 Zurich and Geneva reached one mind on the sacraments The Consensus Tigurinus. The Reformed confessions keep the sign distinct from what it signifies. The Heidelberg Catechism says that the bread "does not become the body of Christ itself", though sacraments call it so Q. 78, and yet that "we are as really partakers of his true body and blood, through the working of the Holy Ghost, as we receive by the mouth of the body these holy tokens" Q. 79. The Westminster Confession likewise sets transubstantiation aside as contrary to Scripture and as overthrowing the nature of the sacrament WCF 29.6. How often to come to the table the Reformed have never settled: Calvin and Farel asked in 1537 for the Supper every Lord's Day if it could be Calvin and Farel, Articles of 1537, Geneva's council is said to have allowed four times a year, and churches still differ. See The Supper: Christ's spiritual presence, The Lord's Supper and Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

To ponder this week

On a table covered with a blue cloth before a dark wall stand a glass of red wine, a straw-covered bottle and a pewter plate of rolled wafer biscuits.
Lubin Baugin, Still Life with Wafer Biscuits, c. 1631 (Louvre) · Source

When you next come to the table, how will you lift your heart to Christ and receive him by faith? As you take the bread, think of the body given for you; as you take the cup, of the blood shed for you. Then pray briefly: Lord, feed me, and make me grow in your grace. If there is no Supper this week, read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 slowly.

Practice

  1. Practice 1 of 6

    According to Question 96, by what is Christ's death shown forth in the Lord's Supper?

  2. Practice 2 of 6

    How does Question 96 say worthy receivers partake of Christ's body and blood?

  3. Practice 3 of 6

    Which proof text of Question 96 asks whether the bread we break is a participation in the body of Christ?

  4. Practice 4 of 6

    What does the Belgic Confession, article 35, call faith?

  5. Practice 5 of 6

    Which pairing of a church with its teaching on Christ's presence in the Supper is accurate?

  6. Practice 6 of 6

    Question 96 names the Supper's fruit "spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace". What does that teach about the table?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Related topics

Eucharist (The Lord's Supper)CommunionFellowshipFaith

Source

  1. John Calvin, Short Treatise on the Holy Supper 1541 — Teaches that in the Supper believers truly partake of the body and blood of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
  2. John Calvin, The Genevan Form of Prayers 1542 — The order of worship, prayers and metrical psalms of the Genevan church; before the Supper it calls hearts to be lifted up to heaven.
  3. Council of Trent, Decree on the Most Holy Eucharist 1551 — Catholic teaching that the substance of the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation).
  4. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae — The medieval summa of theology: God, creation and providence, humanity and grace, Christ and the sacraments; God can be known by reason, but saving truth is given by revelation; that the world had a beginning is held by faith, not proved by reason (I.46.2). 1265–1274. Read
  5. Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacrifice of the Mass 1562 — Catholic teaching that the Mass is a true sacrifice: Christ left the church a visible sacrifice by which the one bloody sacrifice offered on the cross is re-presented, its memory kept to the end of the world and its saving power applied for the forgiveness of sins; the victim is one and the same, now offered by the ministry of priests, only the manner of offering differing, for in the Mass Christ is offered without the shedding of blood.
  6. Luther and Zwingli, The Marburg Articles 1529 — Lutheran and Reformed agreed on fourteen articles and most of the fifteenth, but parted over the bodily presence of Christ in the Supper.
  7. Calvin and Bullinger, The Consensus Tigurinus 1549 — The agreement of Geneva and Zurich on the sacraments, above all the Supper.
  8. John Calvin and William Farel, Articles on the Organisation of the Church at Geneva 1537 — Asks that the Supper be celebrated often, ideally every Lord’s Day, and proposes church discipline.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.