Pious souls can derive great confidence and delight from this sacrament, as being a testimony that they form one body with Christ, so that everything which is his they may call their own. Hence it follows, that we can confidently assure ourselves, that eternal life, of which he himself is the heir, is ours, and that the kingdom of heaven, into which he has entered, can no more be taken from us than from him; on the other hand,that we cannot be condemned for our sins, from the guilt of which he absolves us, seeing he has been pleased that these should be imputed to himself as if they were his own. This is the wondrous exchange made by his boundless goodness. Having become with us the Son of Man, he has made us with himself sons of God. By his own descent to the earth he has prepared our ascent to heaven. Having received our mortality, he has bestowed on us his immortality. Having undertaken our weakness, he has made us strong in his strength Having, submitted to our poverty, he has transferred to us his riches. Having taken upon himself the burden of unrighteousness with which we were oppressed, he has clothed us with his righteousness.

Metallica, “Broken, Beaten, Scared”

What to say. I’m deeply grieved that a Christian campus ministry I’ve respected would approach this topic in such a way. Here’s a few of posts I’ve written in the past on this issue:

- The Heresy of Homosexuality
- What is the meaning of the word ‘homosexual’ in the Bible?
- Does God care who loves whom (mp3 from a sermon on the topic)

For some historical context, read On the Supper, Part 1. Enter Calvin. As I said in part 1, Calvin attempted to strike a mediating position between Luther and Zwingli, but in the end his views are much closer to Luther’s than to Zwingli’s. To understand Calvin’s view of the Supper one needs to consider the meal as a sacrament, a sign and a seal, a means of grace, as the real spiritual presence of Christ, and as being miraculous.

1. Sacrament. In many parts of the evangelical world, the word ‘sacrament’ is replace with ‘ordinance’, but Reformed churches understand the sacraments to be a special subset of ordinances, as the Westminster Confession makes clear: “”Chapter VII, Article VI. Under the gospel, when Christ the substance was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed, are the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.”  Calvin followed Augustine in describing a sacrament as “a visible sign of a sacred thing,” and again, “a visible form of an invisible grace.”  A few Questions/Answers from the Heidelberg Catechism flesh this out more:

§  Question #65: It is by faith alone that we share in Christ and all his blessings: where then does that faith come from?

§  Answer: The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel, and confirms it through our use of the holy sacraments (John 3:5; 1 Cor. 2:10-14; Eph. 2:8, Rom. 10:17; 1 Pet. 1:23-25, Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor. 10:16).

§  Question #66: What are sacraments?

§  Answer: Sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see. They were instituted by God so that by our use of them he might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel, and might put his seal on that promise. And this is God’s gospel promise: to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ’s one sacrifice finished on the cross

§  Question #67: Are both the word and the sacraments then intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?

§  Answer: Right! In the gospel the Holy Spirit teaches us and through the holy sacraments he assures us that our entire salvation rests on Christ’s one sacrifice for us on the cross

2. Sign and Seal. Calvin argues that the main purpose of the Supper is to serve as a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace (secondarily, to remind us of God’s great goodness expressed in the giving of Christ for us, and finally to exhort us to holiness and promote brotherly love). As a sign, the Supper represents a reality – Christ’s body broken for us, his blood spilled for us, as well as our participation in Christ.  But it does more than just represent, for there is a union between the sign and the thing signified. In other words, the Supper doesn’t just represent or symbolize our participation in Christ in a bare way, but it also conveys what it signifies – we truly do participate in Christ by partaking of the Supper in faith.  While the things, the sign and the thing signified, can be distinguished, they cannot be separated.  The outward signs (the bread, the cup, the eating and drinking, all coupled with the words of institution) are, Calvin insists  “conjoined with their reality and effect.”  As the partaking of the bread and cup signify our union with Christ, we are united with Christ just as surely as we eat and drink. What is promised in the sacrament, namely communion with Christ and participation in his body and blood (1 Cor. 10:14ff), is really and truly given.  As we partake in faith our souls truly feast on Christ and are nourished.

All of this is grounded in a deep understanding of the mystical union we share with Christ – Christ in us and us in Christ. This has not been a large part of evangelical or even Reformed theology for some time, having been eclipsed by more forensic language. It is not, however, necessary to choose between the forensic and mystical. In fact, I think we do a great injustice to the beauty of Reformed teaching and the Bible when we divorce those two truth – Christ is a federal head and we are united to him not just legally, but organically as well.

Calvin understood that this was deeply mysterious and could think of no natural analogy. The only analogy possible is the incarnation. Since the Council of Chalcedon Christians have affirmed that Christ be  “recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ”.  This is analogous to the distinction between the sign and the thing signified, which, though inseparably united in a sacramental unity, are still distinct.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that believers are united with Christ, not just the disembodied soul of Christ and not just Christ’s divine nature. We commune with Christ the person, both in his divine nature and in his human nature – his flesh and blood.  This isn’t done by Christ descending bodily to be present in the sacraments, but by the believers ascension to heaven through the Spirit to partake of Christ. This is incredibly important to Calvin (and to me!). I’ll come back to this in the next posts. Let me tease you with a quote from Keith Matthison, “Since Christ has thus worked out our salvation in and through his human body and human nature, it follows that the benefits of his work are not available to us unless we ourselves are brought into some kind of communion with the human nature and indeed with the body, in which all the work of our salvation was performed” (from Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper)

Answer: To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by his blood. But we do good because Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ (Rom. 6:13; 12:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:5-10; Matt. 5:16; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Matt. 7:17-18; Gal. 5:22-24; 2 Pet. 1:10-11; Matt. 5:14-16; Rom. 14:17-19; 1 Pet. 2:12; 3:1-2).

Question #87: Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent ways?

Answer: By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like is going to inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:1-20; 1 John 3:14).

Jenny and Tyler, “Faint Not”

First, we need some broad historical context. I’ll keep this brief, maybe. The Roman Catholic view, at the time of the Reformation, can be summed up in three words: literal, sacrifice, and automatic. Literal in the sense that the elements of the Eucharist literally become the body and the blood of Christ. This has been termed the doctrine of transubstantiation – trans because there is a miraculous transformation; substantiation because its the actually substance of the bread and the wine that are changed into the substance of Christ’s flesh and his blood.

The second word, sacrifice, is important because the Roman Catholic understanding was that in the sacrifice of the Mass, Christ was offered again as a propitiatory sacrifice. Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott writes, “According to the Thomistic view, in every Mass Christ also performs an actual immediate sacrificial activity which, however, must not be conceived as a totality of many successive acts but as one single uninterrupted sacrificial act of the Transfigured Christ.” Further, “The purpose of the Sacrifice is the same in the Sacrifice of the Mass as in the Sacrifice of the Cross; primarily the glorification of God, secondarily atonement, thanksgiving and appeal.” I want to stress again that I don’t believe this accurately represents the Roman view today, but did at the time of the Reformation. So one version of the Heidelberg Catechism states, “But the Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have their sins forgiven through the suffering of Christ unless Christ is still offered for them daily by the priests…Thus the Mass is basically nothing but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ and a condemnable idolatry.” In the version of the Catechism used today in the Christian Reformed Church, this section has been bracketed off with a footnote explaining that this does not accurately represent the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church today.

The third word that is descriptive of the Roman Catholic view is ‘automatic’ – Automatic in that the elements work ex opere operato (literally, ‘by the very fact of the act being performed’). Thus, grace is conferred to the participant just by virtue of partaking with no reference to the faith of the participate in taking.

Before moving on to the other views, I want to affirm a few things regarding the Catholic understanding. First, if I was left to choose between a Catholic view and the low view of the sacrament taken by man (most) evangelical churches in our day, I’d choose the Catholic view. Luckily, I don’t have too, but just so you know. Second, I affirm the Catholic churches insistance that something miraculous happens as we partake of the elements. Third, I admire their willingness to take Scripture seriously. I think the push the limits of the language too far, but at least they are taking it seriously. Lastly, I agree with my Catholic brothers that something objective actually happens in the Supper. More on that later.

Luther took aim at what he deemed superstitious and overly literal readings of Scripture related to the Supper. Luther rejected the teaching that the Eucharist was a sacrifice, considering the work of Christ on the cross a complete and unique sacrifice that was ‘once for all’. Moreover, he rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, but still affirmed the local and corporeal presence of Christ “with, in, and under” the elements. The bread remains bread and the wine wine. But, Chris is still present bodily with the elements, having descended from heaven to be present. This came to be known as consubstantiation.

Further removed still from the Roman Catholic understanding was the view of Zwingli. Zwingli rejected the idea of Christ’s bodily presence, teaching instead that Christ was only spiritually present. The Eucharist is a commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice. For Zwingli then, there was no objective grace being conferred, it was solely subjective. Christ was present in our hearts and minds subjectively. Most Anabaptist groups took this even further. The Anabaptists insisted that the Spirit works independently of external means of grace in the church. Not can – we would all affirm that as we affirm the sovereignty of the Spirit – but does, as in ‘it’s normal he works without means’. The Supper then is merely a memorial and the social dimension takes precedent – it builds the church up in brotherly love. Representative of the Anabaptist view is the following quote from a Baptist pastor, “[We are] hesitant to use term sacraments: First, they [the Supper and the Baptism] are to be called ordinances and not sacraments. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism [where does he think he belongs if he's not Protestant?] call them sacraments, but they do so in error. There is no saving efficacy in either Baptism or the Lord’s Supper, and neither do the participants of them indicate grace has been bestowed. They are ordinances and not sacraments.”

Luther and Zwingli met in Marburg to hammer out some theological differences. At the Marburg Colloquy (1529), Zwingli and Luther came to agreement on fourteen out of fifteen points of doctrine. The fifteenth was the Supper. The Protestant movement would be divided henceforth. While that seems tragic, I do believe it would have been more tragic for the Zwinglian view to have won the day. Enter Calvin. Calvin attempts to strike a mediating position between Luther and Zwingli – though it would be a mistake to think it’s a 50/50 blending of the two. Calvin stands much closer to Luther (and the historic and biblical understanding of the Supper). We’ll wait till next time to unpack Calvin’s views…

Update: Woke up this morning and hated what I did yesterday. This one’s better.