Section 1.
After God has once received us into his family, it is not that he may regard us in the light of servants, but of sons, performing the part of a kind and anxious parent, and providing for our maintenance during the whole course of our lives. And, not contented with this, he has been pleased by a pledge to assure us of his continued liberality. To this end, he has given another sacrament to his Church by the hand of his only-begotten Son—viz. a spiritual feast, at which Christ testifies that he himself is living bread John 6:51), on which our souls feed, for a true and blessed immortality. Now, as the knowledge of this , and, in proportion to its importance, demands an accurate exposition, and Satan, in order to deprive the Church of this inestimable treasure, long ago introduced, first, mists, and then darkness, to obscure its light, and stirred up strife and contention to alienate the minds of the simple from a relish for this sacred food, and in our age, also, has tried the same artifice, I will proceed, after giving a simple summary adapted to the capacity of the ignorant, to explain those difficulties by which Satan has tried to ensnare the world. First, then, the signs are bread and wine, which represent the 'invisible food' which we receive from the body and blood of Christ. For as God, regenerating us in baptism, engrafts us into the fellowship of his Church, and makes us his by adoption, so we have said that he performs the office of a provident parent, in continually supplying the food by which he may sustain and preserve us in the life to which he has begotten us by his word. Q1Moreover, Christ is the only food of our soul, and, therefore, our heavenly Father invites us to him, that, refreshed by communion with him, we may ever and anon gather new vigor until we reach the heavenly immortality.
(Q1 Indeed, Father God Almighty, is inviting us to frequent Communion with His Son Christ Jesus. is absolutely correct, for it is the Father's Doctrine that Jesus Christ annunciates. Christ is our Life, and it is through the Grace of God's Spirit of Truth and Life, in Hoy Communion within the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, that we now gain the only entrance into the Holy of Holies where in the plurality of unity of we and us in Christ, are cleansed by our High Priest's Covenant Blood, and allows believers to come worshipfully into the Presence of Holy God and the Father of us all. See Hebrews 10:19-25. In the unity of faith, we may boldly present our godly petitions before the Almighty's throne room of Grace.
But as this mystery of the secret union of Christ with believers is see incomprehensible by nature, he exhibits its figure and image in visible signs adapted to our capacity, nay, by giving, as it were, earnests and badges, he makes it as certain to us as if it were seen by the eye; the familiarity of the similitude giving it access to minds however dull, and showing that souls are fed by Christ just as the corporeal life is sustained by bread and wine. We now, therefore, understand the end which this mystical benediction has in view—viz. to assure us that the body of Christ was once sacrificed for us, so that we may now eat it, and, eating, feel within ourselves the efficacy of that one sacrifice,—that his blood was once shed for us so as to be our perpetual drink. This is the force of the promise which is added, “Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you” Mt. 26:26, &c.). The body which was once offered for our salvation we are enjoined to take and eat, that, while we see ourselves made partakers of it, we may safely conclude that the virtue of that death will be efficacious in us. Q2Hence he terms the cup the covenant in his blood. For the covenant which he once sanctioned by his blood he in a manner renews, or rather continues, in so far as regards the confirmation of our faith, as often as he stretches forth his sacred blood as drink to us.
(Q2 As Calvin notes, the Covenant Communion Cup in the Lord's Blood was sanctioned by the Lord Jesus Christ, having occurred at His last Passover at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The New Covenant in His Blood was set in motion before the foundation of the world, and fulfilled in time, as the Almighty God's own Passover Lamb. The WORD of the Eternal God is TRUTH: For even before the first drop of Christ's blood fell to the earth, Christ Jesus inaugurated the partaking of His Cup of Grace for all covenant believers for the forgiveness of sin found present, not only through the actions of the flesh, but in the self mindedness of idolatrous flesh. The fact remains that if you say you have no sin then you make God a liar and the TRUTH and the WORD is not in you. 1 John 1:10) There are Three that bear Witness: the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these Three are One. When we partake of the Communion Blood of God's New Covenant, it is through God's Holy Spirit of Grace, that is washing us in the cleansing Water from the Fountain of Life Himself. See Fountain of Living Water, and writings on Hebrews.
Click 2. for the next Section: The manifold uses and advantages of this sacrament to the pious.
Communion