Section 3 Calvin Communion

Section 3. The Lord’s Supper exhibits the great blessings of redemption, and even Christ himself.

To all these things we have a complete attestation in this sacrament, enabling us certainly to conclude that they are as truly exhibited to us as if Christ were placed in bodily presence before our view, or handled by our hands. For these are words which can never lie nor deceive—Take, eat, drink. This is my body, which is broken for you: this is my blood, which is shed for the remission of sins. In bidding us take, he intimates that it is ours: in bidding us eat, he intimates that it becomes one substance with us: in affirming of his body that it was broken, and of his blood that it was shed for us, he shows that both were not so much his own as ours, because he took and laid down both, not for his own advantage, but for our salvation. And we ought carefully to observe, that the chief, and almost the whole energy of the sacrament, consists in these words, It is broken for you: it is shed for you. It would not be of much importance to us that the body and blood of the Lord are now distributed, had they not once been set forth for our redemption and salvation. ^Q3return Wherefore they are represented under bread and wine, that we may learn that they are not only ours, but intended to nourish our spiritual life; that is, as we formerly observed, by the corporeal things which are produced in the sacrament, we are ^Q3A by a kind of analogy conducted to spiritual things. Thus when bread is given as a symbol of the body of Christ, we must immediately think of this similitude. As bread nourishes, sustains, and protects our bodily life, so the body of Christ is the only food to invigorate and keep alive the soul. When we behold wine set forth as a symbol of blood, we must think that such use as wine serves to the body, the same is spiritually bestowed by the blood of Christ; and the use is to foster, refresh, strengthen, and exhilarate. For if we duly consider what profit we have gained by the breaking of his sacred body, and the shedding of his blood, we shall clearly perceive that these properties of bread and wine, agreeably to this analogy, most appropriately represent it when they are communicated to us.

(^Q3AThe "kind of analogy" may be true, but I don't think ruminating over Calvin's symbolic analogy concerning bread and wine within the mind of simple faith is a necessary prescription to the receiving, by that holy faith, the Body and covenant Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The earthly elements may remain the same to the senses, but the essence of the Holy Word of God deems and seals that it is no longer the same common elements for the substance of the reborn heart and mind of the recipient. For that heart, born of faith in Jesus Christ and His Words, the mind need not go through mental gyrations to determine the substantive value of His WORD 0f TRUTH. In this great spiritual mystery, it just "is" what the WORD of God, Jesus Christ says it "is". Therefore, the WORD of God in Communion with us "is" the Body of Christ, whose members we are, even of one of another. And the WORD of God ordained within the wine "is" His Life giving Blood of the New Covenant, which before His crucifixion, the Lord Himself inaugurated at His last Passover. For the new covenant believer, this Word declared Blood of the Savior, is the same as that which flowed from the Body of the WORD made flesh when it was poured out on the earth for our sins of separation from God and from one another. Now, if Calvin uses the word "mystery" some 29 times in his thesis of protestation, then let it remain a mystery of living faith, even as it was to John Calvin. In section 1, Calvin writes "First, then, the signs are bread and wine, which represent the 'invisible food' which we receive from the body and blood of Christ." By Faith, our fellowship at God's Table of Grace with our Savior and each other needs to be more than symbolic or elemental, but sacramental with in the depths of our minds through the administration of God's Holy Spirit of Truth and Grace. Therefore through God's invisible Holy Spirit, let it suffice presently as Calvin says the ^Q1'invisible food' ^Q3 Wherefore they are represented under bread and wine for the nourishment of our hearts minds and souls. Here Calvin's presented understanding is no different than Consubstantiation, where in any case this passage in section 3 confirms the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of the WORD of God, Jesus Christ.