Heidelberg Catechism: 'Do then the bread and wine become the real body and blood of Christ?'
LORD’S DAY 29
78. Do then the bread and wine become the real body and blood of Christ?
No, but as the water, in baptism, is not changed into the blood of Christ, nor becomes the washing away of sins itself, being only God’s sign and pledge,1 so also, in the Lord’s Supper, the sacred bread does not become the body of Christ itself,2 though agreeably to the nature and usage of sacraments3 it is called the body of Christ.4
1 Eph 5:26; Tit 3:5; 2 Mt 26:26-29; 3 Gen 17:10-11; Ex 12:11, 13; 1 Cor 10:3-4; 1 Pt 3:21; 4 1 Cor 10:16-17, 11:26-28
79. Why then does Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the New Covenant in His blood; and why does St. Paul speak of a communion of the body and blood of Christ?
Christ speaks in this way for a good reason. He wants to teach us by His Supper that as bread and wine sustain us in this temporal life, so His crucified body and shed blood are the true food and drink of our souls to eternal life.1 But, much more, by this visible sign and pledge He wants to assure us, first, through the working of the Holy Spirit we are really partakers of His true body and blood as surely as we receive by the mouth these holy signs in remembrance of Him;2 and second, that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours, as if we had ourselves suffered and done all in our own person.3
1 Jn 6:51, 55; 2 1 Cor 10:16-17, 11:26; 3 Rom 6:5-11
No, but as the water, in baptism, is not changed into the blood of Christ, nor becomes the washing away of sins itself, being only God’s sign and pledge,1 so also, in the Lord’s Supper, the sacred bread does not become the body of Christ itself,2 though agreeably to the nature and usage of sacraments3 it is called the body of Christ.4
1 Eph 5:26; Tit 3:5; 2 Mt 26:26-29; 3 Gen 17:10-11; Ex 12:11, 13; 1 Cor 10:3-4; 1 Pt 3:21; 4 1 Cor 10:16-17, 11:26-28
79. Why then does Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the New Covenant in His blood; and why does St. Paul speak of a communion of the body and blood of Christ?
Christ speaks in this way for a good reason. He wants to teach us by His Supper that as bread and wine sustain us in this temporal life, so His crucified body and shed blood are the true food and drink of our souls to eternal life.1 But, much more, by this visible sign and pledge He wants to assure us, first, through the working of the Holy Spirit we are really partakers of His true body and blood as surely as we receive by the mouth these holy signs in remembrance of Him;2 and second, that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours, as if we had ourselves suffered and done all in our own person.3
1 Jn 6:51, 55; 2 1 Cor 10:16-17, 11:26; 3 Rom 6:5-11
