Heidelberg Catechism: 'How does the Lord’s Supper signify and seal to you that you share in the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross and all His benefits?'
LORD’S DAY 28
75. How does the Lord’s Supper signify and seal to you that you share in the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross and all His benefits?In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup in remembrance of Him. With this command He gave these promises:1 first, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup given to me, so surely was His body offered for me and His blood shed for me on the cross. Second, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me, and the cup communicated to me; and further, that, with His crucified body and shed blood, He Himself feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life as certainly as I receive from the hand of the minister, and taste with my mouth, the bread and cup of the Lord, which are given me as certain tokens of the body and blood of Christ.
1 Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-25
76. What does it mean to eat the crucified body and drink the shed blood of Christ?
It is not only to embrace with a believing heart all the suffering and death of Christ, and thereby to obtain the forgiveness of sins and eternal life;1 but moreover also, to be so united more and more to His sacred body by the Holy Spirit, who dwells both in Christ and in us,2 that although He is in heaven,3 and we on the earth, we are nevertheless flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones,4 and live and are governed forever by one Spirit, as members of the same body are by one soul.5
1 Jn 6:35, 40, 50-54; 2 Jn 6:55-56; 1 Cor 12:13; 3 Acts 1:9-11, 3:21; 1 Cor 11:26; Col 3:1; 4 1 Cor 6:15, 17; Eph 5:29-30; 1 Jn 4:13; 5 Jn 6:56-58, 15:1-6; Eph 4:15-16; 1 Jn 3:24
77. Where has Christ promised that He will thus feed and nourish believers with His body and blood, as certainly as they eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup?
In the institution of the Supper: “The Lord Jesus Christ on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.“1 This promise is repeated by St. Paul, where he says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.“2
1 1 Cor 11:23-26; 2 1 Cor 10:16-17
