30.5 Lord's Supper: Outward Elements
Table of Contents
The Text
1 Corinthians 11:27 (CSB) So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord.
The Chapter
The outward elements in this ordinance, duly set apart to the use ordained by Christ, have such relation to him crucified, as that truly, although in terms used figuratively, they are sometimes called by the names of the things they represent, to wit, the body and blood of Christ, albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and wine, as they were before.
The Confession
1 Corinthians 11:26–28 (CSB) For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup.
Also, this is very much just the bread and wine. This is not the literal body and blood of Christ. To confuse to miss the point. And the point is this: the bread is real and the wine is real. Real as anything you can touch. When you eat it and drink it, you are eating real bread and drinking real wine. This tiniest meal really does nourishes you.
As real as this meal, Christ is in you. The Almighty Triune God has made his home in you. This meal will pass in a moment. But what is a more real reality is that God is in and with and over you now till beyond the end of time.
We don't have to do Scripture gymnastics to try to make the meal more real than it already is. The meal is real. And it is a remember that the spiritual is more real--even when we can't see it nor feel it--than the physical.
You don't see it. You don't feel it. You're not having your best day. Feels like everything is going against you.
Christ is with you. Christ is in you. Christ is for you.
Partake the meal together in Jesus name.
Amen.