The Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine

Most evangelicals underestimate the meaning, power and purpose of the Lord’s Supper. The Apostle Paul calls the Supper, a koinonia in the body and blood of Christ, a communion by intimate participation (1Cor. 10:14-16). Our partaking of Christ is described in the Supper as “eating” and “drinking” so that we’d never think that the life that we receive form Him is received by mere knowledge. And Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life, to teach us not only that salvation for us rests on faith in his death and resurrection, but also that, by true partaking of him, his life passes into us and is made ours just as bread when taken as food imparts vigor to the body.

Christ presents to us a sign and symbol of His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper which He wants for us to intimately experience, to show us that we partake of Him with our whole being, not just believe in Him with our heads. But many today have so little regard for signs that we have a tendency to divorce them from their mysteries. The only question we ask is: “Is it Christ’s body and blood physically or is it just bread and wine?” But there is much more meaning between those questions. A Sign or symbol can be REAL even if it doesn’t transform in essence. When we partake of the Lord’s supper, we mysteriously share and participate in the REAL presence of Christ.  It is REAL, it is not pretend. In the Supper we experience Christ in a deeper way and are spiritually nourished by the benefits of redemption and we find that there is a new working of grace in our hearts that makes us want to flee from sin and idolatry. We find that we want to make new commitments to Him in our hearts to resist the devil, to seek the Lord and to love others better.

In the Lord’s Supper we are sharing and participating in everything that Christ has done for us that those elements represent.  When Christ shed his blood and gave his body for us, God was removing guilt and shame and forgiving sin. He was becoming reconciled to those who would believe and making peace with them. So it is the purpose of the Supper to be strengthened to obtain this peace and joy while our souls feast on Him. In the Lord’s Supper we can actually feel and taste the gospel.

Christ’s words “This is my body” has several interpretations… that’s tomorrow’s blog.