LORD’S DAY 29
78. Do then the bread and the 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 the divine token and assurance thereof;1Matthew 26:29 so also in the Lord’s Supper the sacred bread21 Corinthians 11:26-28 does not become the body of Christ itself, though agreeably to the nature and usage of sacraments it is called the body of Christ.3Exodus 12:26-27, 43, 48; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
79. Why then does Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the new covenant in His blood, and the Apostle Paul, the “communion of the body and the blood of Christ”?
Christ speaks thus not without great cause, namely, not only to teach us thereby, that like as the bread and wine sustain this temporal life, so also His crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink of our souls unto life eternal;4John 6:51-55 but much more, by this visible sign and pledge to assure us, that we are as really partakers of His true body and blood by the working of the Holy Spirit, as we receive by the mouth of the body these holy tokens in remembrance of Him;51 Corinthians 10:16-17 and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly our own, as if we ourselves had suffered and done all in our own person.