The Background⤒🔗

At the close of the Passover Feast, our Lord instituted a new means of grace, at what is termed the Last Supper. It took a form very familiar to Jewish custom. It was their practice to meet in well ordered societies on the eve of the Sabbath. It was expected of those attending to bring different kinds of food. At such meals, as well as those in the family circles, it was the custom of the leader to take bread and break it with an of­fering of thanksgiving to God in grateful acknowledgement of his goodness in the provision of daily sustenance. He would then partake of a fragment of the bread himself, offering a piece to each one present. After the meal followed the "thanksgiving" when a special cup of wine was sipped and handed around, a "cup of blessing" referred to by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:16.

The Lord's Supper followed the same practice as that ob­served by Jews in their ritual, each participant bringing their own food to the communal meal. The similarity in practice is also seen in the weekly administration of the Lord's Supper as practised in the early church. The order observed in the primitive church ceased at the end of the second century a.d. with the waning of Jewish influence.

On the eve of his crucifixion at the Last Supper, our Lord, having given thanks, broke bread and gave it to his disciples, saying: "Take and eat, this is my body". Then, taking the cup and offering it to them, he said: "this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:26-28).

Our Lord, in instituting his supper, actually commanded nothing new to be done, but reinterpreted it in keeping with a new means of grace. The communication of the bread and the wine now signified the al­leviation of spiritual hunger and thirst, spoken of by Paul as a participation in the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). The injunction by the Lord to remember his death was a salutary reminder of the awful cost by which his people could be perfected in his own image and enjoy victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. Instituted in a Passover context, the Lord's Supper displayed a deep consciousness of keeping the feast

Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast.

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

The Passing of Time←⤒🔗

That the Lord's Supper was understood by the Fathers of the sub-apostolic age as a source of spiritual nourishment found support not only from 1 Corin­thians 10:16 but also from their understanding of John's refer­ence to the "bread of life" and the "eating of his flesh" (John 6). Following the custom of the primitive church, the sacrament was always included in the worship services in the houses of believers and later in public worship down through the cen­turies. The orders of worship produced by various church councils testify to this.

In the latter period of the second century, there was emerging in the Gentile world a set order of worship distinct from the meal services associated with the "breaking of bread" practised by the Jewish fellowship. The preaching of the Word was fol­lowed by the Lord's Supper, which now assumed the form of being simply a ritual act. The change represents a standard which was to prevail through succeeding ages. Certain strange developments were to occur in the worship service, but they took place within this simple frame­work. The earliest complete lit­urgy on record, indicating the inclusion of the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week, is that of the Clementine Liturgy (2nd century). This reflects in general the rites of the Egyptian, Syrian, Roman and other churches with regard to the celebration of the Lord's Supper. The importance attributed to the means of grace instituted by Christ cannot be over-estimated. The element of thanksgiving was prominent in the sacrament which accounts for the description of the Lord's Supper as the Eucharist.

It is quite clear from a study of the liturgy that those partaking of the Lord's Supper were made fully aware of the benefits of the sacrament in the eating of the bread and drinking of the cup. This is also confirmed by the shape of the Syrian liturgy in the centuries 3-8 a.d. It can be said in a summing up of the ancient liturgies that simplicity was a marked feature. The idea of remembrance was also a feature of all the early rites, as well as that of spiritual feeding accompanied by thanksgiving.  The consciousness of the union of believers as typified by the "one loaf" was also prominent in the minds of those in attendance. The importance of participating in the fellowship meal was recognised as promoting mutual love and faith and mediating eternal life. The words of Paul — "Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast" — were still finding their fulfilment in those centuries it the public worship of God.

This understanding of the Lord's Supper continued to hold the field but was finally over whelmed at the Lateran Council of 1215. Earlier on, a certain bishop had laid the ground for the doctrine of transubstantiation, which then dominated the scene. The prominence of the teaching of Augustine was giving way to new doctrinal tendencies in the East, but then were ridiculed by those in the West, still holding to Augustinian teaching.

In the ninth century, one, Ratramnus, taught that the bread remains externally what it is but inwardly considered, it is, for faith, something much higher, heavenly and divine. The bread and the wine are only simple figures of the body and blood of Christ. Ratramnus quotes Jesus' words:

It is the Spirit who quickens, the flesh profits nothing", and draws the conclusion: "In this mystery of the body and blood, it is a spiritual efficacy which gives life, without which efficacy these mysteries are useless, because they can only nourish the body, and not the soul.

Although he lived at a time when there was a movement towards the doctrine of works, Ratramnus reflected the views of the primitive church. Centuries later the works of this author aroused the hostility of Rome but at the same time came to have a great influence upon the thinking of Calvin.

Later, there came the continuing assertion that after consecration, "the bread and the wine are converted on the altar into the body and blood of Christ". The word transubstan­tiation was first used by Pope Alexander III. In the 13th century the final formulation of the erroneous teaching of Rome was completed by Thomas Aquinas, but met with opposition from Wycliffe. With the outbreak of the Reformation there was a return to the teaching held by the primitive church by the leading Reformers.

Continental Reformed Theology and Practice←⤒🔗

The recall to what Scripture has to teach concerning the import of the Lord's Supper in the 16th century occurred under the shadow of apostate Rome. It was their teaching that grace is produced through the act performed and is bestowed apart from the merit of whoever receives it, in such a way that the external act conveys grace. The decisions of the Councils of Florence and Trent claim that Lord's Supper cooperates in a physical manner to produce grace. Faith was not necessary, for all that was required according to Aquinas and others was merely a good intention. The Roman Catholic doctrine of the priesthood almost invested the presiding priest in the sacrament with divine powers in the administration of grace to the faithful.  In the previous century, it was stated that three things must always validate the sac­rament: the material, the form and the minister, with no men­tion of the faithful. For the Romanists, the eating of the bread (the cup being denied to the laity) was the literal eating of Christ's flesh, its effect lasting after the administration. Such practice marked the ongoing apostasy of Rome.

It was in this lamentable state of affairs that by the mercy of God the Reformers were raised up as witnesses to the truth. Both Luther and Calvin agreed on the necessity of faith, though dif­fering as to the presence of the body of Christ. Luther took the view that the body of Christ, invisible, is present in the sac­rament, "in, with and under the elements", the elements never­theless preserving their sub­stance. The difference existing between the two dashed Cal­vin's hopes for a united Protes­tant Confession. Calvin simply took the view that Christ's glo­rified body ascended into heaven. As distinct from the teaching of Luther, he saw no diminution of power and bless­ing conveyed to the participants in the sacrament by reason of our Lord's ascension.

Calvin's understanding of the full import of the Lord's Supper was that understood by the primitive church and by many later who supported, a view similar to the Augustinian interpretation. This can be gleaned from his comments on the relevant passages of Scrip­ture. What is recorded of Jesus' being the "bread of life" in John 6 is interpreted by Calvin as relevant to both the unbeliever and the believer. In reference to those who have already entered into life, Calvin relates this food to the Lord's Supper. He says,

It is not the principal part of a sacrament simply to hold forth the body of Christ to us without any higher consideration, but rather to seal and confirm that promise which testifies that his flesh is food indeed, and his blood is drink, which feed us unto eternal life. By this he de­clares himself to be the "bread of life" of which he who eats will live forever, and to do this, the sacrament sends us to the cross of Christ, where that promise was indeed performed and in all respects fulfilled.

Institutes, 4:17:4

For the Reformer, both John 6 and 1 Corinthians 10:16 speak of a participation in and a sealing of the spiritual benefits to those presenting themselves at the Lord's Supper. The Re­former speaks of God's Word as sufficient in itself to establish faith, but God, taking cognizance of our residence in a fallen world and of our weakness, has been pleased to impart spiritual things under visible ones. Under the Word preached the visible signs are understood. Calvin, in his explanation of a seal, stated that, concerning the promises and the sacraments, each confirms the other (Institutes 4:14:5). And so he sees them as equally neces­sary in public worship, citing Acts 2:42. It was seen by Calvin and his predecessors to be a curtailment of the public worship of God to omit the celebration of the holy feast.

He sees the Lord's Supper as continuing and carrying forward the order of grace, following the preaching of the Word with the promises, pledging spiritual health, just as our common meals fall in with the general process of our natural life and are yet special meals for its preser­vation. For Calvin the Lord's Supper is to continue and repair our communion as already es­tablished with Christ, in pledg­ing and confirming victory and forgiveness. At the same time, he asserts very strongly the full objectivity of the communication which Christ makes of himself in the mystical transaction. In his work The Defence of the Consensus  Tigurinus — a Consensus drawn up by Reformed ministers in Zurich about 1549 — he de­fends himself against the alle­gation that he gives no place to faith:

It is not enough that the light shines. There must be on our side vision to receive it. But this vision has no power to produce the light itself.

He goes on to say that the proper use of the Lord's Supper depends on the condition of faith, which in itself is no product of grace but must be considered as the en­trance of a new measure of life into the soul, raising faith itself into higher exercise.

It may be said, in conclusion, that Calvin's concept of the Lord's Supper arose from the various controversies in which he was engaged and, in the final analysis, reflects the thinking of those Reformers with whom he had contacts in his visits to Strasbourg and Zurich. It is hard to imagine that there can be found any exposition of the Lord's Supper that can match that of the Reformer, John Calvin.

English and Scottish Theology and Practice←⤒🔗

While it may be true that the life of the Church in medieval England was marked by devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, never­theless the observance of the Lord's Supper was enfeebled by superstition, though it still re­tained something of the teaching of Augustine. Implicit in their thinking there was the element of human merit. In the early 16th century, the witness of Martin Luther to justification by faith alone accounts greatly for the beginning of the Reformation in England. It had been too lightly assumed previously that as a matter of course grace was conveyed irrespective of a real and vital union with Christ. Against this, it was Luther's testimony that the blessing con­veyed to the participant was that bestowed upon an undone sinner, looking for God's redeeming mercy. In Cambridge in 1520 there arose a society adhering to the teachings of Luther. It was in this period that Thomas More, commenting on the influence of a treatise upholding the teachings of Wycliffe, Huss, Tyndale and Zwingli, referred to them as "poison".

During the reign of King Henry VIII, Cranmer, who al­ways had the ear of the king, took the decision of continuing the process of reforming the church in a time of an "open Bible". He repudiated the old bondage of Rome and, influenced by the liturgy of the Fathers, drew up a liturgy faithfully reflecting the teaching of Scripture on the meaning and necessity of ad­ministering the Lord's Supper in public worship. It is a liturgy persisting to the present day.

Both Cranmer's and Calvin's insistence upon "a pure and sincere doctrine of the Christian faith" founded upon Scripture, steadily prevailed. Many of the best scholars in those days — the Reformers, Tyndale, Latimer, Coverdale, Parker, Cheke, Jewel and Ridley — were more than a match for the old conservatives. Cranmer's former chaplain, Ridley, had been the driving force in bringing Cranmer to a proper understanding of the Lord's Supper as he stood trial in 1555. Ridley expressed the Re­formers' views on the sacrament in May 1550 less than a month after his installation as Bishop of London.

He asked, "Now, when we come to the Lord's board, what do we come for? If we come to feed upon him, spiritu­ally to feed upon his body and spiritually to drink his blood (which is the true use of the Lord's Supper), then no man can deny but the form of a table is more meet for the Lord's board, than the form of an altar".

Such views held by the Eng­lish Reformers in common with Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer of Basel and Strasbourg did not have their full impact until the accession of Elizabeth to the throne. Those who had fled from England during the reign of Mary then returned to teach the Calvinist doctrine with its em­phasis on what is common to a meal, namely, nourishment and wellbeing, sealed to the recipi­ents, spiritually, at the Lord's Supper, made possible by the death of the Saviour on the cross.

In the Scottish scene, it is evident that the acceptance of justification by faith is implied. This marked a period in which the Roman ceremonies in wor­ship were dismissed through the efforts of John Knox, who adopted the views of Calvin that nothing was permissible which was not expressed in Scripture. However, it must be said that he fell short of the Reformer's understanding of the importance of the sacrament as a means of grace to be observed in public worship. He took the view that it lay in the hands of church officers to determine how often the Lord's Supper should be admin­istered, and so, as stated in his work The Book of Discipline he recommended that it be observed quarterly. A similar liberty was taken nearly one hundred years later when the Independents and Scottish Commissioners came to an agreement whilst preparing The Directory for Public Wor­ship that a quarterly celebration of the Lord's Supper was ad­visable. At the same time it was left in the hands of Kirk Sessions to administer the sacrament in public worship when thought expedient. Consequently, as might be expected, the admini­stration of the sacrament became less frequent than ever, and in some parishes in Scotland was not observed for up to 15 years and more.

Ever since, notwithstanding the witness of the Confession of Faith concerning acceptable worship, the influence of deci­sions taken in the past, together with a misunderstanding of the true use of the sacrament, has dogged the practice of modern Presbyterianism everywhere.

The Confessions←⤒🔗

In the 16th century, twelve Confessions of Faith were pro­duced, each faithful to the de­cisions taken by the Reformers who sought to interpret aright the teachings of Scripture. Four more appeared in the 17th cen­tury, all supportive of those al­ready in print. Much mention is made in these about the impor­tance and relevance of the Lord's Supper as a means of grace in the public worship of God. The aspect both of commemoration and of spiritual nourishment is clearly set forth under the terms of signs and seals. In view of the present day practice in denomi­nations which professedly ad­here to Reformed Standards, the following extracts are given, as a reminder of the deeper meaning of the elements as seals — visible pledges of the conveyance of health and nourishment to the soul.

We do firmly believe, that Christ himself is the meat of faithful souls unto life eternal and that our souls by faith in Christ crucified are fed and moistened with the flesh and blood of Christ.

John 6:53

And in a Marginal Note, upon our souls: "For it is a spiritual meat, and therefore it is received of a faithful soul; that is, the souls are made full, valiant, mighty, peaceable, quiet, merry and lively to all things, as the body is by the corporal meat"

Council of Basel

"We believe that our gracious God, on account of our weak­ness and infirmities, has or­dained the sacraments for us, thereby to seal unto us his promises, and to be pledges of the goodwill and grace of God towards us, and also to nourish and strengthen our faith, which he has joined to the Word of the Gospel, the better to present to our senses both that which he signifies to us by his Word and that which he works inwardly in our hearts, thereby assuring and confirming in us the salvation which he imparts to us. For they are visible signs and seals of an inward and invisible thing, by means whereof God worketh in us by the power of the Holy Spirit".

Belgic Confession

It is said in the Westminster Confession of Faith (29:7) that worthy receivers "feed upon Christ spiritually", present to the faith of believers in the ordinance as the elements themselves are to the outward senses. In the first section of the same chapter, reference is made to the sealing of this to believers for their spiritual nourishment and growth.

A consideration of the im­plications of such extracts quoted accounts for and justi­fies the inclusion of the sac­rament in the public worship of God on the first day of the week as stated in The Westminster Confession (Chapter 21) to which Presbyterian Churches are committed.

The Lapse←⤒🔗

It is true to say of those churches which profess to adhere to the Reformed Faith, that whilst there is an adherence in the mat­ters of doctrine and government, there has been a departure from the terms of worship ordained by God. This is apparent in the liberty assumed by church offi­cers to determine what is to be done to meet the needs of any given situation. This is a view not sanctioned by God who, already having plainly commanded what is acceptable to him in worship, takes issue with what is done to the contrary. The danger of drifting away from the revealed will of God was recognised by Calvin whose counsel was ever to be on the watch. The church must always be intent on the duty of constant reformation. Today whilst there is an acceptance of old standards, it is true to say they are neglected, little studied, re­sulting in a loss to Christians and a weaker witness to the nations.