Christ’s Presence in the Supper

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S. Spence

Puritan Board Freshman
(Not sure if this is the correct place to put this thread.)

I’ve been reading (on and off) Keith A. Mathison’s, “Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin's Doctrine of the Lord's Supper.”
I’ve found this to be a very helpful book on the Calvin’s view of the Lord’s Supper – it’s just that in my experience not many people hold to that view which in essence says that Christ is really present at the Supper, not because He has descended down from Heaven during communion but because in some mystical way the Holy Spirit lifts the soul of the believer up into Heaven into the presence of Christ. This seems to be a middle ground somewhere between the Lutheran and Zwinglian views.

So how many of you folks view the Supper from this perspective?
What scripture can we use to support this view?
 
:pilgrim:That's interesting can someone tell me what Zwingli and The Lutherans taught?I not sure if i agree Calvin's view on it yet that book your reading looks great I would be interested in hearing a book review on it:book2:

Thanks for the Post!

Grace and Peace to you
 
Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,​
Doesn't matter that this is not a "LS text". Is this a real "seating" or not? If so, then it is already clear that in a Spiritual sense we are caught up to heaven in some context or another. When and where that communion might be greater manifested is a matter for consideration. When better than in the Lord's Supper?

Luk 22:30 That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.​
Again, when does this blessing begin for the Apostles? When do they begin their "judgeship"? When they have left this world? Not so. Therefore, when do they begin to eat and drink at Christ's table in his kingdom? It must be coextensive to their period of judging in the church.

1Co 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.​
Where is this "table" of the Lord's? Is it on earth someplace? Is it in Jerusalem still? Or in a storeroom at the Vatican?

Or is this just a table appearing wherever WE happen to be doing some religious exercises? Are WE setting the table, and Jesus just comes by and says, "This one looks properly appointed; I'll sup here with these nice folks"?

No, but HE sets his own table, and invites us to sit with him.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."​
This is not a gracious "knocking" at the door of your heart.

This is the sign that the Master has come home, and his servants hear the announcing knock. He is expecting his doorman to answer immediately. If not, then he's crashing in that door if he must, to clean up.
Mat 26:29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."​
Is Jesus waiting until the very end of time to drink with his people, perhaps at the "wedding feast of the Lamb"? Is that what is indicated here?

Or isn't he drinking it with them every time he shares his table with them?

See, our understanding of the LS is that we partake of the meal, in the presence of, and in virtually the identical manner as the disciples received from the Lord on the night in which he was betrayed. So when he offers us his body and blood, and we partake of it, we do so in EXACTLY the same way that the 12 disciples did on the night of institution. Jesus was sitting right there at the table with them. He didn't divide himself, and put bits of him in each of their mouths. What he said to them and what they partook of by faith, we do exactly like them. Jesus sits before us and offers us the bread and the wine.

We receive: "bread in the mouth, Christ in the heart."
 
See, our understanding of the LS is that we partake of the meal, in the presence of, and in virtually the identical manner as the disciples received from the Lord on the night in which he was betrayed. So when he offers us his body and blood, and we partake of it, we do so in EXACTLY the same way that the 12 disciples did on the night of institution. Jesus was sitting right there at the table with them. He didn't divide himself, and put bits of him in each of their mouths. What he said to them and what they partook of by faith, we do exactly like them. Jesus sits before us and offers us the bread and the wine.

We receive: "bread in the mouth, Christ in the heart."

That is an extremely helpful way of putting it - Thank you!
 
We receive: "bread in the mouth, Christ in the heart."

That is an extremely helpful way of putting it - Thank you!

That's Calvin's way of putting it. Still won't satisfy the Lutherans, unless they start to agree with the later Melancthon. But they aren't going to go back to Melancthon's confessional rescriptions...
 
Exodus 24, I believe, describes the covenant-meal that the elders of Israel ate in God's presence on Mount Sinai, I think that helps me to understand better.
 
Now that I’ve had a closer look at the Belgic Confession, I see it is very helpful on this matter.

Now it is certain that Jesus Christ did not prescribe his sacraments for us in vain, since he works in us all he represents by these holy signs, although the manner in which he does it goes beyond our understanding and is uncomprehensible to us, just as the operation of God's Spirit is hidden and incomprehensible.
Yet we do not go wrong when we say that what is eaten is Christ's own natural body and what is drunk is his own blood-- but the manner in which we eat it is not by the mouth but by the Spirit, through faith.
In that way Jesus Christ remains always seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven-- but he never refrains on that account to communicate himself to us through faith.
This banquet is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates himself to us with all his benefits. At that table he makes us enjoy himself as much as the merits of his suffering and death, as he nourishes, strengthens, and comforts our poor, desolate souls by the eating of his flesh, and relieves and renews them by the drinking of his blood.
 
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