The Lord's Supper - Doctrine

Position

The Lord's Supper is one of two ordinances Christ instituted for His church (the other being baptism). It is to be observed regularly by baptized believers in assembly, using bread and the fruit of the vine, in remembrance of Christ's death until He comes again (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).

I hold to what is sometimes called the memorial or commemorative view, though I prefer to say it more positively: the Supper is a genuine act of spiritual communion with Christ through faith. What it is not:

It is not transubstantiation. Rome's doctrine that the substance of the bread and wine are literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ at consecration has no exegetical support. “This is my body” uses the same figurative language as “I am the door”, Christ is not a literal door, and the bread is not literally His body. The risen Christ is at the right hand of the Father; His glorified body is not multiply present on thousands of altars simultaneously. Transubstantiation is also theologically dangerous: if the Mass is a re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice, the once-for-all nature of Calvary (Hebrews 10:10–14) is undermined.

It is not consubstantiation (or Luther's view of “in, with, and under”). This preserves Christ's physical presence while denying transubstantiation, but it still insists on a bodily localization of the glorified Christ in the elements. The Reformed and Baptist tradition is correct to deny this on the basis of Christ's ascension and the nature of His glorified body.

What it is: a genuine communion (1 Corinthians 10:16). The “spiritual presence” view, associated with Calvin and the Reformed tradition more broadly, is closer to the truth than a bare memorialism. By faith, the believer truly feeds on Christ , not with their mouth, but with the heart. The elements are signs and seals of Christ's body and blood, and the Spirit uses them to strengthen and nourish the faith of the recipient. This is more than mere mental recollection; it is an act of union with Christ through faith in His finished work.

Key Scripture

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

1 Corinthians 11:23–26

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”

1 Corinthians 10:16

Confession Reference

The 1689 London Baptist Confession addresses the Lord's Supper in Chapter 30. It teaches that the Supper is a “perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of himself in his death,” a “sealing [of] all benefits thereof unto true believers,” and a “bond and pledge of their communion with him.” It explicitly denies transubstantiation, stating that the elements “remain truly and only bread and wine as they were before.” It also denies that the Mass is any kind of sacrifice. The body and blood of Christ are present to “the faith of believers in that ordinance”, not bodily or carnally.

Resources

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Chapter 17
Guy Waters, The Lord's Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant
Thomas Schreiner, The Lord's Supper (ed. with Matthew Crawford)
R.C. Sproul, “The Lord's Supper” (Ligonier teaching series)
D.A. Carson, “Do This in Remembrance of Me” (sermon)