Of the Lord's Supper, XXIX:7

Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements, in this sacrament, do then also, inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually, receive, and feed upon, Christ crucified, and all benefits of His death: the body and blood of Christ being then, not corporally or carnally, in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.

Here the Confession asserts the Reformed view of the Lord's Supper. Christ is fed upon by faith. When the Christian takes the Supper by faith, he feeds really and truly in a spiritual (not carnal or corporeal) manner upon Christ, receiving him "crucified, and all benefits of his death" as previously discussed. Hence, this is not a bare memorial observance, nor does it insist upon unbiblical concepts of Christ's presence.

Transubstantiation was firmly denied in the preceding paragraph as we reviewed yesterday. In this paragraph the Lutheran view also comes under criticism. In the view of the Westminster divines, the Lutheran error is not as egregious as the doctrine of transubstantiation, so the Confession is gently firm in its rejection. There is an injury done to the doctrine of the dual nature of Christ in the Lutheran teaching (hotly denied by Lutherans, but there you have it) that destroy's Christ's true humanity. How can a human body be present in more than one place at the same time and yet remain a true human body? This doctrine of ubiquity conflicts with the Definition of Chalcedon. Historically, the denial of Christ's dual nature is termed monophysitism.

Christians participate in the Supper exactly as did the Twelve except that Christ was then physically present in the flesh but never in the elements themselves. When he broke the bread and said of it, "This is my body," the bread did not then and does not now become his living flesh. By the Spirit, in the real spiritual presence of our Lord, Christ is as really present to us who believe as are the elements.

Tomorrow: Receiving the Supper unworthily.