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Questions · Doctrine

Real presence, spiritual presence, or memorial: what the churches teach about the Lord's Supper

What Christian writers said, from about AD 1539 to 1949.

57 passages · 29 writers · 4 centuries

The short answer

Writers in the library describe three views of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper: a real presence under the species of the bread and wine, a spiritual presence received by faith, and a memorial of his death. Trent teaches that Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species, and Manning says the Sacrament is not a mere figure or symbol. The Westminster, Savoy, and 1689 Baptist confessions say worthy receivers feed on Christ by faith, spiritually and not carnally, and the Thirty-Nine Articles and the French and Belgic confessions say the body is received spiritually, by faith. Calvin says Christ's body is in heaven and that the Spirit unites believers to him, Spurgeon says Christ has gone into heaven and is present spiritually, Owen says the bread and cup exhibit Christ without containing his body, and Hodge says the presence is spiritual, not local. Maclaren, A. T. Robertson, and the Free-will Baptists call the Supper a commemoration or memorial of Christ's death, and Spurgeon calls it a simple service of remembrance.

Real presence in the bread and wine

3 passages · 2 writers · 1500s to 1800s

The Council of Trent teaches that after the consecration Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species of the bread and wine. Manning says the holy Sacrament is not the sign of an absent person nor a mere figure or symbol, and that Christ's one body is present in the Sacrament in a supernatural, real, and substantial manner.

1546–1563 · Council of Trent, Canons and Dogmatic Decrees of the Council of Trent s13.c1

In the first place, the holy Synod teaches, and openly and simply professes, that, in the august sacrament of the holy Eucharist, after the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things. For neither are these things mutually repugnant,—that our Saviour himself always sitteth at the right hand of the Father in heaven, according to the natural mode of existing, and that, nevertheless, he be, in many other places, sacramentally present to us in his own substance, by a manner of existing, which, though we can scarcely express it in words, yet can we, by the understanding illuminated by faith, conceive, and we ought most firmly to believe, to be possible unto God: for thus all our forefathers, as many as were in the true Church of Christ, who have treated of this most holy Sacrament, have most openly professed, that our Redeemer instituted this so admirable a sacrament at the last supper, when, after the blessing of the bread and wine, he testified, in express and clear words, that he gave them his own very body, and his own blood, words which,—recorded by the holy Evangelists, and afterwards repeated, by Saint Paul, whereas they carry with them that proper and most manifest meaning in which they were understood by the Fathers,—it is indeed a crime the most unworthy that they should be wrested, by certain contentious and wicked men, to fictitious and imaginary tropes, whereby the verity of the flesh and blood of Christ is denied, contrary to the universal sense of the Church, which, as the pillar and ground of truth, has detested, as satanical, these inventions devised by impious men; she recognizing, with a mind ever grateful and unforgetting, the most excellent benefit of Christ.

1850 · Henry Edward Manning, Sermons, Volume 4 15

We are too apt to conceive low and earthly notions of this divine mystery, and to suppose the presence of His body and blood to be something partial and apart from the fulness of His perfect and living presence. His body and blood can no more be separated from His presence than His Godhead from His manhood. But in that holy Sacrament the object of our faith is the presence of Christ, God and man, in all the reality and substance of His Godhead and His manhood. He is personally with us, under the veils of the consecrated elements, as truly, though in another manner, as He was present in the garment, the hem of which wrought miracles of healing. The holy Sacrament is not the sign of an absent person, nor a mere figure or symbol, suggesting, picturing, commemorating.

1850 · Henry Edward Manning, Sermons, Volume 4 11

Are there, then, three bodies of Christ? God forbid: but one only; one in nature, truth, and glory. But there are three manners, three miracles of divine omnipotence, by which that one body has been and is present; the first, as mortal and natural; the second, supernatural, real, and substantial; the third, mystical by our incorporation. The presence is one, the manner threefold; the substance one in all three: all three one in Him; whether He be in the holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood, or in His mystical members, which together make His Church, it is He who, of the substance of the Blessed Virgin, took our nature, was born and crucified, rose and ascended into heaven.

Spiritual presence in the Reformed confessions

14 passages · 13 writers · 1500s to 1800s

The Westminster Confession, the Savoy Declaration, and the 1689 Baptist Confession say worthy receivers feed on Christ crucified by faith, really but spiritually and not carnally or corporally. The Thirty-Nine Articles say the body of Christ is eaten in the Supper only after a heavenly and spiritual manner, and that the means of receiving it is faith. The French, Belgic, and Waldensian confessions say believers are fed with Christ's flesh and blood by faith through the Holy Spirit. Nevin quotes the First Confession of Basel as saying that bread and wine remain unchanged and that believing souls eat and drink Christ's flesh and blood by faith.

1561 · Guido de Brès (Belgic Confession), The Belgic Confession 35

We receive these by faith, which is the hand and mouth of our souls. 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 incomprehensible 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.

1647 · Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith 29.7

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.

1846 · John Williamson Nevin, The Mystical Presence: A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist 4.6

“In the Supper,” to use the language of Ursinus, “ we are made partakers not only of the Spirit of Christ, and of his satisfaction, justice, virtue and operation; but also of the very substance and essence of his true body and blood, which was given for us to death on the cross, and which was shed for us, and are truly fed with the self-same unto eternal life.” And yet this implies no local comprehension of the Saviour's body in the elements, no oral or corporeal contact with it in any way.

Spiritual presence in the writers

34 passages · 11 writers · 1500s to 1900s

Calvin says Christ's body is in heaven and it is unlawful to bring it under the elements, that the Lord by his Spirit makes believers one with him, and that the only question between him and his opponents is whether Christ is placed in the bread. Calvin also says the true eating of Christ's flesh is drawn into us by the secret power of the Spirit, and that those who receive the signs with faith are made truly partakers of his flesh and blood. Bradford denies any carnal or natural presence of Christ's body in the sacrament and confesses a presence by faith and grace. Owen says Christ is present by exhibition, really tendering himself to believers, though the bread and cup do not contain his body and blood, and that believers receive Christ by faith. Hodge says the presence is not local but spiritual, to the mind and to faith, and reports that for Calvin what is present is a supernatural, life-giving influence from Christ's glorified body in heaven, conveyed by the Holy Ghost. Nevin says the presence is not bound to the bread and wine but to the act of eating and drinking, and that the body and blood are communicated inwardly to the worthy receiver while the symbols are received outwardly. Spurgeon says there is no carnal eating of Christ's flesh but a spiritual feeding on him, and that Christ is spiritually, not corporeally, in the sacrament.

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 4.17.18

For as the bread is given separately from the cup, so the body, united to the bread, must be separated from the blood, included in the cup. For since they affirm that the body is in the bread, and the blood is in the cup, while the bread and wine are, in regard to space, at some distance from each other, they cannot, by any quibble, evade the conclusion that the body must be separated from the blood. Their usual pretence—viz. that the blood is in the body, and the body again in the blood, by what they call concomitance, is more than frivolous, since the symbols in which they are included are thus distinguished. But if we are carried to heaven with our eyes and minds, that we may there behold Christ in the glory of his kingdom, as the symbols invite us to him in his integrity, so, under the symbol of bread, we must feed on his body, and, under the symbol of wine, drink separately of his blood, and thereby have the full enjoyment of him. For though he withdrew his flesh from us, and with his body ascended to heaven, he, however, sits at the right hand of the Father; that is, he reigns in power and majesty, and the glory of the Father. This kingdom is not limited by any intervals of space, nor circumscribed by any dimensions. Christ can exert his energy wherever he pleases, in earth and heaven, can manifest his presence by the exercise of his power, can always be present with his people, breathing into them his own life, can live in them, sustain, confirm, and invigorate them, and preserve them safe, just as if he were with them in the body; in fine, can feed them with his own body, communion with which he transfuses into them. After this manner, the body and blood of Christ are exhibited to us in the sacrament.

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 4.17.11

I hold then (as has always been received in the Church, and is still taught by those who feel aright), that the sacred mystery of the Supper consists of two things—the corporeal signs, which, presented to the eye, represent invisible things in a manner adapted to our weak capacity, and the spiritual truth, which is at once figured and exhibited by the signs. When attempting familiarly to explain its nature, I am accustomed to set down three things—the thing meant, the matter which depends on it, and the virtue or efficacy consequent upon both. The thing meant consists in the promises which are in a manner included in the sign. By the matter, or substance, I mean Christ, with his death and resurrection. By the effect, I understand redemption, justification, sanctification, eternal life, and all other benefits which Christ bestows upon us.

1892 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 38 (1892) 2268

I believe in the real Presence of Christ, but I do not believe in the carnal presence of the Roman Catholic. I believe in the real presence of the Believer, but that reality is none the less real because it is spiritual—and only spiritual men can discern it! Now, Beloved, if we really come in the right spirit to this Table, when we have eaten the bread, it becomes part of us. When the wine is sipped, the juice of the grape enters into our constitution—we cannot separate it from ourselves. Such is our fellowship with Christ.

The memorial view

6 passages · 5 writers · 1500s to 1900s

Maclaren, A. T. Robertson, and the Free-will Baptists call the Supper a commemoration or memorial of Christ's death, and Spurgeon calls it a simple service of remembrance.

1892 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 38 (1892) 2268

The Lord's Supper is a simple service of remembrance. Nothing is said about an altar, or a priest, or a sacrifice! Our Lord took bread, gave thanks for it, broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take, eat: this is My body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me." Mark that, "this do"—it will not be right to do something else instead of this—and we must not do this for any other purpose than the one He mentions, "This do in remembrance of Me."

1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11.24

Surely He, in that upper chamber, knew best what He meant, and what He was doing when He established the rite; and I, for my part, am contented to be told that I believe in a poor, bald Zwinglianism, when I say with my Master, that the purpose of the Lord’s Supper is simply the commemoration, and therein the proclamation, of His death. There is no magic, no mystery, no ‘sacrament’ about it. It blesses us when it makes us remember Him.

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