Fridays with the Heidelberg

“Heretic”…”Venomous Serpent”

These were two of the labels ungraciously bestowed on John Wycliffe by his opponents. One of the primary issues said opponents took with Wycliffe can be summed up by his belief that “the bread is bread.” Regarding the Lord’s Supper, Wycliffe was an outspoken opponent of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation.

Transubstantiation refers to the belief that during the mass, at the moment that the priest says, “this is my body,” the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ. In that Christ is being offered up as a sacrifice every time that the mass is celebrated, the sufficiency of Christ is undermined by this dangerous belief.

We are told in Heb. 9:25-28,
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

This is no trivial issue. In that the work of Christ is at stake, the gospel is at stake. Today’s reading in the Catechism helps explain away transubstantiation by appealing to the symbolic nature of communion.

Enjoy.

Lord’s Day 29

Q. 78 – ARE THE BREAD AND WINE CHANGED INTO THE REAL BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST?
A. No. Just as the water of baptism is not changed into Christ’s blood and does not itself wash away sins but is simply God’s sign and assurance, so too the bread of the Lord’s Supper is not changed into the actual body of Christ even though it is called the body of Christ in keeping with the nature and language of sacraments.

Q. 79. – WHY THEN DOES CHRIST CALL THE BREAD HIS BODY AND THE CUP HIS BLOOD, OR THE NEW COVENANT IN HIS BLOOD? (PAUL USES THE WORDS, A PARTICIPATION IN CHRIST’S BODY AND BLOOD.)
A. Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that as bread and wine nourish our temporal life, so too His crucified body and poured out blood truly nourish our souls for eternal life. But more important, He wants to assure us, by this visible sign and pledge, that we, through the Holy Spirit’s work, share in His true body and blood as surely as our mouths receive these holy signs in His remembrance, and that all of His suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and paid for our sins.