Article 22

Of the Lord's Supper, or the breaking of bread, we believe and confess: As baptism is an ordinance and institution of the Lord, by which believers are united with each other by one Spirit in fellowship with Christ, so the Supper is a worthy ordinance and institution of Christ, by which believers who have been baptized according to the ordinance of Christ are taught and admonished to live and walk in Christ even as they have received Him by faith in baptism, and to be bound by brotherly love to their neighbors, with whom they are to live and walk in the unity of the Spirit, according to the same rule of the divine Word; and that by this they are to remember, with heartfelt contemplation, the bitter suffering and death of the Lord.

And in order to put men in remembrance of this, it pleased the Lord Jesus to use for this purpose bread and wine, things well known among men, and by them to implant in the hearts of believers heavenly and hidden things; teaching men thereby to remember that, as bread is made into one bread from many broken grains, and the wine is pressed from many grapes and made one beverage, these being necessary, useful and suited as food and drink for the body of man, even so Christ, out of ardent love, let Himself be broken on the cross, His blood to be shed, and trod the winepress of suffering alone, to serve the souls of men by His flesh and blood as necessary meat and drink; by which we are taught that, just as bread is broken from many grains and prepared as bread, and wine is pressed from many grapes and made a beverage, so also many believers, from various places, are by one faith become one bread or church, and bound together in fellowship; in order that by this all those who worthily receive, and eat and drink this bread and wine with the mouth, may through faith in the Spirit receive, and become partakers of, Christ and all His heavenly riches, and thus be strengthened in the faith, fed in the soul, and bound together by fervent love with God and their neighbors, as members of one body.

But believers must in no way place any confidence in these visible memorials, as though they were in themselves more sacred and worthy than other like, common meat and drink, or had power to give men grace and forgiveness of sins. By doing so one would depart in heart from his Creator, and seek grace from the creature, where it is not to be found. But believers must receive these signs as nothing more than bread and wine, trusting with a firm heart only in that which is taught and signified by them, and must look upon and regard these signs as figures, as the Holy Ghost is accustomed, in the Holy Scriptures, to call the signs that which is signified by them. And so in this institution of the Supper by Christ the cup is called the New Testament in His blood, which cup is really not the New Testament itself, but is figuratively so called, because the blood of Christ, which He shed for the sin of the world, is proclaimed and commended to us through the New Testament; which signifies that, as a testator by a testament bequeaths to his heirs his property, which they are to receive and enjoy after his death, so Christ, in His last Supper, since He could not remain with them, bequeathed His last will in the New Testament, together with all its heavenly riches, to His friends and followers; in order that all those who in this testament are specified and recorded as children of God and heirs of Christ shall enjoy His glorious riches; upon which, in the Supper, they receive with the mouth only natural bread and wine; but through faith there is received, according to the spirit, Christ's flesh and blood, which He gave as an atonement for the human race, of which the natural bread and wine, and the Supper, are figures, signs and representations.

Therefore believers are to use this worthy institution of Christ among each other, and by it, through an ordained blameless minister, proclaim with great reverence the bitter suffering and death of the Lord.

And after God has been thanked with a humble heart for His boundless grace and mercy, and has been called upon with fervent prayers, the bread shall be broken by the minister, the wine poured out, and they shall be received by all believers baptized according to the ordinance of Christ; and each one shall, examining himself, use and avail himself of the same, with heartfelt contemplation of the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus. This shall constantly be observed by believers in this manner, when time and place permit, until the appearing of Jesus Christ from heaven.

Of this institution and ordinance of Christ, read: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Matthew 26, verses 26 to 29; Mark 14, verse 22; Luke 22, verse 19.

How the apostles, in accordance with this, also practiced and observed it in the same form and manner, with bread and wine, read: "I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. In the same manner he also took the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread, and drinks this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." First Corinthians 11, verses 23 to 29; Acts 2, verse 42; Acts 20, verses 7 and 11.

How the bread and wine in the Supper are not the real body and blood of Christ, but signs of His communion with the believer, read: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread. Look at Israel after the flesh: are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" First Corinthians 10, verses 16 to 18.

Note that the Israelites did not eat the altar, but only the sacrifice, and by this were partakers of the altar. So also, Christians do not eat and drink with the mouth the real body and blood of Christ, but only bread and wine, as figures; but according to the soul they, by faith, receive Christ Jesus with all His benefits, and are thus partakers of the true altar, Christ Jesus.

Read in regard to this: "I am the bread of life: he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. It is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6, verses 35 and 63.