The fourth view is that of John Calvin, who took something of a middle position between that of Luther and Zwingli. Calvin argued that Christ is present in the communion service, but not physically. In that respect, Calvin thought Zwingli was right. The body of Jesus is in heaven, where He has ascended and has given gifts to men. But that is not the only way Christ could be present. Calvin maintained that Christ is present spiritually, which he believed was far more important than a material presence. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is with us in a spiritual way by the Holy Spirit, He can say in Matthew 28 that He is with us even to the very end of the age (v. 20).
In a special way the Lord Jesus Christ is with His people in the communion service, where the spiritual presence of Christ is imparted to them as they partake of the elements. I know there are many important differences on the Lord’s Supper between the various branches of the Protestant church, but they are at least united in believing that the Lord Jesus Christ gave the communion service. All who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ can come, confess their sin, be assured of forgiveness, and can in some way participate in Him. What makes one a Christian is not having merely an intellectual assent to certain doctrines. This of course is necessary; there are certain truths that must be confessed. But that alone does not make one a Christian. What makes one a Christian is participating in the work of Christ so that we now come to say, not simply that Jesus is God, but that He is my God. We do not merely say that Jesus died upon the cross for sin, but that He died for my sin. We do not only confess the general truth that He rose from the dead, but that He rose from the dead for my justification. We receive that by faith just the way we receive the elements.
In a certain sense the Gospel is proclaimed in the elements, and as that Gospel is proclaimed, we receive it. We take it in our hands spiritually. We feed upon it so it becomes part of us just as the Lord Jesus Christ becomes part of us through saving faith. The communion service has great power to do that.
In Harry Ironside’s commentary on 1 Corinthians he told about an experience that he had when he was in Japan. There was a Japanese businessman who had difficulty coming to Christ because he understood that if he did that, he would have to put Christ first. He feared that if he did that, he would have to stop making money or at least he would have to stop making as much money as he was making. That was his hang-up, and he struggled with it for a long time. A year later when Ironside returned the man was still there. He was listening to these things, but he had not yet made a commitment to Christ. Ironside asked the businessman when he was going to do this. “Well,” the man said, “I don’t know. It’s a real struggle for me. I can’t quite make up my mind.” Ironside then told the man that they were having a service next week, and that they would like the man to come.
The man accepted the invitation and came to the service, part of which was the communion service. The man sat off on the side while the communion service was going on. As he observed all that was taking place, and as he saw the Christians sharing in that which represented the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, big tears began to roll down his cheeks. Something in what he was witnessing reached his heart and changed him. He came up afterwards and said, “I held out against Jesus Christ for so long, for so many years. But as I sat there and watched the Christians partake in that holy sacrament, I recognized that Jesus Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. And so, I want to become His disciple.”
