Heidelberg Catechism, Question 76
Question 76
What is it to eat the crucified body, and drink the shed blood of Christ?
It is not only to embrace with a believing heart, all the sufferings and death of Christ, and thereby to obtain the pardon of sin and life eternal (John 6;50, 35, 54, 47): but also, besides that, to become more and more united to his sacred body, by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both in Christ and in us (John 6;56); so that we, although Christ is in heaven, and we on earth, are, notwithstanding, “flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone” (Eph. 5;30); and that we live and are governed for ever by one Spirit, as members of the same body are by one soul (John 6;57, 58).
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
John 6:5050This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die.
John 6:3535Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.
John 6:5454Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:4747Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life.
John 6:5656Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.
John 6:6363The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
1 Corinthians 12:1313For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.
1 Corinthians 10:1616Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
Ephesians 5:3030For we are members of His body.
1 Corinthians 12:2727Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it.
John 6:5757Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
John 6:5858This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
Romans 8:9-119You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
1 Corinthians 6:1717But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.
Ephesians 4:1515Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
Ephesians 4:1616From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.
Source and edition
Heidelberg Catechism. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879
Public Domain (historic text); CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription). Source transcription.
Transcription licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.
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