Heidelberg Catechism, Question 79
Question 79
Why then doth Christ call the bread his body, and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood, and Paul, the “communion of the body and blood of Christ?
Christ speaks thus not without great reason, namely, not only thereby to teach us, that as bread and wine support this temporal life, so his crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink whereby our souls are fed to eternal life (John 6;55, 49, 51): but more especially by these visible signs and pledges to assure us, that we are as really partakers of his true body and blood (by the operation of the Holy Ghost) as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these holy signs in remembrance of him (1 Cor. 11;24, 25): and that all his sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours, as if we had in our own persons suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God (1 Cor. 11;26).
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
John 6:5555For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink.
John 6:4949Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.
John 6:5151I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”
1 Corinthians 11:2424and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
1 Corinthians 11:2525In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
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?
1 Corinthians 11:2626For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Romans 8:44so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
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.
Berean Blue opens December 1, 2026 for Bible reading, study, and research. View this work in the app preview.