 |
| Bishop John Charles Ryle (1816-1900) Liverpool Cathedral Liverpool, UK |
H/T to Hudson Barton for
reminding us of Bishop John Charles Ryle’s view.
Real
Presence
Real Presence. What Is
It?
by
J.C. Ryle
"If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." - Exod. xxxiii. 15
There is a word in the text that heads this
page which demands the attention of all English Christians in this day. That
word is "presence." There is a religious subject bound up with that
word, on which it is most important to have clear, distinct, and scriptural
views. That subject is the "presence of God," and specially the
"presence of our Lord Jesus Christ" with Christian people. What is
that presence? Where is that presence? What is the nature of that presence? To
these questions I propose to supply answers.
I. I shall consider, firstly, the general
doctrine of God's presence in the world.
II. I shall consider, secondly, the special
doctrine of Christ's real spiritual presence.
III. I shall consider, thirdly, the special
doctrine of Christ's real bodily presence.
The whole subject deserves serious
thoughts. If we suppose that this is a mere question of controversy which only
concerns theological partisans, we have yet much to learn. it is a subject
which lies at the very roots of saving religion. It is a subject which is
inseparably tied up with one of the most precious articles of the Christian
faith. It is a subject about which it is most dangerous to be wrong. An error
here may first lead a man to the Church of Rome, and then land him finally in
the gulf of infidelity. Surely it is worth while to examine carefully the
doctrine of the "presence" of God and of His Christ.
I. The first subject we have to consider,
is the general doctrine of God's presence in the world.
The teaching of the Bible on this point is
clear, plain and unmistakable. God is everywhere. There is no place in heaven
or earth where He is not. There is no place in air or land or sea, no place
above ground or under ground, no place in town or country, no place in Europe,
Asia, Africa, or America, where God is not always present. Climb to the top of
the highest mountain, where not even an insect moves: God is there. Sail to the
most remote island in the Pacific Ocean, where the foot of man never trod: God
is there. He is always near us,--seeing, hearing, observing, knowing every
action, and deed, and word, and whisper, and look and thought, and motive, and
secret of every one of us, and everywhere.
What saith the Scripture? It is written in
Job, "His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings.
There is no darkness, nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may
hide themselves: (Job xxxiv. 21, 22). It is written in Proverbs, "The eyes
of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good: (Prov. xv. 3).
It is written in Jeremiah, "Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the
sons of men: to give every one according. . . to the fruit of his doings"
(Jer. xxxii. 19). It is written in the Psalms, "Thou knowest my
downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou
compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For
there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.
. . Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy
presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there. If I take the wings of
the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy
hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness
shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness
hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the
light are both alike to Thee" (Psalm cxxxix. 2-12).
Such language as this confounds and
overwhelms us. The doctrine before us is one which we cannot fully understand.
Precisely so. David said the same thing about it almost three thousand years
ago. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: it is high, I cannot attain
it" (Psalm cxxxix. 6). But it does not follow that the doctrine is not
true, because we cannot understand it. It is the weakness of our poor minds and
intellects that we must blame, and not the doctrine.
There are scores of things in the world
around us, which few can understand or explain, yet no sensible may refuses to
believe. How this earth is ever rolling round the sun with enormous swiftness,
while we feel no motion,--how the moon affects the tides, and makes them rise
and fall twice every twenty-four hours,--how millions of perfectly organised
living creatures exist in every pint of pond-water, which our naked eye cannot
see,--all these are things well known to men of science, while most of us could
not explain them for our lives. And shall we, in the face of such facts,
presume to doubt that God is everywhere present, for no better reason than
this, that we cannot understand it? Let us never dare to say so again.
How many things there are about God Himself
which we cannot possibly understand, and yet we must believe them, unless so
senseless as to be atheists! Who can explain the eternity of God, the infinite
power and wisdom of God, or the works of God in creation and providence? Who
can comprehend a Being who is a Spirit, without body, parts, or passions? How
can a material creature, who can only be in one place at one time, take in the
idea of an immaterial world by His word out of nothings, and who can be
everywhere and see everything at one and the same time? Where, in a word, is
there a single attribute of God that mortal man can thoroughly comprehend?
Where, then, is the common sense or wisdom of refusing to believe the doctrine
of God being present everywhere, merely because our minds cannot take it in?
Well says the Book of Job, "Canst thou by searching find out god? canst
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst
thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? (Job xi 7,8).
Let us have high and honourable thoughts of
the God with which we have to do while we live, and before whose bar we must
stand when we die. let us seek to have just notions of His power, His wisdom,
His eternity, His holiness, His perfect knowledge, His "presence"
everywhere. One half the sin committed by mankind arises from wrong views of
their Maker and Judge. men are reckless and wicked, because they do not think
that God sees them. They do things they would never do if they really believed
they were under the eyes of the Almighty. It is written, "Thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such an one as thyself: (Psalm l. 21). It is written
again, "They say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob
regard it. Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye
be wise? He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye,
shall He not see?" (Psalm xciv. 7-9). No wonder that holy Job said in his
best moments, "When I consider, I am afraid of Him? (Job xxiii. 15).
"What is you God like?" said a
sneering infidel one day to a poor Christian. "What is this God of yours
like: this God about whom you make such ado? Is He great or is He small?
"My God," was the wise reply, "is a great and a small God at the
same time: so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and yet so
small that He can dwell in the heart of a poor sinner like me." "Where
is your God, my boy?" said another infidel to a child whom he saw coming
out of a school where the Bible was taught. "Where is your God about whom
you have been reading? Show Him to me, and I will give you an orange."
"Show me where He is not," was the answer, and I will give you two.
My god is everywhere." Well is it said in a certain place, "God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are
mightily." "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast
perfected praise" (I Cor. i. 27; Matt. xxi. 16).
However hard to understand this doctrine
may be, it is one which is most useful and wholesome for our souls. To keep
continually in mind that God is always present with us, to live always as in
God's sight, to act and speak and think as under His eye,--all this is
eminently calculated to have a good effect upon our souls. Wide, and deep, and
searching, and piercing is the influence of that one thought, "Thou God
seest me."
(a) The thought of God's presence is a loud
call to humility. How much that is evil and defective must the all-seeing eye
see in every one of us! How small a part of our character is really known by
man! "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the
heart: (I Sam. xvi. 7). Man does not always see us, but the Lord is always
looking at us, morning, noon and night. Who has not need to say, "God be
merciful to me a sinner?"
(b) The thought of God's presence is a
crushing proof of our need of Jesus Christ. What hope of salvation could we
have it there was not a Mediator between God and man? Before the eye of an
ever-present God, our best righteousness is filthy rags, and our best doings
are full of imperfection. Where should we be if there was not a fountain open
for all sin, even the blood of Christ? Without Christ, the prospect of death,
judgment, and eternity would drive us to despair.
(c) The thought of God's presence teaches
the folly of hypocrisy in religion. What can be more silly and childish than to
wear a mere cloak of Christianity while we inwardly cleave to win, when God is
ever looking at us and sees us through and through? It is easy to deceive
ministers and fellow-Christians, because they often see us only upon Sundays.
But God sees us morning, noon, and night, and cannot be deceived. Oh, whatever
we are in religion, let us be real and true!
(d) The thought of God's presence is a
check and curb on the inclination to sin. The recollection that there is One
always near us and observing us, who will one day have a reckoning with all
mankind, may well keep us back from evil. Happy are those sons and daughters
who, when they leave the family home, and launch forth into the world, carry
with them the abiding remembrance of God's eye. "My father mother do not
see me, but God does." This was the feeling that preserved Joseph when
tempted in a foreign land: "How can I do this great wickedness and sin
against God?" (Gen. xxxiv.).
(e) The thought of God's presence is a spur
to the pursuit of true holiness. The highest standard of sanctification is to
"walk with God" as Enoch did, and to "walk before God" as
Abraham did. Where is the man who would not strive to live so as to please God,
if he realized that God was always standing at his right hand? To get away from
God is the secret aim of the sinner; to get nearer to God is the longing desire
of the saint. The real servants of the Lord are "a people near unto
Him" (Psalm cxlviii. 14).
(f) The thought of God's presence is a
comfort in time of public trouble. When war and famine and pestilence break in
upon a land, when the nations are rent and torn by inward divisions, and all
order seems in peril, it is cheering to reflect that God sees and knows and is
close at hand,--that the King of kings is near and not asleep. He that saw the
Spanish Armada sail to invade England, and scattered it with the breath of His
mouth,--He that looked on when the schemers of the Gunpowder Plot were planning
the destruction of Parliament,--this God is not changed.
(g) The thought of God's presence is a
strong consolation in private trial. We may be driven from home and native
land, and placed at the other side of the world; we may be bereaved of wife and
children and friends, and left alone in our family, like the last tree in a
forest: but we can never go to any place where God is not, and under no
circumstances can we be left entirely alone.
Such thoughts as these are useful and
profitable for us all. That man must be in a poor state of soul who does not
feel them to be so. Let it be a settled principle in our religion never to
forget that in every condition and place we are under the eye of God. It need
not frighten us if we are true believers. The sins of all believers are cast
behind God's back, and even the all-seeing God sees no spot in them. It ought
to cheer us, if our christianity is genuine and sincere. We can then appeal to
God with confidence, like David, and say, "Search me, O God, and know my
heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting: (Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24). Great is the
mystery of God's presence everywhere; but the true man of God can look at it
without fear.
II. The second thing which I propose to
consider is the real spiritual presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In considering this branch of our subject
we must carefully remember that we are speaking of One who is God and man in
one Person. We are speaking of One who in infinite love to our souls, took
man's nature, and was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, dead, and buried,
to be a sacrifice for sins, and yet never ceased for a moment to be very God.
The peculiar "presence" of this blessed Person, our Lord Jesus
Christ, with His Church, is the point which I want to unfold in this part of my
paper. I want to show that He is really and truly present with His believing
people, spiritually or after the manner of a spirit, and that His presence is
one of the grand privileges of a true Christian. What then is the real
spiritual "presence" of Christ, and wherein does it consist? Let us
see.
(a) There is a real spiritual presence of
Christ with that Church which is His mystical body,--the blessed company of all
faithful people. This is the meaning of that parting saying of our Lord to His
Apostles, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt.
xxviii. 20). To the visible Church of Christ that saying did not strictly
belong. Rent by divisions, defiled by heresies, disgraced by superstitions and
corruptions, the visible Church has often given mournful proof that Christ does
not always dwell in it. Many of its branches in the course of years, like the
Churches of Asia, have decayed and passed away. It is the Holy Catholic Church,
composed of God's elect, the Church of which every member is truly sanctified,
the Church of believing and penitent men and women--this is the Church to which
alone, strictly speaking, the promise belongs. This is the Church in which
there is always a real spiritual "presence" of Christ.
There is not a visible Church on earth,
however, ancient and well ordered, which is secure against falling away.
Scripture and history alike testify that, like the Jewish Church, it may become
corrupt, and depart from the faith, and departing from t he faith, may die. And
why is this? Simply because Christ has never promised to any visible Church that
He will be with it always, even unto the end of the world. The word that He
inspired St. Paul to write to the Roman Church is the same word that He sends
to every visible Church through the world, whether Episcopal, Presbyterian or
Congregational: "Be not high-minded, but fear: . . . continue in His
(God's) goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off"* (Rom. xi. 20-22).
On the other hand, the perpetual presence
of Christ with that Holy Catholic Church, which is His body, is the great
secret of its continuance and security. It lives on, and cannot die, because
Jesus Christ is in the midst of it. It is a ship tossed with storm and tempest;
but it cannot sink, because Christ is on board. Its members may be persecuted,
oppressed, imprisoned, robbed, beaten, beheaded, or burned; but His true Church
is never extinguished. It lives on through fire and water. When crushed in one
land, it springs up in another. The Pharaohs, the Herods, and Neros, the
Julians, the bloody Marys, the Charles the Ninths, have laboured in vain to
destroy this Church. They slay their thousands, and then go to their own place.
The true Church outlives them all. It is a bush that is always burning, and yet
is never consumed. And what is the reason of all this? It is the perpetual
"presence' of Jesus Christ.
(b) There is a real spiritual
"presence" of Christ in the heart of every true believer. This is
what St. Paul meant when he speaks of "Christ dwelling in the heart by
faith" (Ephes. iii. 17). This is what our Lord meant when He says of the
man that loves Him and Keeps His Word, "We will come unto him, and make
Our abode with him" (John xiv. 23). In every believer whether high or low,
or rich or poor, or young or old, or feeble or strong, the Lord Jesus dwells,
and keeps up His work of grace by the power of the Holy Ghost. As He dwells in
the whole Church, which is His body,--keeping, guarding preserving, and
sanctifying,--so does He continually dwell in every member of that body,--in
the least as well as in the greatest. This "presence" is the secret
of all that peace, and hope and joy, and comfort, which believers feel. All
spring from their having a Divine tenant within their hearts. This
"presence" is the secret of their continuance in the faith, and
perseverance unto the end. In themselves they are weak and unstable as water.
But they have within them One who is "able to save to the uttermost"
and will not allow His work to be overthrown. Not one bone of Christ's mystical
body shall ever be broken. Not one Lamb of Christ's flock shall ever be plucked
out of His hand. The house in which Christ is pleased to dwell, though it be
but a cottage, is one which the devil shall never break into and make his own.
(c) There is a real spiritual
"presence" of Christ wherever His believing people meet together in
His name. This is the plain meaning of that famous saying, "Wherever two
or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them:
(Matt. xvii. 20). The smallest gathering of true Christians for the purposes of
prayer or praise, or holy conference, or readying God's word, is sanctified by
the best of company. The great or rich or noble may not be there, but the King
of kings Himself is present, and angels look on with reverence. The grandest
buildings that men have reared for religious uses are often no better than
whitened sepulchers, destitute of any holy influence, because given up to superstitious
ceremonies, and filled to no purpose with crowds of formal worshippers, who
come unfeeling, and go unfeeling away. No worship is of any use to souls at
which Christ is not present. Incense, banners, pictures, flowers, crucifixes,
and long processions of richly dressed ecclesiastics are a poor substitute for
the great High Priest Himself. The meanest room where a few penitent believers
assemble in the name of Jesus is a consecrated and most holy place in the sight
of God. They that worship God in spirit and truth never draw near to Him in
vain. Often they go home from such meetings warmed, cheered, stablished,
strengthened, comforted, and refreshed. And what is the secret of their
feelings? They have had with them the great Master of assemblies, even Christ
Himself.
(d) There is a real spiritual
"presence" of Christ with the hearts of all true-hearted communicants
in he Lord's Supper. Rejecting as I do, with all my heart, the baseless notion
of any bodily presence of Christ on the Lord's table, I can never doubt that
the great ordinance appointed by Christ has a special and peculiar blessing
attached to it. That blessing, I believe, consists in a special and peculiar
presence of Christ, vouchsafed to the heart of ever believing communicant. That
truth appears to me to lie under those wonderful words of institution,
"Take, eat: this is My body." "Drink ye all of this: this is My
blood." Those words were never meant to teach that the bread in the Lord's
Supper was literally Christ's body, or the wine literally Christ's blood. But
our Lord did mean to teach that ever right-hearted believer, who ate that bread
and drank that wine in remembrance of Christ, would in so doing find a special
presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, which they only know who are faithful
communicants, and which they who are not communicants miss altogether.
After all, the experience of all the best
servants of Christ is the best proof that there is a special blessing attached
to the Lord's Supper. You will rarely find a true believer who will not say
that he reckons this ordinance one of his greatest helps and highest
privileges. He will tell you that if he was deprived of it, he would find the
loss of it a great drawback to his soul. He will tell you that in eating that
bread, and drinking that cup, he realizes something of Christ dwelling in him;
and finds his repentance deepened, his faith increased, his knowledge enlarged,
his graces strengthened. Eating the bread with faith, he feels closer communion
with the body of Christ. He understands more thoroughly what it is to be one
with Christ and Christ in him. He feels the roots of his spiritual life
insensibly watered, and the work of grace within him insensibly built up and
carried forward. He cannot explain or define it. It is a matter of experience,
which no one knows but he who feels it. And the true explanation of the whole
matter is this,--there is a special and spiritual "presence" of
Christ in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Jesus meets those who draw near
to His table with a true heart, in a special and peculiar way.
(e) Last, but not least, there is a real
spiritual "presence" of Christ vouchsafed to believers in special
times of trouble and difficulty. This is the presence of which St. Paul
received assurance on more than one occasion. At Corinth, for instance, it is
written, "Then spake the Lord to Paul in he night by a vision, Be not
afraid, but speak, and hold not they peace: for I am with thee, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee" (Acts xviii. 9, 10). At Jersusalem, again,
when the Apostle was in danger of his life, it is written, "The night
following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou
hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome"
(Acts xxiii. 11). Again, in the last epistle St. Paul wrote, we find him
saying, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me:
I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord
stood with me and strengthened me: (2 Tim. iv. 16, 17).
This is the account of the singular and
miraculous courage which many of God's children have occasionally shown under
circumstances of unusual trial, in every age of the Church. When the three
children were cast into the fiery furnace, and preferred the risk of death to
idolatry, we are told that Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, "Lo, I see four men
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of
the fourth is like the Son of God" (Dan. iii. 25). When Stephen was beset
by bloody-minded enemies on the very point of stoning him, we read that he
said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God" (Acts vii. 56). Nor ought we to doubt that this
special presence was the secret of the fearlessness with which many early
Christian martyrs met their deaths, and of the marvelous courage which the
Marian martyrs, such as Bradford, Latimer, and Rogers, displaced at the stake.
A peculiar sense of Christ being with them is the right explanation of all these
cases. These men died as they did because Christ was with them. Nor ought any
believer to fear that the same helping presence will be with him, whenever his
own time of special need arrives. Many are over careful about what they shall
do in their last sickness, and on the bed of death. Many disquiet themselves
with anxious thoughts as to what they would do if husband or wife died, or if
they were suddenly turned out of house and home. Let us believe that when the
need comes the help will come also. Let us not carry our crosses before they
are laid upon us. He that said to Moses, "Certainly I will be with
thee," will never fail any believer who cries to Him. When the hour of
special storm comes, the Lord who walks upon the waters will come and say,
"Peace: be still." There are thousands of doubting saints continually
crossing the river, who go down to the water in fear and trembling, and yet are
able at last to say with David, "Though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me" (Psalm xxiii.
4).
This branch of our subject deserves to be
pondered well. This spiritual presence of Christ is a real and true thing,
though a thing which the children of this world neither know nor understand. It
is precisely one of those matters of which St. Paul writes, "The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto Him" (1 Cor. ii. 14). But for all that, I repeat emphatically, the
spiritual presence of Christ, --His presence after the manner of a Spirit with
the spirits of His own people,--is a thing real and true. Let us not doubt it.
Let us hold it fast. Let us seek to feel it more and more. The man who feels
nothing whatever of it in his own heart's experience, may depend on it that he
is not yet in the right state of soul.
III. The last point which I propose to
consider is the real bodily presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where is it?
What ought we to think about it? What ought we to reject, and what ought we to
hold fast?
This is a branch of my subject on which it
is most important to have clear and well-defined views. There are rocks around
it on which many are making shipwreck. No doubt there are deep things and
difficulties connected with it. But this must not prevent our examining it as
far as possible by the light of Scripture. Whatever the Bible teaches plainly
about Christ's bodily presence, it is our duty to hold and believe. To shrink
from holding it because we cannot reconcile it with some human tradition, some
minister's teaching, or some early prejudice imbibed in youth, is presumption,
and not humility. To the law and to the testimony! What says the Scripture
about Christ's bodily presence? Let us examine the matter step by step.
(a) There was a bodily presence of our Lord
Jesus Christ during the time that He was upon earth at His first advent. For
thirty-three years, at least, between His birth and His ascension, He was
present in the body in this world. in infinite mercy to our souls, the eternal
Son of God was pleased to take our nature on Him, and to be miraculously born
of a woman, with a body just like our own. He was made like unto us in all
things, sin only excepted. Like us He grew from infancy to boyhood, and from
boyhood to youth, and from youth to manhood. Like us He ate, and drank, and
slept, and hungered, and thirsted, and wept, and felt fatigue and pain. He had
a body which was subject to all the conditions of a material body. While, as
God, he was in heaven and earth at the same time; as man, His body was only in
one place at one time. When He was in Galilee He was not in Judaea, and when He
was in Capernaum He was not in Jerusalem. In a real, true human body he lived;
in a real, true human body he kept the law, and fulfilled all righteousness;
and in a real, true human body He bore our sins on the cross, and made
satisfaction for us by atoning blood. He that died for us on Calvary was
perfect man, while at the same time He was perfect God. This was the first real
bodily presence of Jesus Christ.
The truth before us is full of unspeakable
comfort to all who have an awakened conscience, and know the value of their
souls. It is a heart-cheering thought that the "one Mediator between God
and man is the man Jesus Christ," real man, and so able to be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; Almighty God, and so able to save to the
uttermost all who come to the Father by Him. The Saviour in whom it labouring
and heavy-laden are invited to trust, is One who had areal body when He was
working out our redemption on earth. It was no angel, nor spirit, nor ghost,
that stood in our place and became our Substitute, that finished the work of
redemption, and did what Adam failed to do. No: it was one who was real man!
"By man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead" (1
Cor. xv. 21). The battle was fought for us, a nd the victory was won by the
eternal Word made flesh,--by the real bodily presence among us of Jesus Christ.
For ever let us praise God that Christ did not remain in heaven, but came into
the world and was made flesh to save sinners; that in the body, He was born for
us, lived for us, died for us, and rose again. Whether men know it or not, our
whole hope of eternal life hinges on the simple fact, that nineteen hundred
years ago there was areal bodily presence of the Son of God for us on the
earth.
(b) Let us now go a step further. There is
a real bodily presence of Jesus Christ in heaven at the right hand of God. This
is a deep and mysterious subject beyond question. What God the Father is, and
where He dwells, what the nature of His dwelling-place who is a Spirit,--these
are high things which we have no minds to take in. But where the Bible speaks
plainly it is our duty and our wisdom to believe. When our Lord rose again from
the dead, He rose with a real human body,--a body which could not be in two
places at once,--a body of which the angels said, "He is not here, but is
risen" (Luke xxiv. 6). In that body, having finished His redeeming work on
earth, He ascended visibly into heaven. He took His body with Him, and did not
leave it behind, like Elijah's mantle. It was not laid in the grave at last,
and did not become dust and ashes in some Syrian village, like the bodies of
saints and martyrs. The same body which walked in he streets of Capernaum, and
sat in the house of Mary and Martha, and was crucified on Golgotha, and was
laid in Joseph's tomb,--that same body,--after the resurrection glorified
undoubtedly, but still real and material,--was taken up into heaven, and is
there at this very moment. To use the inspired words of the Acts, "While
they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight:
(Acts i. 9). To use the words of St. Luke's Gospel, "While He blessed
them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven" (Luke xxiv.
51). To use the words of St. Mark, "After the Lord had spoken unto them,
He wa received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God" (Mark
xvi. 19). The fourth Article of the Church of England states the whole matter
fully and accurately: "Christ did truly rise again from death, and took
again His body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the
perfection of man's nature: wherewith He ascended into heaven, and there
sitteth until He return to judge all men at the last day." And thus, to
come round to the point with which we started, there is in heaven ar areal
bodily presence of Jesus Christ.
The doctrine before us is singularly rich
in comfort and consolation to all true Christians. That Divine Saviour in
heaven, on whom the Gospel tells us cast the burden of our sinful souls, is not
a Being who is Spirit only, but a Being who is man as well as God. He is One
who has taken up to heaven a body like our own; and in that body sits at the
right hand of God, to be our Priest and our Advocate, our Representative and
our Friend. He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because He
has suffered Himself in the body being tempted. He knows by experience all that
the body is liable to from pain, and weariness, and hunger, and thirst, and
work; and has taken to heaven that very body which endured the contradiction of
sinners and was nailed to the tree. Who can doubt that the body in heaven is a
continual plea for believers, and renders them ever acceptable in the Father's
sight? it is a perpetual remembrance of the perfect propitiation made for us
upon the cross. God will not forget that our debts are paid for, so long as the
body which paid for them with life-blood is in heaven before His eyes. Who can
doubt that when we pour out our petitions and prayers before the throne of
grace, we put them in the hand of One whose sympathy passes knowledge? None can
feel for poor believers wrestling here in he body, like Him who in the body
sits pleading for them in heaven. For ever let us bless God that there is a
real bodily presence of Christ in heaven.
(c) Let us now go a step further. There is
no real bodily presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in
the consecrated elements of bread and wine.
This is a point which it is peculiarly
painful to discuss, because it has long divided Christians into two parties,
and defiled a very solemn subject with sharp controversy. Nevertheless, it is
one which cannot possibly be avoided in handling the question we are
considering. Moreover, it is a point of vast importance, and demands very plain
speaking. Those amiable and well-meaning persons who imagine that it signifies
little what opinion people hold about Christ's presence in the Lord's
Supper,--that it is a matter of indifference,--and that it all comes to the
same thing at last, are totally and entirely mistaken. they have yet to learn
that an unscriptural view of the subject may land them at length in a very
dangerous heresy. Let us search and see.
My reason for saying that there is no
bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper or in the consecrated bread and
wine, is simply this: there is no such presence taught anywhere in the Holy
Scripture. it is a presence that can never be honestly and fairly got out of
the Bible. let the three accounts of the institution of the Lord's Supper, in
the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, and the one given by St.
Paul to the Corinthians, be weighed and examined impartially and I have no
doubt as to the result. They teach that the Lord Jesus, in he same night that
He was betrayed, took bread, and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take
eat: this is My body;" and also took the cup of wine, and gave it to them,
saying, "Drink ye all of this: this is My blood." But there is
nothing in the simple narrative, or in the verses which follow it, which shows
that the disciples thought their Master's body and blood were really present in
the bread and wine which they received. There is not a word in he epistles to
show that after our Lord's ascension into heaven the Christians believed that
His body and blood were present in the ordinance celebrated on earth, or that
the bread in the Lord's Supper, after consecration, was not truly and literally
bread, and the wine truly and literally wine.
Some persons, I am aware, suppose that such
texts as "This is My body," and "This is My blood," are
proofs that Christ's body and blood, in some mysterious manner, are locally
present in the brad and wine at the Lord's Supper, after their consecration.
But a man must be easily satisfied if such texts content him. The quotation of
a single isolated phrase is a mode of arguing which would establish Arianism or
Socinianism. The context of these famous expressions shows clearly that those
who heard the words used, and were accustomed to our Lord's mode of speaking,
understood them to mean "This represents My body," and "This
represents my blood."
The comparison of other places proves that
there is nothing unfair in this interpretation. It is certain that the words
"is" and "are" frequently mean represent in Scripture. The
disciples, no doubt, remembered their Master saying such things as "The
field is the world: the good seed are the children of the kingdom" (Matt.
xiii. 38). St. Paul, in writing on he Sacrament, confirms this interpretation
by expressly calling the consecrated bread, "bread," and not the body
of Christ, no less than three times (1 Cor. xi 26-28).
Some persons, again, regard the sixth
chapter of St. John, where our Lord speaks of "eating His flesh and drinking
His blood," as a proof that there is a literal bodily presence of Christ
in the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper. But there is an utter absence of
conclusive proof that this chapter refers to the Lord's Supper at all! The
Lord's Supper had not been instituted, and did not exist, till at least a year
after these words were spoken. Enough to say that the great majority of
Protestant commentators altogether deny that the chapter refers to the Lord's
Supper, and that even some Romish commentators on this point agree with them.
The eating and drinking here spoken of are the eating and drinking of faith,
and not a bodily action.
Some people fancy that St. Paul's word to
the Corinthians, "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the
body of Christ?" (1 Cor. x. 16), are enough to prove a bodily presence of
Christ in the Lord's Supper. But unfortunately for their argument, St. Paul
does not say, "The bread is the body," but the "communion of the
body." And the obvious sense of the words is this: "The bread that a
worthy communicant eats in the Lord's Supper is a means whereby his soul holds
communion with the body of Christ." Nor do I believe that more than this
can be got out of the words.
Above all, there remains the unanswerable
argument that if our Lord was actually holding His own body in His hands, when
he said of the bread, "This is My body," His body must have been a
different body to that of ordinary men. Of course, if His body was not a body
like ours, His real and proper "humanity" is at an end. At this rate
the blessed and comfortable doctrine of Christ's entire sympathy with his
people, arising from the fact that he is really and truly man, would be
completely overthrown and fall to the ground.
Finally, if the body with which our blessed
Lord ascended up into heaven can be in heaven, and on earth, and on ten
thousand communion-tables at one and the same time, it cannot be a real human
body at all. Yet that He did ascend with a real human body, although a
glorified body, is one of the prime articles of the Christian faith, and one
that we ought never to let go! Once admit that a body can be present into
places at once, and you cannot prove that it is a body at all. Once admit that
Christ's body can be present at God's right hand and on the communion-table at
the same moment, and it cannot be the body which was born of the Virgin Mary
and crucified upon the cross. From such a conclusion we may well draw back with
horror and dismay. Well says the Prayer book of the Church of England: "The
sacramental bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances, and
therefore may not be adored (for that were idolatry, to be abhorred of all
faithful Christians); and the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are
in heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to
be at one time in more places than one." This is sound speech that cannot
be condemned. Well would it be for the Church of England if all Churchmen would
read, mark, learn and inwardly digest what the Prayer book teaches about
Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper.
If we love our souls and desire their
prosperity, let us be very jealous over our doctrine about the Lord's Supper.
Let us stand fast on the simple teaching of Scripture, and let no one drive us
from it under the pretense of increased reverence for the ordinance of Christ.
Let us take heed, lest under confused and mystical notions of some inexplicable
presence of Christ's body and blood under the form of bread and wine, we find
ourselves unaware heretics about Christ's human nature. Next to the doctrine
that Christ is not God, but only man, there is nothing more dangerous than the
doctrine that Christ is not man, but only God. If we would not fall into that
pit, we must hold firmly that there can be no literal presence of Christ's body
in he Lord's Supper; because His body is in heaven, and not on earth, though as
God He is everywhere.*
*The following sentence from hooker, on the
subject of Christ's body, deserves special attention: "It behoveth us to
take great heed, lest while we go about to maintain the glorious deity of Him
which is man, we leave Him not the true bodily substance of a man. According to
Augustine's opinion, that majestical body which we make to be everywhere
present, doth thereby cease to have the substance of a true
body."--Hooker, Eccles. Politv, book v., ch. 55. (d) Let us now go one
step further, and bring our whole subject to a conclusion. There will be a real
bodily presence of Christ when He comes again the second time to judge the
world. This is a point about which the Bible speaks so plainly that there is no
room left for dispute or doubt. When our Lord had ascended up before the eyes
of His disciples, the angels said to them, "This same Jesus, which is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him
go into heaven" (Acts i. 11). There can be no mistake about the meaning of
these words. Visibly and bodily our Lord left the world, and visibly and bodily
He will return in the day which is emphatically called the day of "His
appearing" (1 Peter i. 7).
The world has not yet done with Christ.
Myraids talk and think of Him as of One who did His work in the world and
passed on to His own place, like some statesman or philosopher, leaving nothing
but His memory behind Him. The world will be fearfully undeceived one day. That
same Jesus who came nineteen centuries ago in lowliness and poverty, to be
despised and crucified, shall come again one day in power and glory, to raise
the dead and change the living, and to reward every man according to his works.
The wicked shall see that Saviour whom they despised, but too late, and shall
call on the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of the Lamb.
those solemn words which Jesus addressed to the High Priest the night before
His crucifixion shall at length be fulfilled: "Ye shall see the Son of Man
sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in he clouds of heaven"
(Matt. xxvi. 64). The godly shall see the Saviour whom they have read of, heard
of, and believed, and find, like the Queen of Sheba, that the half of His
goodness had not been known. They shall find that sight is far better than
faith, and that in Christ's actual presence is fullness of joy.
This is the real bodily presence of Christ,
for which every true-hearted Christian ought daily to long and pray. Happy are
those who make it an article of their faith, and live in he constant
expectation of a second personal advent of Christ. Then, and then only, will
the devil be bound, the curse be taken off the earth, the world be restored to
its original purity, sickness and death be taken away, tears be wiped from all
eyes, and the redemption of the saint, in body as well as soul, be completed.
"It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John iii.
2). The highest style of Christian is the man who desires the real presence of
his Master, and "loves His appearing" (2 Tim. iv. 8).
I have now unfolded, as far as I can in a
short paper, the truth about the presence of God and His Christ. I have shown
(1) the general doctrine of God's presence everywhere; (2) the Scriptural
doctrine of Christ's real, spiritual presence; (3) the Scriptural doctrine of
Christ's real, bodily presence. I now leave the whole subject with a parting
word of application, and commend it to serious attention. In an age of hurry
and bustle about secular things, in an age of wretched strife and controversy
about religion, I entreat men not to neglect the great truths which these pages
contain.
(1) What do we know of Christ ourselves? We
have heard of Him thousands of times. We call ourselves Christians. But what do
we know of Christ experimentally, as our own personal Saviour, our own Priest, our
own Friend, the Healer of our conscience, the comfort of our heart, the
Pardoner of our sins, the Foundation of our hope, the confidence of our souls?
How is it?
(2) Let us not rest till we feel Christ
"present" in our own hearts, and know what it is to be one with
Christ and Christ in us. This is real religion. To live in the habit of looking
backward to Christ on the cross, upward to Christ at God's right hand, and
forward to Christ coming again,--this is the only Christianity which gives
comfort in life and good hope in death. Let us remember this.
(3) Let us beware of holding erroneous
views about the Lord's Supper, and especially about the real nature of Christ's
"presence" in it. Let us not so mistake that blessed ordinance, which
was meant to be our soul's meat, as to turn it into our soul's poison. There is
no sacrifice in the Lord's Supper, no sacrificing priest, no altar, no bodily
"presence" of Christ in the bread and wine. These things are not in
the Bible, and are dangerous inventions of man, leading on to superstition. Let
us take care.
(4) Let us keep continually before our
minds the second advent of Christ, and that real "presence" which is
yet to come. Let our loins be girded, and our lamps burning, and ourselves like
men daily waiting for their Master's return. Then, and then only, shall we have
all the desires of our souls satisfied. Till then the less we expect from this
world the better. Let our daily cry be, "Come, Lord Jesus."
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