The Lord's Supper

by John Knox 1550

Precised in contemporary English by Colin Melbourne from; Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises and Expositions to the year 1559
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Introduction

A declaration by John Knox of the true Scriptural form and significance to real Christians of the Lord's Supper, or Communion, called a Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paraphrased in modern English from the Appendix of Knox's Vindication of the Doctrine that the Roman Catholic Mass is Idolatry (1550).

First we confess that it is a holy action, ordained by God, in which the Lord Jesus, represented by earthly and visible things placed before us, lifts us up into heavenly and invisible things. And after He had prepared the spiritual banquet, He declared Himself to be the Living Bread by which our souls are nourished with everlasting life.

Therefore, in presenting bread and wine to eat and drink, He confirms and seals His promise and communion to us. Which is, that we will share with Him in His Kingdom. He represents to us, in tangible form, His heavenly gifts; and also gives to us Himself, to be received by faith, and not by ingestion or physical transfusion, but that by the power of the Holy Spirit we are fed with His Flesh, and refreshed by His Blood, and so renewed in true godliness and immortality.

In partaking we also declare that the Lord Jesus has made us unto one physical body, we are each parts of one whole body, of which Jesus Christ is the only Head. By this sacrament, the Lord calls us to remember His death and suffering, to stir up our hearts to praise His most holy Name.

Furthermore, we declare that this sacrament should be partaken of with reverence in view of the fact that it speaks of the wonderful fellowship and fusion of the Lord Jesus, and the recipients. And also that, included in this sacrament is the promise that He will preserve His Church. Because in it we are commanded to declare the Lord's death until He comes. (1 Co. 11:26)

We also believe that all who come to this holy supper must be genuinely converted to faith in Christ, with sincere repentance. And in this sacrament receive the sealing of their faith, but they must in no way think that their sins are forgiven because of this partaking.

Concerning these words (from the Latin Holy Bible)

Hoc est corpus meum

"This is my body" (1 Co 11:24, Mtt. 26:26, Mk. 14:22, Lk. 22:19) upon which the Roman Catholics depend so much, saying that we must believe that the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the actual Body and Blood of Christ, we declare that it is not an article of our faith which can save us, nor are we bound to believe it upon pain of eternal damnation. Because if we do believe that His actual natural Body, both Flesh and Blood were actually in the bread and wine, it would not save us, as many believe, and receive to their damnation.

For it is not His presence in the bread that can save us, but His presence in our hearts, through faith in His Blood, which has washed away our sins, and turned away His Father's wrath towards us.

And again, if we do not believe His Body is present in the bread and wine, it will not damn us, but rather His absence from our hearts through unbelief.

Notes: If Catholics object, that though it is true, His absence from the bread could not damn us, yet we are bound to believe it because of God's Word, 'This is my body' (1 Co. 11:24). Whoever doesn't believe this is a liar, and makes God a liar. So because of an obstinate mind they don't believe His Word, and so are damned.

To this we answer, that we believe God's Word, and confess it is true, but not as the Roman Catholics understand it. For in the sacrament we receive Jesus Christ spiritually, as did the fathers of the Old Testament, as Paul says,

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Holy Bible 1 Co. 10: 3-4 NIV

And if people would only understand that Christ, in ordaining His holy sacrament of His Body and Blood, spoke these words sacramentally, they would never so grossly and foolishly misunderstand them, and in doing so contradict the Scriptures, and also the writings of Augustine, Jerome, Fulgentius, Vigilius, Origen, and many other godly writers.

John Knox 1550

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