The Real Presence of Our Lord
ROMAN CATHOLICS and High Churchmen among the Anglicans emphasize the importance of the "Real Presence." It is important; we not only concede it, but affirm it. In it is the very Gospel of Christ. The devout Roman Catholic and the true Protestant, or intelligent Bible Christian, alike concede the importance of the Real Presence, but they are decidedly diverse in their views as to where the Real Presence is found. The Roman Catholic view is thus stated: Every one knows that example loses much of its efficacy in passing through the medium of history, and that virtues perceived at a distance of eighteen centuries are not sufficiently eloquent to move our hearts. It was then very necessary that the Divine Model [Christ] of the elect should dwell in the midst of us full of grace and truth, and that He should offer to each one the living picture of the same virtues which charmed the witnesses of His mortal life and attached to Him so powerfully the hearts of His disciples. This need Jesus Christ satisfies IN HIS EUCHARISTIC LIFE. Could Jesus Christ manifest more strikingly His unspeakable tenderness for sinners, and His ardent zeal for their salvation, than He does IN THE ADORABLE SACRAMENT in which He condemns Himself to remain on the earth so long as there is one soul to save? —Religion in Society, by Abbe Martinet.
Here the Real Presence is placed in the eucharist; and this change in the wafer is made by the will or word of the priest, whatever his character. The same author says: Every day multitudes of priests, be they FERVENT, LUKEWARM, OR VICIOUS — IT IS THE SAME — summon Him WHERE it pleases THEM, give Him to WHOM THEY will, CONFINE Him under lock and key, and DISPOSE of Him at THEIR will. —Id.
Another Catholic work, "Catholic Belief," teaches that the conversion of the elements is solely by the word of the priest: The Catholic Church teaches that, before consecration, that which on the altar appears to be bread and wine, is simply bread and wine; and that after the consecration of that bread and wine, what appears to be bread and wine is no longer bread and wine, but the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Something remains, namely, THE OUTWARD QUALITIES OR SPECIES OF BREAD AND WINE; and something is changed, namely, the INWARD, INVISIBLE SUBSTANCE OF THAT BREAD AND WINE, into the body and blood of Christ; this inward change or CONVERSION is what is called transubstantiation.
Roman Catholics, therefore, place the Real Presence of Christ in the eucharist, called there by a priest, whatever his character, given to whom he will, converted according to that priest's word, a mere example to man. The Bible Christian believes that the Real Presence of our Lord is equally vital, but that instead of being in the eucharist, or wafer, it is in the individual believer, "Christ in you." For this we present the following evidence: 1. Our Lord desires that His disciples be with Him — a desire which will ultimately be realized. "Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory." John 17:24. But this can not be till they have borne the character test that this world imposes. "I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name. . . . While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name. . . . I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one." John 17:11-15. 2. That they might be thus kept, He promises to come again. "I will not leave you desolate [comfortless]: I will come unto you." John 14:18. This is stated even more strongly in the great commission and its promise: "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:20. And this promise is given with direct reference to effective service for Him. While they can not be with Him, He will be with them. Then of the great fact of His Real Presence with His people there can be no question. He Himself has expressly declared it. The very announcement of His birth demands His constant presence; for said the angel, "They shall call His name Immanuel: which is, being interpreted, God with us." Matt. 1:23. 3. Now is this presence created in a wafer at the will of a priest, kept in a sacred pyx, given in one element to believers now and then, or is it Christ coming into the very life of the believer? Listen to what Paul said: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. 2:20. Again: "But when it was the good pleasure of God [not of man] . . . to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles." Gal. 1:15, 16. Christ then lived in Paul, and was revealed in Paul, that Paul might reveal the blessed Master to those who needed Him. 4. It has always been God's plan to bless His people with His presence. When He called Israel out of Egypt, He said to Moses, "My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest;" and Moses responded, "If Thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." Ex. 33:14, 15. God's presence then was a very real thing, not something dim, or vague, or shadowy. It was not something borne by men as an idol or object of adoration. It was the living presence of God in Christ Jesus, the Angel of the covenant. Ex. 23:20, 21. For "the Angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Isa. 63:9. So God was manifest in Christ, and the Son of God was Immanuel in the days of old, before He was invested with human flesh. 5. And this presence of God is not designed to be an occasional manifestation of His Real Presence, but a constant one, coming direct home to the heart of the believer. Read the wonderful promise: "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite." Isa. 57:15. Thus it comes home to the individual soul, and is therefore true of all His children, "As God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." 2 Cor. 6:16. Roman Catholicism has said that the priest can give the Real Presence to whom he will, but God promises it to every one who will come out from among the wicked and be separate. Verse 17. 6. This indwelling, this Real Presence of Christ, is by the Holy Spirit. Read again from the words of our Lord: If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and HE SHALL GIVE YOU ANOTHER COMFORTER, that He may abide with you forever; even THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will NOT leave you COMFORTLESS: I WILL COME TO YOU. . . . If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and WE WILL COME UNTO HIM, and MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM. John 14:15-23.
How then do Christ and the Father dwell with us? — By the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to comfort the otherwise comfortless. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me." John 15:26. "He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you." John 16:14. "For He abideth with you, and shall be in you." John 14:17. That Christ dwells in the believer by the Spirit, is made even more emphatic, if possible, by Paul: But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL IN YOU. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if CHRIST BE IN YOU, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the SPIRIT OF HIM that raised up Jesus from the dead DWELL IN YOU, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by HIS SPIRIT THAT DWELLETH IN YOU. Rom. 8:9-11.
Christ and the Father are one, and forcibly indeed does the apostle emphasize that union. The Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ is the one Spirit. The indwelling of that Spirit is the Real Presence of the living Christ. "For in Him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him are ye made full." Col. 2:9, 10. And that fulness, the riches of the glory of that mystery of God, received by faith, "is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col. 1:26, 27. Again, the apostle prays that Christians "may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith," and thus the believer is "filled unto all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:16, 17, 19.97. It is this, the only Real Presence, that the soul needs. Continually he walks with God. Continually he is cheered by His Real Presence. Continually is he enlightened and illuminated. Continually he draws from the Spirit, the great Fount of God's life, to strengthen him for spiritual conflict and all the trials by the way. "The light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God," shines in the heart. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." 2 Cor. 4:4, 6, 7. And thus we bear about in the body "the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body," "in our mortal flesh." Verses 10, 11. Such, friends, is the Bible doctrine, the true Protestant doctrine, of the Real Presence of our Lord. It is Christ's actual presence, His Spirit, His power, His life, in the believer, bringing with it all potency, all help, all comfort,—an Abiding Presence. Priest and wafer may be absent; Christ is present, and by the creative power of His Spirit places His own presence within our hearts. Which will you have, the creative power of Christ, or the supposed power of the priest? Which will you have, the human, asserted presence in the eucharist, or "Christ in you, the hope of glory"? Which will you have, the pretended power of a priest to convert bread into Christ, or the power and presence of the Spirit of God which converts men into His character? It is for you to choose. Choose the real and the eternal.