Throwback Post with a Longer Excerpt
The objective bodily presence of Jesus is a necessary corollary of the full assurance the gospel brings. In his earthly ministry Jesus was physically present with sinners and had fellowship with them through common meals in order to assure them of his eschatological verdict in their favor. Our physical bodies are our availability to one another.1 To pledge one’s self to another is put one’s self physically at the disposal of that other.
In giving the gospel-promise, God makes himself a servant and puts himself at the disposal of his creature (Phil. 2:7). God put himself at the service of his creatures first in the Tabernacle/Temple and its sacrifices in the Old Testament. Next the Lord assumed a body and became a human person in the Incarnation. He thereby continues his act of self-giving by making his bodily presence available through the Lord’s Supper.
A God who remained intangible would invariably remain a terrifyingly numinous presence. An unavailable God without a graspable form could not give assurance of salvation.2 We have already seen this reality in our discussion of the hidden God. To use an analogy: ghosts are merely a common human superstition. Despite this, humans find the very idea of ghosts frightening (1 Sam. 28:12) because a spirit without a body would be intangible. Ghosts are not available as an objectified presence. Live humans with bodies are objectified and tangible presences at the disposal of others who can grasp their reality. Because of this, if ghosts were real, they would not be objectified, but could act on humans with bodies that are tangible and objectified. This would give them the terrifying ability to act and not be acted upon.
Given the frightening nature of unobjectified presences, Jesus’ disciples were afraid when they believed he was a ghost after the resurrection. Jesus only became a comforting presence when he said “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Lk 24:39-40). Thus, while people not infrequently find ghosts disturbing, the idea of the tangible touch and physical presence of their relatives or friends is comforting.
Our bodily presence and trustworthiness are inexorably tied together in human experience. Therefore, physicality is an important means of inculcating fidelity. Physical intimacy within marriage best exemplifies this truth. It is also especially relevant to our study in light of the biblical motif as YHWH/Christ as the bridegroom to the people of God (Jer. 31:32, Isa. 54:5, Hos. 2:7, Eph. 5). Christians have always rejected pre-marital sex and adultery not only because of the destructive consequences of disease and unwanted pregnancies, but also because giving one’s self physically over to another is the ultimate pledge of one’s loyalty and fidelity.
To give one’s body to another is to give one’s very being. If a woman gives away her very physical being haphazardly, either for the sake of a pleasant weekend or in an affair, how can ultimate fidelity ever be established?3 If a man gives away his very enfleshed self to anyone who strikes his fancy, nothing will be left over to give to one’s spouse as an ultimate pledge. This is why explaining an act of infidelity as “just sex” is, justifiably, never convincing to the wronged partner.
Therefore, bodily self-gift is a necessary means of assuring the us of Christ’s absolute fidelity to his Gospel promise. Christ is thus the true bridegroom of the Church. Just as a husband donates his very bodily self to his wife, so too Christ donates his very bodily self to his bride, the Church. Therefore, it is not sufficient to treat the sacraments as small, symbolic tokens of love in the way a husband might occasionally give trinkets to his wife.4 Any relationship may be poorer without gestures like these small gifts. But a marriage is not a marriage in a biblical sense without fleshly consummation and unity (Gen. 2:24, Eph. 5:31). Through fleshly self-giving one “knows” (yada) one’s spouse. That is, spouses gain a real participatory knowledge of each other’s very physical being.
In the same way, nothing can make us more certain of our justification and eternal life than physically receiving the very Flesh and Blood sacrificed for humanity on the cross (1 Cor. 11:26) and raised in anticipation of the general resurrection (Jn. 6:54). There is no ambiguity as to whether or not one is justified when Christ himself is substantially present and gives the same Body and Blood that was sacrificed on the cross into the mouths of believers. Just as baptism is a proleptic realization of the last judgment, so too the paschal feast of the Lord’s Supper is the proleptic realization of the final marriage feast of the Lamb that shall have no end (Rev. 19:6-9).
As Johann Gerhard writes:
Since Christ united Himself with us so deeply and so closely that He proffers to us His body to eat and His blood to drink, we also should bind and unite ourselves to Him through faith and love. What is more closely related to the Lord Christ than His body and blood which He assumed into His eternal Person? Once again, what comes closer to us than the above as we eat and drink it? What comes closer to us than that which enters into us and is united with the substance of our nature?5
Handbook of Consolations, Carl Beckwith, trans., (Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2009), 33.
- Although I do not endorse all his conclusions, see a series of interesting and provocative arguments in regard to bodily presence and grace in: Robert Jenson, “You Wonder Where the Body Went,” in Essays in the Theology of Culture (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1995), 216-24. ↩︎
- See Steven Paulson, “Graspable God,” Word & World 32, no. 1 (2012): 51-62. ↩︎
- Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997-1999), 2:91-2. ↩︎
- Carl Trueman’s analogy for the sacraments. See: Carl Trueman, Grace Alone: Salvation as a Gift of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017), 213-4. ↩︎
- Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis, vol. I, Rachel K. Melvin, ed., Elmer Hohle, trans. (Malone, Texas: Repristination Press, 2013), 106. ↩︎
From the draft manuscript for Jack D. Kilcrease, Justification by Word: Restoring Sola Fide (Lexham Press, 2022), chap. 7.
Cover image “About Us,” Christ the Bridegroom Monastery, accessed July 17, 2024, https://www.christthebridegroom.org/p/about-us_4.html; other images: Kirollos Kilada, Christ and the Church, accessed July 17, 2024, https://kkilada.com/coptic-icon-prints/christ-and-the-church; “St John Chrysostom on Love” meme, Pinterest, accessed July 18, 2024, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/saintly-quotes–296815431669079329/; and Johann Gerhard quotation meme from St. John Lutheran Church, Wheaton, Illinois, https://www.facebook.com/stjohnwheaton.