The Real Presence

The ‘Real Presence of Christ’ is a theological term referring to the doctrine that Jesus is literally – not merely symbolically or metaphorically – but literally present in the Eucharist used in Holy Communion. Not only literally is Jesus present in the consecrated bread and wine, but He is present entirely – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. 

Because the doctrine of the Real Presence is rooted in the supernatural work of God as expressed in Scripture, it is as true – yet as inexplicable – as the doctrine of the Trinity. Because it is grounded in the supernatural work of God expressed in Scripture, the Real Presence is as true – and as inexplicable – as the reality that Jesus is 100% human and 100% God. Because the Real Presence rests squarely on the supernatural work of God taught by Scripture, it is as true – yet as inexplicable – as the doctrine that we can be born again and become a new creation in Christ. 

We ought not to insist our natural and finite minds grasp the supernatural and infinite work of God. 

Here is what God-in-the-flesh taught His disciples early in His ministry (John 6:48ff): I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.. . . ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh . . . “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” 

Then, just before His crucifixion, at the end of His earthly ministry, the Lord gathered His disciples for the Last Supper. Matthew records it this way: 

“While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” ²⁷ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸ for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”  (Matthew 26:26ff) 

Years later, the apostle Paul addressed the subject in 1 Corinthians 10:16 –  Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a ‘sharing’ in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a ‘sharing’ in the body of Christ?” 

It is also worth noting that Christian theologians of the early centuries – even before the Roman Catholic Church gained religious ascendancy in the West – early Doctors of the Church would have thoroughly rejected the idea that the Lord’s words in John 6 and later at the Last Supper were merely symbolic. 

For example: 

St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110 A.D.) “I desire the Bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible.” (Letter to the Romans 7:3) 

St. Justin the Martyr (c. 100 - 165 A.D.) “For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” (First Apology, 66)

And there are many other theologians who are well-respected in Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox circles today, who also believed in the Real Presence. For example:

Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 140 - 202 A.D.) 

Tertullian (c. 155 - 250 A.D.)

Origen (c. 185 - 254 A.D.) 

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 - 216 A.D.) 

Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200 - 258 A.D.) 

Athanasius (c. 295 - 373 A.D.) 

Basil the Great (c. 330 - 379 A.D.) 

Gregory of Nazianz (c. 330 - 389 A.D.)

John Chrysostom (c. 344 - 407 A.D.)

Ambrose of Milan (c. 333 - 397 A.D.)

Jerome (c. 347 - 420 A.D.)

Augustine (c. 354 - 430 A.D.)

And, finally (if there could be a final comment about the Real Presence), Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, also believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. 

So, what’s the point?  When the Lord Jesus spoke of His Body and Blood in John 6, and to His disciples at the Last Supper, did He intend His words to be taken symbolically or metaphorically? 

Or did He expect us to take His words as literally as when He said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die”? (John 11:25-26)