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Table: Sacramental or Memorial

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  • 8Moments
  • 10Passages
  • 18Traditions

Is Christ really present in communion, or is it a symbol?

Two answers. The sacramental view says God gives grace through the bread and the cup: Christ is really present, the real presence, and baptism joins a person to Him, infants included. The memorial view says both are acts of obedience that remember and proclaim Christ’s death, not channels of grace.

Why it matters

You can see the difference from the back pew. A sacramental church puts the Table at the center of Sunday and practices infant baptism, baptizing the babies of its members; a memorial church puts the sermon at the center, holds the Supper monthly or quarterly, and baptizes people old enough to say what they believe. It also settles who may come to the Table, and at what age.

Where does each tradition sit?

Each dot is one tradition, numbered left to right. In the hatched middle the quiz names neither pole.

Sacramental Memorial

Toward Sacramental 7

Neither pole named 41–59 3

Toward Memorial 8

What does each side believe?

Sacramental

The sacramental view holds that God really gives grace through the sacraments: Christ is truly present in the Supper, which these churches call the real presence, and baptism is a means by which God joins a person to Christ and His church; most churches on this side also practice infant baptism, whether as children of the covenant or for the washing of new birth. Something is given at the Table on this reading, and not merely remembered.

Memorial

The memorial view holds that the Supper is a remembrance and proclamation of Christ’s death until He comes, and baptism a believer’s public confession of faith, so both are ordinances that believers keep in obedience rather than channels of grace: whatever blessing comes with them comes by the faith of those who take part, not through the elements themselves. That is why these churches speak of an ordinance rather than a sacrament, and why baptism here follows belief rather than birth.

Did you know?

  • Luther and Zwingli agreed on fourteen articles out of fifteen at Marburg in 1529 and went home divided anyway. The fifteenth was whether Christ’s body is bodily present in the bread and wine: Luther said yes, Zwingli said that ‘is’ here means ‘signifies’.

    Marburg Colloquy, October 1529.

  • The first English Baptist baptized himself. John Smyth, an exiled Separatist in Amsterdam, could find nobody he believed was qualified to do it, so in 1609 he baptized himself and then his congregation, which earned him the nickname the Se-Baptist, from the Latin for ‘oneself’.

    John Smyth, Amsterdam, 1609.

  • Transubstantiation has a date. The word appears in the profession of faith of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and was defined at Trent in 1551. The West had been arguing about how long before it had a word for it: the first great row was in the ninth century, between two monks of the same abbey at Corbie.

    Fourth Lateran Council, 1215; Council of Trent, session XIII, 1551; Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus of Corbie, De corpore et sanguine Domini, ninth century.

How did this disagreement develop?

How the argument unfolded

8 moments, from the 2nd century to the 17th

  1. c. AD 110 Ignatius of Antioch calls the Eucharist the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.
  2. c. AD 743 John of Damascus, Exact Exposition IV.13: the bread and wine are changed into Christ’s body and blood by the invocation and presence of the Holy Spirit, ‘not merely figures’.
  3. 1215 Fourth Lateran Council affirms transubstantiation in its profession of faith; Trent defines it in 1551.
  4. 1525–26 Zwingli argues that ‘is’ in ‘this is my body’ means ‘signifies’: the Supper is a memorial of thanksgiving.
  5. 1525–27 First believers’ baptisms in Zurich begin the Anabaptist movement; the Schleitheim Confession sets out believers’ baptism and a memorial Supper.
  6. 1529 Marburg Colloquy: Luther and Zwingli agree on fourteen of fifteen articles but not on whether Christ’s body is bodily present in the bread and wine: Luther affirms, Zwingli denies.
  7. 1559 Calvin’s final Institutes (IV.17): a real spiritual presence, received by faith through the Spirit.
  8. 1609–89 English Baptists, out of Separatism rather than Anabaptism: John Smyth’s Amsterdam congregation baptizes believers, and the Particular Baptists’ London Confessions specify immersion and confess Christ ‘spiritually present to the faith of believers’ at the Supper.

Which Bible passages do both sides argue from?

Passages both sides argue from

Tap one to read it. BSB, public domain since 30 April 2023 (berean.bible/licensing.htm).

John 6:51–63

John 6 · verses 51–55 of 13 in the passage

  1. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”
  2. 52At this, the Jews began to argue among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”
  3. 53So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.
  4. 54Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
  5. 55For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Matthew 26:26–28

Matthew 26 · verses 26–28

  1. 26While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.”
  2. 27Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
  3. 28This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

1 Corinthians 11:23–29

1 Corinthians 11 · verses 23–27 of 7 in the passage

  1. 23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread,
  2. 24and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
  3. 25In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
  4. 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
  5. 27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

1 Corinthians 10:16–17

1 Corinthians 10 · verses 16–17

  1. 16Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
  2. 17Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Acts 2:38–41

Acts 2 · verses 38–41

  1. 38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
  2. 39This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
  3. 40With many other words he testified, and he urged them, “Be saved from this corrupt generation.”
  4. 41Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Colossians 2:11–12

Colossians 2 · verses 11–12

  1. 11In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.
  2. 12And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, Who raised Him from the dead.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Romans 6:3–4

Romans 6 · verses 3–4

  1. 3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
  2. 4We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Matthew 28:19–20

Matthew 28 · verses 19–20

  1. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
  2. 20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Acts 8:36–38

Acts 8 · verses 36–38

  1. 36As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is there to prevent me from being baptized?”
  2. 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

1 Peter 3:21

1 Peter 3 · verse 21

  1. 21And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Further reading

Sacramental

  • Schmemann, For the Life of the World
  • Ratzinger, God Is Near Us
  • Bromiley, Children of Promise

Memorial

  • Hubmaier, On the Christian Baptism of Believers
  • Schreiner & Crawford, The Lord’s Supper
  • Schreiner & Wright, Believer’s Baptism

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