Belgic Confession, Article 35: The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
This article from the Belgic Confession presents the Reformed understanding of the Lord's Supper as a sacrament instituted by Christ to nourish the spiritual life of believers through the true spiritual reception of Christ's body and blood by faith. The text emphasizes the paradox of earthly signs (bread and wine) conveying heavenly realities, rejecting both transubstantiation and mere symbolism in favor of a doctrine of real spiritual presence apprehended through faith. This classical Reformed sacramental theology remains foundational to Protestant Reformed ecclesiology and practice.
Article 35: The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper We believe and confess that our Savior Jesus Christ has ordained and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Supper to nourish and sustain those who are already regenerated and ingrafted into his family, which is his church.Now those who are born again have two lives in them. The one is physical and temporal—they have it from the moment of their first birth, and it is common to all.The other is spiritual and heavenly,and is given them in their second...