Eat the Body and Blood

(Garcia's translation of a Genevan Catechism question and answer)

MINISTER

Do we therefore eat the body and blood of the Lord?

CHILD

I understand so. For as the whole reliance for our salvation depends on him, in order that the obedience which he yielded to the Father may be imputed to us just as if it were ours, it is necessary that he be possessed by us; for the only way in which he communicates his blessings to us is by making himself ours.

(the original is in Joannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia)

 

Mark Garcia, Life in Christ: Union with Christ and Twofold Grace in Calvin's Theology (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2008), 152