Theological term
Consubstantiation
12 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 30 - Of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is a divine command, a perpetual memorial of Christ's atoning sacrifice, and a genuine means of grace by which the Holy Spirit nourishes believers' souls with the benefits of Christ's redemption. This confession-study exposition works through all eight paragraphs of 2LCF Chapter 30, contrasting the biblical Reformed view of spiritual presence against transubstantiation, consubstantiation, and the purely commemorative position. The Christian necessity of observing the Lord's Supper is argued on three grounds: its institution by Christ as the only lawgiver, its character as a high and worshipful remembrance of Christ's person and work, and its function as a means of grace through which faith is increased and strengthened. Believers are urged to approach the Table not in rote external compliance but with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear, availing themselves of real spiritual communion with the triune God.
2LCF Chapter 30 - Of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is a perpetual ordinance instituted by Christ on the night of his betrayal, appointed for the corporate observance of the church until his return. This confession study works through all eight paragraphs of 1689 LBCF Chapter 30, surveying the historical positions on Christ's presence in the Supper — transubstantiation, consubstantiation, Eastern Orthodox epiclesis, Anglican via media, exclusive memorialism, and the Reformed spiritual presence held by the Particular Baptists — before examining what the confession affirms and opposes. The Supper is shown to be simultaneously a memorial, a proclamation of the gospel, a means of grace conferring spiritual nourishment, and a bond of communion both with the ascended Christ and with fellow believers. The Roman Catholic Mass is rejected as abominable, injurious to Christ's finished and unrepeatable sacrifice, and productive of gross idolatry and manifold superstitions that flow inevitably from the doctrine of transubstantiation.
The Requirements for Priesthood and Sacrifice
Leviticus 21–22 sets out strict requirements for both the priests who offer sacrifice and the animals brought to the altar: wholeness, purity, and freedom from defect. These ceremonial regulations are not arbitrary exclusions but typological anticipations of the one perfect High Priest and the one perfect sacrifice that God himself would provide in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon works through the four sections of the passage — practical restrictions on priests, physical requirements for priests, regulations concerning priestly food, and physical requirements for sacrificial animals — before turning to Hebrews 7–10 to show how Christ fulfills and surpasses everything the Levitical system could only shadow. The conclusion calls the congregation to the Lord's Supper with eyes fixed not on themselves but on the one who offered himself once for all and sat down.
The Institution of the Lord's Supper
What does Christ accomplish at the Lord's Supper, and how does it connect to the Passover, the new covenant, and the future kingdom? Expounding Matthew 26:26–30, this sermon traces the institution of the supper through its Old Covenant setting in the Passover, the covenantal and sacrificial significance of the bread and cup, and the eschatological anticipation of the messianic feast. The sermon argues for a real but spiritual presence of Christ at the supper — against transubstantiation, consubstantiation, and bare memorialism alike — grounding this in the Spirit's mediating work. Throughout, the ordinance is presented as a means of grace that communicates the forgiveness of sins purchased through Christ's substitutionary, penal death for the many.
The Blessing of Gospel Rest
Matthew 11:25–30 grounds the gospel invitation — 'Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden' — in the sovereign will of the Father and the mediatorial office of the Son, so that the call to rest is inseparable from the doctrines of election and definite atonement. Jesus thanks the Father for hiding these things from the self-wise and revealing them to babes, declaring that all sovereign authority over salvation belongs to Him as the God-man and mediator. The 'rest' He offers is not relief from physical toil but deliverance from the crushing burden of sin and the impossible demands of pharisaical religion, received through faith alone. Those who come to Christ in faith are also exhorted to take His yoke — the life of sanctification — which is not oppressive bondage but the glad obedience of those justified freely by grace.
2LCF Chapter 30 - Of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is a divinely instituted ordinance of the New Covenant, not a repeated sacrifice but a perpetual memorial of Christ's once-for-all offering upon the cross. This confession study works through 2LCF Chapter 30 paragraph by paragraph, exposing the errors of Roman Catholic transubstantiation and Lutheran consubstantiation on Christological grounds — to predicate ubiquity of Christ's humanity is to deny true humanity — while recovering the Calvinian understanding of Christ's real spiritual presence by the Holy Spirit. The chapter is shown to be comprehensive: institution, nature, celebration, elements, and recipients of the supper are each addressed. Worthy receivers feed spiritually upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death; the supper functions as a means of grace confirming faith, nourishing the soul, and promoting obedience.
The Gifts Given by the Ascended Christ, Part 1
Ephesians 4:7–11 presents Christ the ascended Lord as the giver of gifts to His church. This sermon expounds the provision of God's grace in verse 7, the Christological argument drawn from Psalm 68 in verses 8–10, and the specific gifted men named in verse 11 — apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. The preacher argues that Paul's appeal to Psalm 68 is typological: as Yahweh conquered Israel's enemies, received tribute, and distributed it to his people, so Christ conquered sin and death, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and now distributes gifts to His church through the Spirit. The practical weight of the sermon falls on killing pride, praying for elders and deacons, and recognising that the teaching ministry — not celebrity — is the bond that produces the love and unity Paul commands in verses 2–3.
The Institution of the Lord's Supper
Matthew 26:26–30 records the institution of the Lord's Supper by Christ on the night of Passover, and this sermon works through that text to establish the supper's setting, its elements, and its eschatological horizon. The bread and cup are not transformed in substance — transubstantiation is explicitly repudiated as repugnant to Scripture, reason, and the 1689 confession — but are consecrated from common use to signify Christ's broken body and shed blood. The blood of the new covenant is shed 'for many,' not all without exception, anchoring the supper in the doctrine of particular redemption and the forgiveness of sins as the chief covenantal benefit. Believers are exhorted to receive the supper not as a reward for good behavior but as a means of grace by which God strengthens, fortifies, and confirms the faith of His pilgrim people.
The Institution of the Lord's Supper
Matthew 26:26–30 records Christ instituting the Lord's Supper in the context of the Passover meal, and this sermon expounds the theological significance of that institution under three headings: the setting, the institution itself, and its conclusion. The bread and cup are shown to be covenantal signs rather than instances of transubstantiation or consubstantiation — the elements represent Christ's body and blood without any change of substance. The covenantal background of Exodus 24 and Jeremiah 31:31–34 illuminates the cup as the blood of the new covenant, fulfilled by Christ as the true Israel who accomplished what national Israel swore but failed to do at Sinai. Believers are called to receive the supper as God's gift of spiritual nourishment and to trust not in their own performance but in the blood and righteousness of Christ alone.
The Reformation of the Church
What does it mean for the church to be 'the pillar and ground of the truth'? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon examines the identity and confession of the church through three descriptions Paul gives in verse 15 — the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth — before applying the doctrinal legacy of the sixteenth-century Reformation to the contemporary church. The great Christological confession of verse 16 is shown to be the theological center around which all church conduct, worship, and proclamation must orbit. The sermon calls the church to guard sola scriptura, justification by faith alone, the regulative principle of worship, and a proper Christology against the perpetual drift toward pragmatism, experientialism, and Romanizing errors.
2LCF Chapter 30 - Of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper, as confessed in chapter 30 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, is examined across all eight paragraphs under four headings: its nature, administration, elements, and reception. The session expounds the Confession's positive affirmations — that the Supper is a divine ordinance of perpetual remembrance, proclamation of Christ's finished sacrifice, and a means of grace by which the risen Christ spiritually nourishes His people by the Holy Spirit — alongside its sharp rejection of Roman Catholic transubstantiation, the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice, and Lutheran consubstantiation. The 17th-century polemical context is traced, showing that the particular Baptists aligned with Presbyterian and Congregationalist confessionalism against both Roman Catholic sacerdotalism and the anti-Trinitarian Socinian memorial-only reduction. The session closes with an urgent call to faithful, frequent participation in the Lord's Supper as an act of communion with Christ and with one another, refusing both careless neglect and the errors of Rome.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-3)
What does it mean to confess that the Lord our God is but one only living and true God, infinite in being and perfection? This session opens a multi-week study of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 2, introducing the doctrine of God (theology proper) with attention to divine singularity (Christian monotheism against polytheism, monolatry, and tritheism) and the three divine omniperfections, treating omnipotence in particular depth. Five interpretive cautions frame the study: the ontological chasm between Creator and creature, the legitimacy of biblical speculation, the revelatory condescension of God in anthropomorphic language, the necessity of reading any text in light of the whole canon, and the call to sustained mental exertion in theological study.