Jesus taught us that we should not labor for the meat that perishes, but rather for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, and this meat is the food which the Lord Jesus gives to us now. He is authorized to do this because God the Father has sealed us in Him. We do not trust the food of the Supper as mere food, any more than we trust the words of the gospel preached as mere words.
The Bible teaches there is a three-fold heavenly witness of Christ, which is of course the Father, the Word and the Spirit. But this heavenly witness does us no good here unless God in His kindness stoops to give us an earthly witness. And this He does also – 1 John 5 teaches us the importance of the witness of the Spirit, the witness of the water of baptism, and the witness of the blood of the covenant.
Without the life-giving work of the Spirit, creating true faith in us, our religious practices will be just so much ritualistic mummery and hollow ceremony. But God did not give us this Supper so that we could start imitating the initiation ceremonies of the Moose Lodge. He gave us this bread and wine as the life of the world.
We do not look at it, as though saving power is resident in grain or grapes. We do not look at the water of baptism, as though the cleansing of the flesh were in view. Those who fall into this folly drown in their baptism, and choke on the bread of life.
Rather, when the Spirit is present, as He has promised to be this morning, we look through and in the Word, we look through and in the water, and through and in the bread and wine. And what do we see? By the grace of God, we see Christ and all His benefits.