We learn from the Westminster Confession that in both sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—there is a spiritual and sacramental union between the thing and the thing signified, such that it is appropriate to speak of one under the terms of the other. We do this without confounding the thing and the thing signified, but, following Scripture, we are to do it.
Thus it is that I may lift up the loaf and say, “This is the body of Christ,” or the cup and say, “This is the blood of the covenant.” Because of various superstitions that crept into the Church over the centuries, many evangelicals are wary of speaking this way. Either they don’t speak this way at all, or they do, but with endless qualifications. But this points to a sacramental disunion, and has its own negative effects.
Our focus in this celebration ought not to be on what the bread and wine are not. They are not many things. But to us who come in true and genuine faith, these are the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, broken and shed for our restoration. We receive that promised restoration gladly, and without qualification. So come and eat, come and drink.