《比利时信条》第三十五条 论圣餐

《比利时信条》第三十五条 论圣餐

　　我们相信并承认，我们的救主耶稣基督已设立了圣餐礼1，祂喂养并供应那些重生且归入到神家里的人，即祂的教会。

　　重生的人有双重的生命2：一是肉体和暂时的生命，是与生俱来和众人一样的生命；二是属灵和属天的生命，是他们重生时被赋予的，藉着聆听福音的真道与基督的身体联合才拥有3。这生命与众人的不同，惟独神的选民才有。

　　为了喂养肉体和属世的生命，神赐下了看得见的，有形质的粮食。这食物是赐给一切具有普通生命的人。为了喂养信徒所特有的属灵和属天的生命，神又赐给他们从天降下来的生命的粮食，就是耶稣基督4。当信徒藉着信心领受并吃祂的时候5，基督就喂养和供应了他们的属灵生命6。

　　为了向我们显明这属灵与属天的食物，基督设立了圣餐。祂以属地的、可见的饼代表他的身体，以酒代表祂所流的血7。祂向我们表明，正如我们伸手领取并用嘴吃喝主的圣餐使我们肉体的生命得到喂养一般确实，当我们藉着信心8，即我们灵魂的手和口，从心里领受唯一救主基督真实的身体与宝血时，我们属灵的生命也必定会得到喂养。

　　毋庸置疑，耶稣基督为我们所设立的圣礼并非是徒然的。因此，藉着这圣洁的记号，向我们表明祂在我们众人心里作工。我们并不能明白这种作工的方式，正如我们不能领悟圣灵隐秘的作为一样9。但是，我们吃的是基督真实的身体，喝的是祂真实的宝血的说法并没有错。然而，我们不是用嘴的方式吃喝，而是凭着信心在内心中吃喝。耶稣基督虽然一直坐在天父上帝的右边10，但是祂并没有停止透过信心与我们交通。在这属灵的筵席中，基督使我们有份于祂自己和祂的一切福分，也赐给我们恩典，使我们得享祂受苦和受死所赚取的功劳11。藉着吃祂的身体，基督使我们穷乏的灵魂得到滋养、强健和安慰；藉着喝祂的血，祂使我们的灵魂得以舒畅和更新。

　　尽管圣餐与其所表明的意义是紧密相关的，但并非所有人都能领受后者12。恶人领圣餐是吃喝自己的罪，却领受不到圣餐所包含的真理。因此，犹大和行邪术的西门都领受了圣餐，但他们却没有领受藉由圣餐所表明的基督13。基督惟独与信徒相通14。

　　最后，我们在神百姓的教会中15以谦虚和崇敬的心领受圣餐，以感恩的心记念我们救主的死并宣告自己的基督信仰16。因此，人不可没有自我省察就来到主的桌前，以免吃这饼、喝这杯时吃喝了自己的罪。总之，藉着这圣餐的领受激励我们更加热爱神、热爱我们的邻舍。因此，我们弃绝人为的掺杂在圣餐中的一切亵渎性加添物和可咒诅的发明。我们宣告，我们应该以基督和使徒们所教导的圣餐礼为满足，并且只按他们所传讲的来讲论圣餐的事。

　　 1.太26:26-28; 可14:22-24; 路22:19-20; 林前11:23-26.
　　 2.约3:5, 6.
　　 3.约5:25.
　　 4.约6:48-51.
　　 5.约6:63; 约10:10.
　　 6.约6:40, 47.　
　　 7.约6:55; 林前10:16.　
　　 8.弗3:17.
　　 9.约3:8.
　　 10.可16:19; 徒3:21.
　　 11.罗8:32; 林前10:3-4.
　　 12.林前2:14.
　　 13.路22:21, 22; 徒8:13, 21.
　　 14.约3:36.
　　 15.徒2:42; 徒20:7.
　　 16.徒 2:46; 林前11:26.

英文对照：

　　We believe and confess that our Saviour Jesus Christ has instituted the sacrament of the holy supper to nourish and sustain those whom He has already regenerated and incorporated into His family, which is His Church.

　　Those who are born anew have a twofold life. One is physical and temporal, which they received in their first birth and it is common to all men. The other is spiritual and heavenly, which is given them in their second birth and is effected by the word of the gospel in the communion of the body of Christ. This life is not common to all but only to the elect of God.

　　For the support of the physical and earthly life God has ordained earthly and material bread. This bread is common to all just as life is common to all. For the support of the spiritual and heavenly life, which believers have, He has sent them a living bread which came down from heaven, namely, Jesus Christ, who nourishes and sustains the spiritual life of the believers when He is eaten by them, that is, spiritually appropriated and received by faith.

　　To represent to us the spiritual and heavenly bread, Christ has instituted earthly and visible bread as a sacrament of His body and wine as a sacrament of His blood. He testifies to us that as certainly as we take and hold the sacrament in our hands and eat and drink it with our mouths, by which our physical life is then sustained, so certainly do we receive by faith, as the hand and mouth of our soul, the true body and true blood of Christ, our only Saviour, in our souls for our spiritual life.

　　It is beyond any doubt that Jesus Christ did not commend His sacraments to us in vain. Therefore He works in us all that He represents to us by these holy signs. We do not understand the manner in which this is done, just as we do not comprehend the hidden activity of the Spirit of God. Yet we do not go wrong when we say that what we eat and drink is the true, natural body and the true blood of Christ. However, the manner in which we eat it is not by mouth but in the spirit by faith. In that way Jesus Christ always remains seated at the right hand of God His Father in heaven; yet He does not cease to communicate Himself to us by faith. This banquet is a spiritual table at which Christ makes us partakers of Himself with all His benefits and gives us the grace to enjoy both Himself and the merit of His suffering and death. He nourishes, strengthens, and comforts our poor, desolate souls by the eating of His flesh, and refreshes and renews them by the drinking of His blood.

　　Although the sacrament is joined together with that which is signified, the latter is not always received by all. The wicked certainly takes the sacrament to his condemnation, but he does not receive the truth of the sacrament. Thus Judas and Simon the sorcerer both received the sacrament, but they did not receive Christ, who is signified by it. He is communicated exclusively to the believers.

　　Finally, we receive this holy sacrament in the congregation of the people of God with humility and reverence as we together commemorate the death of Christ our Saviour with thanksgiving and we confess our faith and Christian religion. Therefore no one should come to this table without careful self-examination, lest by eating this bread and drinking from this cup, he eat and drink judgment upon himself. In short, we are moved by the use of this holy sacrament to a fervent love of God and our neighbours. Therefore we reject as desecrations all additions and damnable inventions which men have mixed with the sacraments. We declare that we should be content with the ordinance taught by Christ and His apostles and should speak about it as they have spoken.