The body of Christ

 We may distinguish at least three senses of "the body of Christ":

(1) The natural biological body of Christ received from Mary, born, crucified, risen, glorified, enthroned in heaven

(2) The church

(3) The bread of the Eucharist

Each usage would be either obvious from the bible or demonstrably biblical. 

If we ask where we see the body of Christ today, we might say it is supremely as (2) the church gathers at the Lord's Table (3). 

One of the problems of eucharistic theology has been that we have confused (1) and (3). The bread does not turn into Jesus. Jesus is not in with or under the bread. But the bread is more than a picture of Jesus.

(1) and (3) cannot be separated for at the Eucharist, (3), the church (2) receives Jesus (1). We feed on Jesus in our hearts by faith, empowered by the Spirit. The body of Christ is in heaven and we lift up our hearts in the power of the Holy Spirit to join with him in the heavenly assembly, where we are already seated with Christ. Though we may note that, strikingly, Calvin also say that "Christ descends to us both by the outward symbol [the bread] and by his Spirit." (Institutes 4.17.24, FB vol 2, p1390)

It is Christ - the real true and whole Christ as he is now - Christ with his body (1) and soul - who is received by the church (2) in the Eucharist (3), not in with or under the bread, but in this meal, by bread and faith and Spirit. The bread is not substantially Christ, but Christ is received instrumentally by it.

As Stephen Long argues, Calvin rejected theories of Christ's ubiquity or enclosure with bread but he argued for true representation. The bread is not a bare symbol but what seems to be offered here is truly given. 

 (Inspired by the final post in this series: https://theopolisinstitute.com/conversations/bodies-and-the-body-of-christ/)