Look, this may be hard to hear, but if you are a Christian and you deny the efficacy of the sacraments, either the Lord's Supper or baptism (and, of course, by extension, confession and absolution), then you are sinning against the very Christ you claim to hold dear.
The sacraments are real. The sacraments are effectual. The sacraments are not ritual. The sacraments are the forgiveness of Christ coming through a physical element and His Word. It's His promise. If you deny this promise and take yourself and other people away from it, it's sin and grievous sin at that (see Matthew 18:5-6).
Below is the best explanation of this I have ever found of why we should trust Christ's promise to us in the instituting of His sacraments. Of course, it's only a part of the whole conversation. More can be said, but this brief passage from the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord explains the sacrament easily. I know that this looks long, but the time it will take you to read it is incomparable to the benefit of the forgiveness found in the very sacrament most of evangelical Christianity now rejects.
If you reject Christ's teaching, if you reject His Word, you are rejecting Christ. If you reject Christ, that is sin.
Quit sinning, Christian. Christ loves you (so do I). Christ lived, died, and was resurrected for you. Cling to Christ. He forgives you.
Concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as our only Teacher, this solemn command has been given from heaven to all people, "listen to Him" [Matthew 17:5]. He is not a mere man or angel, neither is He just true, wise, and mighty, but He is the eternal Truth and Wisdom itself and Almighty God. [Jesus] knows very well what and how He is to speak. He can also powerfully effect and do everything that He says and promises. He says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Luke 21:33); "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matthew 28:18).
Consider this true, almighty Lord, our Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, after the Last Supper. He is just beginning His bitter suffering and death for our sins. In those sad last moments, with great consideration and solemnity, He institutes this most venerable Sacrament. It was to be used until the end of the world with great reverence and obedience. It was to be an abiding memorial of His bitter suffering and death and all His benefits. It was a sealing and confirmation of the New Testament, a consolation of all distressed hears, and a firm bond of unity for Christians with Christ, their Head, and with one another. In ordaining and instituting the Holy Supper He spoke these words about the bread, which He blessed and gave: "Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you," and about the cup, or wine: "This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins."
We are certainly duty-bound not to interpret and explain these words in a different way. For these are the words of the eternal, true, and almighty Son of God, our Lord, Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We cannot interpret them as allegorical, figurative, turns of phrases, in a way that seems agreeable with our reason. With simple faith and due obedience, we receive the words as they read, in their proper and plain sense. We do not allow ourselves to be diverted from Christ's express words by any objections or human contradictions spun from human reason, however appealing they may appear to reason.
When Abraham heard God's Word about offering his son [Genesis 22], he had reason enough to debate whether the words should be understood literally or with a tolerable or mild interpretation. They conflicted openly not only with all reason and with the divine and natural law, but also with the chief article of faith about the promised Seed, Christ, who was to be born of Isaac. Nevertheless, when the promise of the blessed Seed from Isaac was given to him, Abraham honored God's truthfulness. He confidently concluded ad believed that what God promised He could also do, although it appeared impossible to his reason [Hebrews 11:17-19]. So also about Isaac's sacrifice he understood and believed God's Word and command plainly and simply, as they read according to the letter. He committed the matter to God's almighty power and wisdom, which, he knew has many more modes and ways to fulfill the promise of the Seed from Isaac than he could comprehend with blind reason.
We, too, are simply to believe with all humility and obedience our Creator and Redeemer's plain, firm, clear, solemn words and command, without any doubt and dispute about how it agrees with our reason or is possible. For these words were spoken by that Lord who is infinite Wisdom and Truth itself. He can do and accomplish everything He promises.
All the circumstances of the Holy Supper's institution testify that these words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (which in themselves are simple, plain, clear, firm, and beyond doubt), cannot and must not be understood other than in their usual, proper, and common meaning. For Christ gives this command at the table and at supper. There is certainly no doubt that He speaks of real, natural bread and of natural wine. Also, He speaks of oral eating and drinking, so there can be no metaphor (i.e., a change of meaning) in the words bread, as thoughChrist's body were a spiritual bread or a spiritual food of souls. Christ is careful not to use metonymy either. In other words, there is no change of meaning in the word body. He does not speak about a sign for His body, or about a symbol or figurative body, or about the power of His body and benefits that He has earned by the sacrifice of His body for us. Instead, He speaks about His true, essential body (which He delivered into death for us) and about His true, essential blood (which He shed for us on the tree of the cross for the forgiveness of sins).
~Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, VII.43-49 (Emphases mine)
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