The Symbol Or The Thing Signified?

When I say "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America" do I mean I pledge allegiance to the piece of cloth, the symbol of the republic, or to what the flag signifies? Surely the latter. So, I mean "I pledge allegiance to the United States of America." In this we have an example where the symbol is put for the thing signified.

I believe the same is true with both the Lord's Supper and with water Baptism, and other things too as we will see. Both are symbolic ordinances. They signify something. 

Jesus said "except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you." (John 6: 53) Eating the Lord's Supper is a symbol of that partaking. But, it is not the thing signified. Must you eat the Lord's Supper to be saved? Yes, but only as respects the thing signified, not as respects the symbol. Many believers have gone to heaven who in their spirits partook of the flesh and blood of Christ (in their hearts and minds by faith receiving Christ and his word) but who did not partake of the unleavened bread and wine of the visible supper. 

Saul (who became Paul the apostle) was told by Ananias to "arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." (Acts 22: 16) Surely he did not mean that the symbol of baptism was what washed away his sins, but rather the thing which baptism signifies, which is life through the death and resurrection of Christ, and through his own death to sin and resurrection to spiritual life. 

Pledge allegiance to the flag. Eat the Lord's Supper. Be baptized. Each of these exhortations are towards the thing signified. You can pledge allegiance to the USA without pledging allegiance to the flag, though this would not be the normal. You can eat the flesh and blood of Christ without eating of the Lord's Supper. You can be dead to sin and risen with Christ without water baptism, though again it is not the norm.

Now let us observe one other example. Wrote Paul:

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (I Cor. 5: 7-8)

When Paul exhorts Christians to keep the Passover feast, does he mean the original symbolic feast of the old covenant? No. He means keep the true feast of the new covenant of which the old was a symbol. Also, I can say to believers that they must eat unleavened bread, and I could mean to do this literally, or I could mean to do so spiritually and then it would involve "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Many have eaten of the latter bread who have never eaten the physical substance.