THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.
The Confessional statement of it is: The true body and blood of Christ are truly present in the sacrament under the forms of hread and wine, and are there distributed and received." This is best understood when approached through a recollection of the two views which it was meant to oppose. viz., on the one side the Roman Catholic teaching of transubstantiation, which asserts an actual change of the substance of the bread and wine into the very body and blood of Christ; and on the other hand the view of Zwingle and his followers, who held the bread and wine to be simply signs and memorials of the body and blood. While thus thoroughly re jecting the dogma of transubstantiation, and ad mitting with the Zwinglians that the bread and wine in the sacrament remain bread and wine, the Lutherans maintain that a proper regard for the literal force of the words of institution requires recognition of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ and their reception by the com municants. The theoretical explanation of the doctrine is based on the doctrine of the Person of Christ. This teaches that through the personal union of the divine and human natures He is present, not according to one nature alone, but according to both natures. Wherever the divine nature is there also is the human. Though in the way of a visible, tangible, circumscribed presence, Christ in His glorified state has as cended and left the world, yet in another mode glorified, supernatural and heavenly, He is pres ent in the unity and entirety of His theanthropic Person—and especially where He wills to be. "The right hand of God," to which He has as cended, is everywhere—"far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." (Eph. iv:io.) The terms "body" and "blood" designate the human ity in which Christ gave Himself to death for sin. Since His exaltation He is ever present in the mode of existence which His deity gives, or can give, to His whole Person. "Lo, I am with you
always." "Where two or three are gathered to gether in my name, there am I in the midst of them." It is of the body and blood which Christ gave for sin, as He possesses them since His glorifica tion, that the Lutheran doctrine makes its affirma tion. It distinctly repudiates everything like a presence or reception after a gross, natural, or physical manner. Though it is sometimes called "corporeal," this word is used only with respect to the object, not the mode. The mode is de scribed as "sacramental, supernatural, spiritual, divine and incomprehensible." Though the terms "in," "with" and "under" are sometimes em ployed to state the doctrine, yet these words are not used to specify or describe the mode, but as simply assertive of presence. Moreover, the mys tery of the sacramental presence or union is held as belonging only to the actual administration and reception of the elements, and not before or after wards.
Since, according to orthodox the union of the divine and human natures in Christ is permanent and inseparable, the sacramental presence becomes the presence of the whole Christ. Luther maintained the real presence of the Lord. He allowed no separableness of the hu man from the divine. Sartorius explains: "For bread and wine truly and appro priate to us the Christ who was crucified for us." When the various definitions and explanations are put together and combined, the Lutheran doc trine of the Lord's Supper maintains a real special and definitive presence of the theanthropic Christ, in His humanity as well as divinity, mak ing the administration and reception of the sacra ment, according to His institution, "the com munion of His body and blood," the giving of Himself in the fullness of His forgiving love and divine life. M. V.