A CEREMONIAL PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL

By Gary Ray Branscome

Christ instituted His Supper as a way of telling each one of us that His body was “given for” us and that His blood was “shed for” us, “for the remission of sins”. And, that promise is the very heart of the gospel. In other words, there is no difference between saying that Christ’s body and blood were “given” and “shed for you,” and saying that Christ died for your sins. That is why Christ said, “This cup is the New Testament [i.e. gospel] in My blood” (Luke 22:20). Those words of Christ are very important because they tell us that the gospel [“New Testament”] is the good news of forgiveness in Christ, not a new set of rules.

“The whole virtue of the Lord’s Supper consists in those words of Christ, in which He testifies that forgiveness is granted to all who believe that His body is given and His blood shed for them.” (Martin Luther, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church,” 1520.)

“The promise of the New Testament is the promise of the forgiveness of sins, as the text says, ‘this is my body, which is given for you’; ‘this is the cup of the new testament with my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ (Luke 22:19, Matt. 26:28) Therefore the Word offers forgiveness of sins, while the ceremony is a sort of picture or “seal,” as Paul calls it (Rom. 4:11), showing forth the promise.” (“The Book of Concord,” Tappert edition, page 262.)

“In the Lord’s Supper, the word of Christ is the testament; the bread and wine are the sacrament [i.e. sign]. And as there is greater power in the word than in the sign, so is there greater power in the testament than in the sacrament. A man can have and use the word or testament without the sign or sacrament. ‘Believe,’ says Augustine, ‘and you have eaten;’ but in what do we believe except in the word of Him who promises? Thus I can have the Lord’s Supper daily, nay hourly; since, as often as I will, I can set before myself the words of Christ, and nourish and strengthen my faith in them; and this is in very truth the spiritual eating and drinking.” (Martin Luther, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church,” 1520.)

The words just quoted raise one important question. If Martin Luther regarded the bread and wine that we receive in the Lord’s Supper as “signs” of Christ’s body and blood, why was he so adamant in his opposition to Ulrich Zwingli? The two of them met in the German City of Marburg, but they could not agree regarding the Lord’s Supper. And, many today wrongly assume that they could not agree because they each had a different interpretation. However, the words of Luther that I have just quoted prove that was not the case. Zwingli and Luther both agreed that the bread and wine were “signs” of Christ’s body and blood. The problem arose when Zwingli said that the bread (in the Lord’s Supper), “is not really Christ’s body, it just represents Christ’s body,” Luther did not object to the claim that the bread represented Christ’s body, but to the, words, “It is not really Christ’s body”. That was the real point of contention! Zwingli was contradicting Christ. In other words, Christ said, “This is My body” and Zwingli replied, “It is not really His body”. That is what Luther objected to, and that is why Luther simply quoted Christ’s words (“This is My body”) and made it clear that he was not going to budge from what they said.

Luther was not afraid that someone might assume that they were receiving actual flesh and blood with the bread and wine, that would not affect their salvation. However, he knew that doubting Christ’s words, “My body is given for you” and “My blood is shed for you” would.

Zwingli was totally clueless as to why Luther was upset by what he taught. He could not see beyond the Romish claim that actual flesh and blood are present. And, because he failed to see that the Lord’s Supper is a ceremonial proclamation of the gospel, he could not understand that by contradicting Christ’s words, he was making the “Word of God of no effect” (Mark 7:13). In saying this I realize that the gospel is not limited to the Lord’s Supper. However, Christ instituted His Supper for reasons that we might not fully understand, and when He said, “this do” He was telling us to repeat and affirm what He said, not contradict it.

Luther stood firmly on the Word of God, and everyone who believes that Christ’s body was given for them (on the cross), and that His blood was shed for them (on the cross) so they can have forgiveness, truly receives Christ’s body and blood, not as something physical but as the atonement for their sin.