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THE MEANING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (III)
SATURDAY, MAY 16
John 6:51-58
Hebrews 7:27
 
“This do in remembrance
of Me.”
 
THE MEANING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (III)
 
The Lutheran view of the Lord’s Supper comes from Martin Luther. Before his salvation, Luther was a very devout Roman Catholic monk. He said, “I was indeed a pious monk, and followed the rules of my order more strictly than I can express. If ever a monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works, I should certainly have been entitled to it.” By the grace of God, Luther came to realise that salvation is purely by faith and not works. He broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and started the Protestant movement preaching the good news of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone.
 
Although Luther rejected the Roman Catholic view of salvation, he did not reject the Roman Catholic view of transubstantiation totally. Although he denied that the bread and cup literally and magically turned into the flesh and blood of Christ (to him the bread was still bread, and the wine was still wine), he believed that the body and blood of Christ were present “in, with, and under” the bread and wine.
 
Luther’s view is called consubstantiation. Luther used an iron bar heated with fire as an illustration. The iron after it is heated remains iron, but now there is the element of heat, and the heat is in the iron itself, is with the iron, and is around the iron.
 
Luther like the Roman Catholics failed to understand that the body and blood are to be taken figuratively and spiritually. Christ is not physically present in the bread and the wine. As such, his view of consubstantiation which is similar to transubstantiation ought to be rejected as unbiblical as well.
 
THOUGHT: “The sacraments are aids of our faith and appendices of doctrine.” (Calvin)
PRAYER: Lord, I thank Thee for Thy sacraments that assist me in understanding what Thou hast done to save me from my sins.

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