The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

II. The New Testament doctrine of the Lord’s Supper thetically
stated.
The doctrine of the Lord's Supper, as the Lutheran Church believes
it to be set forth in the New Testament, is thus defined in her great general
Symbol, the Augsburg Confession:
Of the holy Supper of our Lord, our Churches, with one consent,
teach and hold
1. That the true body and blood of Christ are the sacramental objects.
2. That the sacramental objects are truly present in the Lord's
Supper.
3. That this true presence is under the form or species of bread and
wine. 4. That present, under this form or species, they are communicated.
5. That thus communicated, they are received by all communicants.
6. That the opposite doctrine is to be rejected.
On each and all of these we affirm that the doctrine of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Scriptural doctrine.
1. The Sacramental Objects.
We affirm, first, then that it is a Scriptural doctrine, that the true body
and blood of Christ are the sacramental objects; that is, that apart from any
questions on other points, the true body and true blood of our Lord are the
objects set before us in the sacramental words, and whether their presence
be offered to contemplation, to memory, to faith, or after a substantial,
supernatural manner, it is the true body and true blood of Christ, of which
we are to make our affirmation, or denial, when we state the doctrine of the
Lord's Supper.
By true body, we mean that body in which our Saviour was actually
incarnate, as opposed to His mystical body, which is the Church, or any
ideal or imaginary body. It is conceded that it was His true body, not His
mystical body, which was given for us; but Christ, in the Lord's Supper,
says: "This is My body, which is given for you:" therefore the sacramental
object is His true body. As neither His mystical body, nor the Holy Spirit
dwelling in His body, nor a sign nor symbol of His body, nor a memorial
of His body, nor faith in His