The Lord's Supper in the Theology of Martin Chemnitz Bjarne - Logia

| The Lord’s Supper
Supper” (Ex. 2, 347). And further, he agrees that “rightly . . . does the
Apology and the Augsburg Confession say that both the Word and
the Sacraments have the same effect, the very same power or efficacy”
(Ex. 2, 73).
358 Chemnitz, in dealing with this question, directs one to the individual
sinner’s sense of guilt and his need for the assurance that God
is reconciled to him. He notes that
it is a very sweet promise which is joined to the communion of the cup
by the voice of the Son of God: “Drink of this all of you; this cup is the
New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the remission
of sins.” The New Testament includes the grace of God, reconciliation,
forgiveness of sins, adoption, etc., according to the statement of Jeremiah,
ch. 31: 31–34. (Ex. 2, 347).
359 As an evangelical pastor called into the public ministry to feed
the flock of Christ and the Church of God (1 Peter 5:2; Acts 20:28),
Chemnitz was sensitive to the fact that
a pious mind is greatly troubled about the question: “Does the covenant
of the grace of God in Christ pertain also to me in particular?” I wish and
sigh that I may truly and certainly be received into this covenant of the
New Testament, that I may be found, and ever remain in this covenant,
that it may be for me forever firm and unalterable. Now the Son of God
added to the communion of the cup the most delightful words, by which
He testified that He instituted the cup of His Supper that it may be a
means or instrument by which He wants to apply, seal, and confirm this
New Testament personally and effectively to everyone who receives it in
faith. In order that our faith may be certain that we truly and certainly
are received, are found, and are confirmed in this covenant, that it may
be unalterable and firm to us, He asserts that He offers and imparts to
us in this cup that very blood of His by the shedding of which the New
Testament has been earned, established, and confirmed. (Ex. 2, 347 f.).
360 If one asks why Chemnitz speaks so glowingly of the Lord’s Supper,
it is because, as Luther had said, that it is the Gospel. And he
fully subscribes to Luther’s confession in the Smalcald Articles that
the Gospel “offers counsel and help in more than one way, for God
is surpassingly rich in His grace” (SA III, IV). Chemnitz, paralleling
the thought of Luther in the Smalcald Articles, demonstrates why
God has given mankind the Gospel in various forms. He writes that
this Mediator the Father sets before us in the Gospel as a propitiation
by faith in His blood through the remission of sins (Rom 3:25). “For
this is the will of the Father, that everyone who believes in the Son