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

| The Lord’s Supper
from one place to another. Yet not only the dove but at the same time
also the Spirit Himself is described as truly having descended, and we
believe it is so . . . But because the actual substance of the Holy Spirit
willed to join itself to the dove with a peculiar kind of presence and
to show itself to the Baptist in this way therefore where the dove was,
there also it can rightly and truly be said that the very substance of the
Spirit was also present at the same time and with that peculiar kind of
presence. For this reason, when the dove descended it is equally correct
to say that the very substance of the Spirit also descended, although
this descent as it applies to the Spirit did not take place by physical
movement. (LS 61 f.).
373 From examples such as this (see pp. 53–64 for a detailed analysis
of this mode of predication as legitimate), Chemnitz draws his final
conclusion,
On the basis of what we have just said up to this point we can draw
the sure, firm, and correct conclusion that in addition to the physical
eating and spiritual eating, there is a third kind of eating, namely, the
sacramental eating of the body of Christ which of necessity must take
place in the Supper if we do not want to reject the proper and natural
meaning of the words of the testament of Christ. (LS 63).
Faith Accepts What is Promised
and offered in the supper
374 Just in connection with spiritual eating in the Supper together
with the sacramental eating, Luther had repeatedly said that he
agreed that faith was necessary for a salutary reception: “I quite
agree. Indeed, I have said further that a bodily eating of Christ’s
body without spirit and faith is poison and death” (LW 37, 191; see
also LW 37, 86 and 238). It is fundamental for Lutherans to confess,
“For this reason they [the sacraments] require faith, and they
are rightly used when they are received in faith for the purpose of
strengthening faith” (AC XIII, 2).
375 Chemnitz’s presentation is no different. He records simply and often
that
to worthy or salutary eating faith is above all things necessary . . . . Not
merely that you say in a general way that these things are true which
God promises about His grace on account of the Mediator, but that
in the Supper the Son of God by a special action testifies that He
wants to receive into the fellowship of His body and blood everyone
who eats, that by the impartation of His body and blood He wants to