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

The Effects of Sacramental Eating |
bread which now has been given its name by God, that is, the body
of Christ . . . . And He accomplishes this not by some physical and
outward mixing of the substances or by joining something to the food
in our stomachs but in a way whereby it becomes a heavenly and spiritual
nourishment for both the body and the soul of the believers unto
eternal life” (LS 61; emphasis added).
398 Similarly, Chemnitz notes that
The ancients with long discussions asserted and confirmed the fact that
Christ is joined or united to us not only in the Spirit or only with His deity by
faith, but that in the Lord’s Supper He offers His very body and blood to us
in such a way that bodily, by nature, and by natural participation, that is, with
the very nature or substance of His body, He is joined or united to us . . . .We
noted those statements from Hilary, Chrysostom, and Cyril, and we warned
against all corruptions. Cyril says: “It was surely necessary that not only the
soul through the Holy Spirit ascend into a blissful life but even that this rude
and earthly body, related to Him by taste and touch and food, be returned
to immortality. The life-giving nature of the Word, joined to the flesh in that
ineffable manner of union, makes the flesh life-giving, and thus the flesh gives
life to those who participate in it.When we eat it,then we have life in us,when
we are joined to Him who has created life. But if by a mere touch of the flesh
of Christ those who were sick were restored, how can it be that we will not
live who both taste and eat that flesh.”And we have noted above, several other
passages of Cyril which illustrate these points. (LS 250).
399 Of course all the benefits given in the Supper have their source
in the vicarious atonement of Christ on the cross. Chemnitz makes
note of the fact that “the Fathers preached much about the use and
the benefit of communing at the Lord’s Supper, because there the
sacrifice which is the satisfaction for our sins and the price of our
redemption is dispensed to those who take it” (Ex. 2, 513). And he
gives innumerable examples of this kind of presentation from the
Ancients. In summary form, he says that the “body and blood of
the Lord which are in the Supper . . . [are] our ransom, the purchase
price of our redemption, the ransom for the sins of the world, a propitiatory
sacrifice and a propitiation” (Ex. 2, 491). It is for this reason
that “Cyprian says of the Lord’s Supper: ‘This life-giving bread and
the cup of blessing, hallowed by the solemn benediction, benefits the
life of the total man, being at the same time a medicine and offering, to
heal our infirmities and to purge our iniquities’” (Ex. 2, 491).
400 Chemnitz, as a true shepherd of the Church of God and one who
is committed to feed the flock of God, is also necessarily concerned