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

Summary and Conclusions |
tion is to be “performed and administered in a certain way and with a
specific divinely instituted ceremony” (Ex. 2, 110). With respect to the
Reliquiae Chemnitz can find no evidence in the account of the institution
of the Supper which would allow for a delay in the consumption
of the consecrated elements “apart from its use.” Because of the
Savior’s “Do this,” “we should follow and do what was done at the
first Supper” (Ex. 2, 294). This means that “in the future” the church
is “to take bread and the cup, to bless them with thanksgiving, and
to distribute what has been consecrated.” This part of the mandatum
“properly pertains to the ministers” (Ex. 2, 404). SD VII 83–85 coincides
precisely with Chemnitz’s rejection of the reservation of the
Sacrament. Chemnitz says:
We will not put away the bread and the wine which have been
blessed with the words of the Supper, shut them in, reserve them, carry
them about, and use them for display, but will distribute, receive, eat and
drink them, and proclaim the death of the Lord. Thus the obedience of
faith will do what Christ did before and commanded to be done. (Ex. 2,
295) (p. 121–125, 134 f.).
439 To sum up, besides the Biblical evidence, Chemnitz examines the
doctrine and practice of the Early Church. From all this he is forced
to conclude that the reservation of the consecrated Eucharist without
distribution and reception was not approved, and only rarely practiced,
and then it was strongly condemned on the basis of the Words
of Institution (p. 125–131).
440 An examination of all the aspects of Chemnitz’s doctrine of the
consecration, including the veneration and the consumption of the
Reliquiae, shows that he, in harmony with the Sola Gratia, excludes
everything on the part of man in the reception of the grace of the
Sacrament. Faith, the eating and drinking, the carrying out of the
rite or service by the assembled church, are all excluded as having
any part in effecting the presence of the body and blood of Christ in
the sacrament. Man’s response is not a condition for God’s unilateral
last will and testament. Man’s response is contained in the gift of
the Gospel, which effects faith in the heart of man for his salvation.
Further, the cause of the Real Presence and of faith depends alone
on the powerful creative Word of Christ. The church is invited to
eat and drink because it is the body and blood of the crucified and
risen Lord Jesus Christ (LS 99). No contingencies of time and place,