The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 58

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58 The Lutheran Pioneer.
000 —

The preacher then asked him: “Were you not
afraid to trust yourself to the cage? Was it not
too cheap ?”

“O no,” said the man. “It was cheap for me,
but it cost the company a lot of money to sink that
shaft into the coal mine.”

The man had hardly said this when, without
another word, the truth flashed upon him, and he
saw if he could have salvation without money and
without price, it had cost the infinite God a great
price to sink that shaft and rescue Jost men.

_ How sad that so many have not the Gospel and
know not God’s free gift of salvation purchased so
dearly with the blood of His own Son! Surely,
those who enjoy this, salvation can have no more
important work than to bring this great blessing
to others. Bought with a price, they have been
made God’s own to serve Him in grateful love by
bringing the Gospel of Christ’s salvation to perish-
ing sinners.

Of the Lord’s Supper.

OF THE PowWER OF THE Lorp’s Supper.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such
great things? ,

Tt ts not the eating and drinking, indeed, that
does them, but the words here written, “Given and
shed for you for the remission of sins;” which.words,

beside the bodily cating and drinking, are as the .

chief thing in the Sacrament; and he that believes
these words has what they say and express, namely,
the forgiveness of sins.

This question is very similar to the third ques-
tion of the Fourth Chief Part. It is directed
against those people who take offense at the true
doctrine of Scripture concerning the great benefit
given the worthy partakers of the Lord’s Supper,
and who forget that in this Sacrament not only a
bodtly eating and drinking of bread and wine takes
place, but also a sacramental eating and drinking
of Christ’s body and blood, and a spiritual eating
and drinking by faith in Christ's merits as ex-
pressed in the words of institution. :

Eating and drinking of the bread and wine in
the Lord’s Supper is indeed necessary; for Christ
took the bread and wine in the night in which He
was betrayed, and said: “Take, eat; take, drink
ye all of it!” But necessary as is the bodily eating
and drinking, no man can ever thereby procure
forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. If our eat-

ing and drinking could procure these great bless-
ings, then our salvation would be of works and
not by grace. .

No, no; not eating and drinking does these
great things, but the words of Christ, “Given and
shed for you for the remission of sins.’ These are
the words which Christ spoke at the institution
of the Lord’s Supper, and they are the chief thing
in the Sacrament; for without these words bread
and wine would be simple bread and wine only and
no Holy Supper. These words of Christ spoken
at the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and repeated
at every celebration of the Sacrament, make the
Lord’s Supper a Sacrament. Because of these words
Christ offers and gives us His body and blood under
the bread and wine, and because of these words He
offers forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to
every communicant. It is because of these words
of Christ that eating and drinking can do such
great things. Concerning this point Luther writes
in the Large Catechism (§§ 28—30): “But here
a willful misrepresentation is made by our wise
spirits with their great art and wisdom, crying out
and protesting: How can bread and wine forgive
sins or strengthen faith? Although they hear and
know that we do not say this of such, bread and wine
as is in itself. bread and wine, but of such bread
and wine as is the body and blood of Christ, and
is united with the words. That, we say, is the
treasure, and nothing else, through which such for-
giveness is obtained. Now the only way in which
it is given and appropriated to us is in the words:
‘Given and shed for you.’ For herein I have both
truths, that it is the body and blood of Christ, and
that it is mine as a treasure and gift. But the
body of Christ can never be an unfruitful, vain
thing, without jefficacy and without benefits. Yet,
however great be the treasure in itself, it must
be comprehended in the Word and’ administered
to us, else we should never be able to know and
seek it.”

But while every communicant receives the body
and blood of Christ, not all procure forgiveness of
sins, life, and_salvation. “The treasure indeed,”
says Luther, “is opened and placed at every one’s
door, yea, upon every one’s table, but it is necessary
that you also take of it, and confidently regard it
as the words give it to you.... For since this
treasure is fully presented in the words, it can be
apprehended and appropriated only by the heart.
For such a gift and eternal treasure cannot be seized
by the hand.... But this is done by the faith

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