As the Gospel in its proper sense and Holy Baptism are means of justification and remission of sins (medium iustificationis sive rcmissionis peccatorum), so also is the Lord's Supper. That is to say, the Lord's Supper is not Law or a work which men perform for God, but pure Gospel, or a most gracious work, by which Christ deals with men, offering to all communicants the grace and merits which He obtained for the world by His death on the cross. The Lord's Supper is therefore a true means of grace, by which the Holy Spirit assures all communicants that they have a gracious God, who freely forgives their sins for Christ's sake.
This truth is taught in the words of institution : "Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you"; and: "Take, drink; this is My blood, which is shed for you." Quite manifestly these words express the gracious Gospel-message that we need not atone for our sins, since Christ Himself has atoned for them by shedding His blood for us on the cross, and that we obtain full possession of these heavenly gifts by accepting in true faith the blessed Gospel offer which He makes to us in Holy Communion.
Luther well says (St. L., XIX, 346): "The mass the Lord's Supper is not a work or sacrifice which men must render, but a word and sign of divine grace, which God employs on our behalf to establish and strengthen in us faith toward Him." So also the Apology declares Art. XXIV XII: "The Sacrament was instituted for the purpose of being a seal and testimony of the free remission of sins, and accordingly it ought to admonish alarmed consciences to be truly confident and believe that their sins are freely remitted." The Smalcald Articles similarly classify the Lord's Supper among the means of grace, "by which the forgiveness of sins is preached" Part III, Art. IV.
In common with Holy Baptism and private absolution (Privatabsolution) the Lord's Supper offers forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to sinners individually, so that the same grace which the Gospel proclaims to all is announced and offered personally to every one who attends the Lord's Table. But the Lord's Supper has one characteristic which is not found in any other means of grace. In this Sacrament Christ confirms and seals His gracious forgiveness of sins by imparting His own body and blood, which the communicant receives in, with, and under the bread and wine, 1 Cor. 10, 6; 11, 27-29. The Lord's Supper thus has a true materia coelestis (the body and blood of Christ), which the Sacrament of Baptism has not, and through the gift of this "heavenly matter" Christ assures the communicant of the gracious forgiveness of his sins.
The Lord's Supper is therefore a most salutary Sacrament, in which every believer should greatly rejoice. But, alas! this precious Sacrament has been most shamefully perverted by men who exalted their conceited reason above the Word of God. The Romanists have not only mutilated it (sub una specie), but have also changed it from an efficacious means of grace to an antiScriptural "unbloody sacrifice" (transubstantiation; the papistic sacrifice of the Mass for the sins of the living and the dead; cp. Luther, St. L., XIX, 1303). The Calvinists (Zwinglians), on the other hand, denied the real presence of the body and blood of our Lord in the Holy Supper and blasphemously charged the Lutherans, who maintained the true Scriptural doctrine concerning the realis praesentia, with cannibalism, Thyestean banqueting, and the like (cp. Formula of Concord, Thor. Decl., VII, 67: duos pilos caudae equinae et com mentum, cuius vel ipsum Satanam pudeat; excrementum Satanae, quo diabolus sibi ipsi et hominibus illudat).
Other errorists, also going beyond Scripture, ascribe to the Lord's Supper a "physical" or "natural" operation (physische Wirkung, Naturwirkung) and thus turn the attention of Christians from the real purpose and function of the Holy Supper. It is the confutation of these errors that makes a more lengthy and detailed treatment of the doctrine of Holy Communion necessary.