Answer: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in and under the bread and wine which we
Christians are commanded by the Word of Christ to eat and to drink. 9] And as we have said of Baptism that it
is not simple water, so here also we say the Sacrament is bread and wine, but not mere bread and wine, such
as are ordinarily served at the table, but bread and wine comprehended in, and connected with, the Word of
God.
10] It is the Word (I say) which makes and distinguishes this Sacrament, so that it is not mere bread and wine,
but is, and is called, the body and blood of Christ. For it is said: Accedat verbum ad elementum, et fit
sacramentum. If the Word be joined to the element, it becomes a Sacrament. This saying of St. Augustine is so
properly and so well put that he has scarcely said anything better. The Word must make a Sacrament of the
element, else it remains a mere element. 11] Now, it is not the word or ordinance of a prince or emperor, but of
the sublime Majesty, at whose feet all creatures should fall, and affirm it is as He says, and accept it with all
reverence, fear, and humility.
12] With this Word you can strengthen your conscience and say: If a hundred thousand devils, together with all
fanatics, should rush forward, crying, How can bread and wine be the body and blood of Christ? etc., I know
that all spirits and scholars together are not as wise as is the Divine Majesty in His little finger. 13] Now here
stands the Word of Christ: Take, eat; this is My body; Drink ye all of it; this is the new testament in My blood,
etc. Here we abide, and would like to see those who will constitute themselves His masters, and make it
different from what He has spoken. It is true, indeed, that if you take away the Word or regard it without the
words, you have nothing but mere bread and wine. 14] But if the words remain with them, as they shall and
must, then, in virtue of the same, it is truly the body and blood of Christ. For as the lips of Christ say and speak,
so it is, as He can never lie or deceive.
23] On this account it is indeed called a food of souls, which nourishes and strengthens the new man. For by
Baptism we are first born anew; but (as we said before) there still remains, besides, the old vicious nature of
flesh and blood in man, and there are so many hindrances and temptations of the devil and of the world that we
often become weary and faint, and sometimes also stumble.
31] Therefore also it is vain talk when they say that the body and blood of Christ are not given and shed for us
in the Lord's Supper, hence we could not have forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament. For although the work is
accomplished and the forgiveness of sins acquired on the cross, yet it cannot come to us in any other way than
through the Word. For what would we otherwise know about it, that such a thing was accomplished or was to
be given us if it were not presented by preaching or the oral Word? Whence do they know of it, or how can they
apprehend and appropriate to themselves the forgiveness, except they lay hold of and believe the Scriptures
and the Gospel? 32] But now the entire Gospel and the article of the Creed: I believe a holy Christian Church,
the forgiveness of sin, etc., are by the Word embodied in this Sacrament and presented to us. Why, then,
should we allow this treasure to be torn from the Sacrament when they must confess that these are the very
words which we hear every where in the Gospel, and they cannot say that these words in the Sacrament are of
no use, as little as they dare say that the entire Gospel or Word of God, apart from the Sacrament, is of no
use?
Large Catechism