Augsburg Confession Exegetical — Article X
There may not be a more precise expression of faith than Article X of the Augsburg Confession. In the Latin text, with just 33 words, the confessors present a profoundly clear explanation of one of the most important articles of the catholic faith: that “the body and the blood of Christ are truly present and are distributed to those who eat the Lord’s Supper.” The translation of the German text of the same article expands the confession slightly, declaring that the body and blood are “true” and “under the form of bread and wine.” Given what Scripture says about the Lord’s Supper, the confessors could not have explained it in a better way.
There are four accounts of the Supper in Scripture — Mt 26:26-28, Mk 14:22-24, Lk 22:19-20, and 1 Cor 11:23-25. If not for more detail provided by Luke and Paul about what the cup is, those passages would be almost exactly the same. Paul expressed it with the most detail:
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” (1 Cor 11:22-25)
The most notable false teachings about the Lord’s Supper at the time of the writing of the Augsburg Confession were those of Andreas Karlstadt, who refused to believe that the meal was more than a one-time event; Ulrich Zwingli, who argued that the body and blood were not present at all; and Caspar Schwenckfeld, who taught that the Lord’s body and blood were present only spiritually. There is no Scriptural basis for any of those views. As Paul expresses in 1 Corinthians 10:16: “The cup of blessing, the one we bless, is it not a fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a fellowship of the body of Christ?” In other words, not only is the Lord’s Supper a continuing event, a fact that exposes one error in Karlstadt’s teaching, the “living and active” words of Scripture proclaim that the body and blood of Christ are present, which also exposes errors in the teachings of Zwingli and Schwenckfeld.
Some 2,000 years ago, Jesus broke bread and shared a cup. Thus, the accounts of the Lord’s Supper begins in aorist tense. Then, he spoke living words, words that continue today, when he called us to take and eat, saying, “this is my body,” and “this is my blood.” The aorist and present tenses are a key component in understanding why the body and blood are “truly present and distributed” as Article X says. The Lord’s Supper was instituted some 2,000 years ago; thus the use of the aorist tense in describing the event. But it isn’t a one-time event; it continues to happen. Through the words of Christ, it actually takes places in our hearing, thus the use of the present tense, too. It wasn’t a one-time event that had happened and will never happen again; that is a situation that have been expressed with PluPerfect tense. The Lord’s Supper was not an event that took place for a period of time before it ceased; that would have been expressed with the imperfect tense. Instead, as Scripture declares and the Church has realized, the Lord’s Supper was created “to proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
The harmony of the accounts by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul are most striking in their unity, unlike so many other teachings, miracles, and parables of Christ. Most notable is the breaking of bread. The Lord Jesus took bread, broke it, and gave it to the disciples saying, “τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου” (Mt 26:26, Mk 14:22, Lk 22:19). What Paul “received from the Lord” is different only in the order of those five words. Paul wrote, “τοῦτό μού ἐστιν τὸ σῶμα” (1 Cor 11:24). Paul’s slight variations of what Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote serves only to change which word is emphasized in Greek; by moving μού to the front of the word order, Paul places a greater focus on Jesus instead of the abstract “τοῦτο.” Either way, all English translations of the the words of Christ are rendered the same: He said, “This is my body.” In fact, the Greek in all four accounts here is so clear and easy to understand that even paraphrastic translations of the New Testament, such as the Living Word and the Message, render the words as “this is my body,” adding an exclamation point to the truth of the presence of the living Christ in the Lord’s Supper.
It’s noteworthy that Jesus used the word σῶμά in the Lord’s Supper. The word σῶμά carries deep meaning. Although it is used on occasion to describe a corpse, it is used far more often in Scripture to relate to the living body, human experience, the seat of life, and the unity of people. This understanding lends support to the Augsburg Confession’s understanding that the bread and wine are not “transformed” into body and blood, as the Roman church teaches. In the accounts of the Lord’s Supper, σῶμά is strongly linked to Eucharist, a compound of the words εὖ and χάρις, which could translated as beneficial beauty. What greater beneficial beauty is there that the forgiveness of sins offered in the Lord’s Supper. There is no benefit in eating living or dead flesh, which explains why the words σάρκα and πτῶμα weren’t chosen. The word πτῶμα is used very narrowly to describe a corpse. The word σάρκα generally means flesh, both living and dead, but is used most especially by Paul to express human nature, the outward side of life, and something with physical limitations. Instead, σῶμά harmonizes with Scripture that declares man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus gave himself to the body of believers, feeding the world life-giving Word, because He is the Word.
The words of institution describing the cup don’t have quite the same unique unity among the four accounts as the breaking of the bread. But there is no denying that the core confession remains same. Matthew and Mark both record Jesus saying, “τοῦτο [γάρ] ἐστιν τὸ αἷμά μου” (Mt 26:28, Mk 14:24). Luke and Paul are united with “τοῦτο τὸ ποτήριον ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη [ἐστὶν]” (Lk 22:20, 1 Cor 11:25) before they diverge slightly with the placement of the μου in their ending articular infinitives. Again, the word is in the present, and the end result is the same, with Jesus saying, “This cup is ... my blood.” There is no mistaking what αἷμά means, especially in context of the Lord’s Supper. The word αἷμά means blood.
As Scripture reveals, and the Latin text expresses, the body and the blood of Christ are truly present and are distributed to those who eat the Lord’s Supper. Even with additional words that the “true body and blood of Christ are truly present under the form of bread and wine,” the German text of the Augsburg Confession stands as strongly in confession as the Latin text. There is nothing inexact about “this is my body” or “this is my blood.” But the word true, means accurate or exact, does serve to strengthen the force of the confession.
Scripture never says that the bread and wine are no longer present in the meal; thus, the German text also reflects an accurate confession with the words “under the form of bread and wine.” Rome’s critics of the Augsburg Confession reveal an error in their teaching when they suggest that the substance of the bread and wine is changed in consecration. Given all of the miracles Jesus performed, notably when he changed water into wine at Cana, there is no doubt the Word of God can in fact change substances from one form to another. But given what Scripture reveals, the Confession could be open to error with such a change. Nowhere does Scripture say the substance of bread in the Lord’s Supper physically changes into the body of Christ; it says the bread is his body. Nowhere does Scripture say the wine is similarly transformed into his blood; it says the wine is his blood.
Our churches rightfully teach that the body and blood of Christ are truly present in the Lord’s Supper, because that is what Scripture declares. The true body and blood are then distributed to those who eat the Lord’s Supper, because that is what Scripture declares. The living words of the living Christ are for everyone, then and now.