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On the Anti-Christian Abuse of the Lord’s Bread and Cup

Whether Faith in the Sacrament Forgives Sins and Whether the Sacrament Is a Pledge or Deposit of the Forgiveness of Sins

Explanation of the Eleventh Chapter of the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians on the Lord’s Supper

(October 1524)

Von dem widerchristlichen mißbrauch des herrn brodt vnd kelch was printed three times in 1524. Johann Bebel published an edition in Basel in October (VD16, B6233; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 135). Using a separate manuscript provided by the Jena pastor Martin Reinhart, the Nuremberg printer Hieronymus Höltzel also published an edition in late October or early November (VD16, B6234; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 136). The Basel imprint was the basis for the copy of the pamphlet published before the end of the year in Augsburg by Heinrich Steiner (VD16, B6232; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 137). There is a somewhat modernized German edition in Walch, Luthers Sämtliche Schriften, 20:92–109 and an English translation in Sider, Karlstadt’s Battle with Luther, 74–91. I have used the Basel imprint (Köhler, Flugschriften, 1949, no. 4973) for my translation, but have compared it with the Nuremberg imprint (Köhler, Flugschriften, 135, no. 367) and with Sider’s translation. Differences between the Basel and Nuremberg imprints are given in the footnotes.

[a1v] I, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, confess publicly, proclaim, and make known to everyone that because it is an abominable error and for the sake of poor, deceived Christendom, I can no longer conceal the fact that many Christians receive the Lord’s bread and cup to their great harm. Through their blind and unworthy use of the Lord’s Supper, they forfeit and make themselves guilty of Christ’s death and forsake the great righteousness of Christ, which Christ had and distributed to all believers. I must also speak out and criticize my own earlier writings on the sacrament¹ and tell the truth, although this rightly should have been done before me by others who are considered as princes among the experts on scripture and who wanted to attach us to them, so that we would neither write nor undertake anything before they did. But because they hid behind the bushes and dug pits for the simple and laid snares in their way, I must go to it and confess God’s truth and the high righteousness of Christ, whether it cost me life or death.

I humbly ask that none of you will look at me or at anyone else, but instead that each person will heed the inner testimony of the Spirit. But if anyone needs external and written testimony either for himself or another, he should simply look to the scripture that I will cite, because I always suffer them to go from me to God’s true judgments, as John did when he said, “It is him, not me. He whom you do not know stands in your midst” [John 1:15]. If he finds this instruction is correct and that it helps him out of his difficulties, then he should praise God and grasp the truth. But if there is anyone who is uneasy with this admonition, he is free to instruct me to write something better for the world. I want to ask everyone who thinks [a2r] that I have erred to teach me, whether gently or with sharp words, so that God will give me grace to recognize my supposed error and will amend it.

No one should think, when I call the Lord’s bread and cup a sacrament, that I have seen it called this in the scripture, but instead I’m babbling with children so that they will listen to me.

WHETHER THE SACRAMENT FORGIVES SINS

It is a common and horrible injury that we Christians seek forgiveness of sins in the sacrament; namely, when their consciences (as they say²) are anxious or sorrowful due to their sins, they prepare to receive the venerable sacrament, and when they have received it, they are content through a false dream and faith, which I call false and³ will call false until they can show me one word in scripture that they can trust that supports their belief. Since faith comes from hearing what is preached, but preaching comes from the word of God [Rom. 10:17], no one should believe them until they preach a word of faith and can show that the Lord’s bread is a sacrament or forgives sins. And if they have preached and can point to a word of true faith, then you should depend on the simple truth and not on a person. You must also understand from what they say whether they are speaking true and godly things.

The faith that reflects or portrays for itself what it wants to is a magical faith and at base a false light and reasonable⁴ knowledge. Faith in Christ must be in accordance with Christ’s manner, recognize Christ as to how and what he is, and not make Christ into what or how it wants. Otherwise that faith will present to him a [a2v] false image. And even if one had long known and believed, he still wouldn’t know that what he believed is a false and fictitious thing. So I say, anyone who places his peace of mind and forgiveness of sins in that which God has not established for peace and forgiveness of sins will not have peace and forgiveness of sins; he has given himself peace by means of a false comfort. Instead, he will and must eventually come to harm, even though he stands at peace for a time.

Accordingly, all men will be put to shame and mocked who without a word of faith consider the sacrament a peace for their consciences and forgiveness of sins, or who make the sacrament into a pledge that should assure our consciences, because they won’t find a single letter in the word of faith (2 Cor. 1[:22]; Eph. 1[:13–14]).

In order to show that this isn’t correct, I will for the sake of brevity take and discuss Paul’s teaching that he wrote about the worthy use of the Lord’s bread and cup, 1 Corinthians 11[:26–29], for I’ve written about this topic at greater length in a dialogue and in other pamphlets. Paul says why and⁵ how and when we eat the Lord’s bread and [drink from his] cup worthily and usefully, and like the prophets and apostles, he writes about the knowledge of Christ’s body and blood. Whoever teaches differently or brings another gospel is banned and cursed, and his teaching is also a banned, horrible, and accursed teaching (Gal. 1[:8–9]).

Text: 1 Corinthians 11:[26]: “So often as you eat of the bread and drink from this cup you should proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

[a3r] Everyone should observe this form and manner and then eat from the Lord’s bread and drink from the cup, for Paul gave it as a rule that all people who wish to receive the Lord’s Supper should observe. We should note that this proclamation is the fruit of a tree, namely, the remembrance of Christ’s body and blood, about which Paul spoke just a bit earlier, when he cited the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. For all that happens through external works or things must spring from the ground of the heart and be upright internally.⁶ God judges the heart, and the internal man is a dear possession and noble thing in God’s eyes, if he is rightly prepared as God wants him to be prepared.

Thus God spoke through Isaiah and through Christ himself, “The people praise me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me” (Isa. 29[:13]; Matt. 15[:8]). Thus proclamation must flow from a good, hidden spring if it is right. For Paul pointed to this same spring and ground in Romans (10[:10]), “He who believes in his heart is justified, but he confesses with the mouth and is saved.”

It is absolutely impossible that any kind of external thing can be upright or just if the heart isn’t first upright and⁷ just. It is written, “The unbeliever has in himself no righteousness” (Hab. 2[:4]). To the impure, all things are impure and stained (Titus 1[:15]). But for believers all things are pure, good, and just. The eyes of God look at faith (Jer. 5[:3]). If one has a true heart and upright spirit, then he pleases God and his external confession also pleases God.

For this reason I say that the proclamation of Christ’s death, [a3v] which is an external work or thing, must flow from a secret and hidden heart, where it is good and God-pleasing. Thus we must seek the same ground from which the external speaking of Christ’s death proceeds. That ground can easily be found if you desire to be his. Paul didn’t want this to be left unsaid. What is that same ground, you ask? Answer: remembrance. “For the Lord Jesus, in the night he was betrayed, took bread and gave thanks and broke it, saying, ‘Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in my remembrance.’ In the same way he took the cup after the supper and said, ‘This cup, the new testament in my blood. Do this as often as you drink, for my remembrance’ ” [1 Cor. 11:23–25]. Here Paul gives the reason for the proclamation of Christ’s death, from which flows this fruit of our lips, namely, the proclamation that edifies and reforms other people and so is called a confession to salvation [Rom. 10:10]. Anyone who wants to proclaim or confess uprightly the death of Christ externally must first go into his ground and then proceed outwards from this ground or inwardness, and his heart must bear this fruit of his lips, namely, proclamation, just as a tree bears fruit from its roots.

WHAT REMEMBRANCE IS

Remembrance is an ardent and loving knowledge or recognition of the body and blood of Christ. No one can consider what he doesn’t know. This knowledge must be shaped and conformed to its object; that is, it must recognize and know the body and blood of Christ in such a way and with its reasons, that Christ gave his body and shed his blood for our sins (Gal. 1[:4]).

[a4r] For this reason Christ spoke clearly, “Eat the bread, for this body is the body which is given for you, and this is my blood which is shed for you” (Luke 22[:19–20]). As if he wanted to say (although the disciples first learned this on Pentecost), “Moses and the prophets wrote for you and all men about a body that would be given, which would be the seed of a woman and would crush the serpent’s head, which would also stretch out his hand to the tree of life (Gen. 2[3:15]). ‘My body’ or ‘This my body’ is the same as that about which they prophesied, which would be given for the world. Therefore you should eat my bread in remembrance of me.” Christ said the same, or wanted to say the same, about his blood. “Moses and the prophets wrote about blood that would make a new testament and would be shed for sins. Realize that my blood is the same blood that will be shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

In this way you should know Christ’s surrendered body and his shed blood, if anyone wants to have an upright remembrance and a blameless proclamation of Christ’s death. If remembrance isn’t directed in this way, then it falls short of Moses and all the prophets to whom Christ steadfastly referred, saying, “Christ must suffer, shed his blood, die and rise, and enter into his glory, as it is written in the prophets” (Luke 24[:26–27]).

Those who have the right knowledge of Christ have righteousness in their ground. As Paul says, faith is the righteousness of the heart (Rom. 10[:10]). Yes, this is true, if it isn’t a frozen or dead knowledge but an ardent, burning, active, and powerful knowledge of Christ, who transforms the one who knows into the known life and death [a4v] of Christ and for Christ’s sake can do or suffer all that Christ wants him to.

Isaiah shows that this upright faith in Christ is a knowledge of Christ’s death and its causes, who earlier portrayed the surrendered body of the Messiah in his own form, and then says, “In knowledge or recognition of him, the righteous one will make many of his servants righteous” (Isa. 53[:11]).

You ask, “When and in what form is Christ known in a way that his knowledge and recognition can justify?” Answer: Look at Isaiah and you’ll find that Christ was offered as a lamb unto death because he wanted this; that he was wounded for our sins and held as despised and accursed, whom God has rejected, etc. And when Isaiah presented Christ as crucified, he said, “In knowledge of him he will make righteous”; that the Christ who was mocked, wounded, and hanged makes righteous. This is what Christ says, “The Son of man must be raised up, so that each person who looks at the one raised up or who believes in him will be saved and not perish” (John 3[:14–15]). This is what Paul says, “Through the obedience of one man are many men made righteous” (Rom. 5[:19]). Understand the obedience about which it is written, “He was obedient unto death. Therefore through his obedience in the death he suffered, he has raised the name of Jesus above all things, so that Christ is called a savior” (Phil. 2[:9–11]). This is the reason why Paul praises so highly and treasures the surpassing knowledge of Christ and says that righteousness comes only through knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he announces very clearly that the righteousness that comes from God stands in the knowledge of Christ and in the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering, [b1r], so that one becomes similar to and like him in his death (Phil. 3[:10–11]). For this reason Paul writes, “I know nothing but Jesus the crucified” [1 Cor. 2:2], from which it follows that the knowledge of the crucified Christ makes righteous.

In brief, the knowledge or recognition of Christ’s surrendered body and shed blood is the first reason that should move one to receive the Lord’s Supper. But you must see to it that you don’t make empty flesh from the Lord’s body and blood, which is of no use (John 6[:63]). You must have before your eyes and understand the great, invisible love, the all-surpassing obedience, the excellent innocence of Christ and the like, and understand in the depth of your hearts, and then you will be justified, redeemed from sin. You must hold these words of Christ, “This is my body, of which it was prophesied that it would be given for you,” as the right and joyful gospel that all apostles proclaim, that was once a promise and now is no longer a promise but rather ended in Christ and made into a clear gospel, as Paul says (Acts 13[:32–33]). Moses wrote long ago about Christ’s body and blood, and he wrote surpassingly well.⁸ The prophets promised the body that would be given for us. But we and the apostles proclaim the joyful news of Jesus Christ’s surrendered body and shed blood, about which Christ spoke before his death (Gal. 1[:4]; Eph. 1[:7–8]; Col. 1[:22]).

From the knowledge of Christ grows the remembrance of Christ, which isn’t a rough, cold, or lazy remembrance, but rather a fresh, ardent, and powerful remembrance that makes or gives joyfulness, that holds the surrendered body and the shed blood of Christ dear, that values it, gives thanks, that conforms one to Christ, and that makes one ashamed before all that is opposed to Christ. Consider this example. See, if you had to die [b1v] on the gallows or the wheel or in the fire, and the judgment was already spoken against you and you must be put to death, and someone came who would die for you and make you free through his death, wouldn’t you be eternally ashamed if you did something that you shouldn’t do out of love for such a good friend? And again, wouldn’t you be happy when his name was well spoken of? Wouldn’t you always speak highly of him, and if he left you something that you should use in his remembrance, wouldn’t you use it with fresh, ardent remembrance and be horrified at yourself that you had done something for which you should justly be killed if an innocent person hadn’t taken your guilt upon himself and paid with his death? So we should have the remembrance of the Lord, understand and consider from our hearts that Christ gave his body into death and shed his blood in a shameful death⁹ for our sake, innocently, out of great love and incomparable obedience.

The remembrance of Christ has two parts. The first is for the sake of the surrendered body and the second is for the sake of the shed blood. Anyone who wants to receive the Lord’s Supper must consider the reasons and know why¹⁰ Christ shed his blood and gave his body for us, together with the fruit, just as the apostles and disciples of Christ, when they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, knew the reasons for Christ’s surrendered body and his shed blood, which the books of the apostles, the histories, and the epistle to the Hebrews show (Heb. 6[:19–20]; Heb. 10[:10–14]). See how Christ was a sacrifice and a priest and why he offered himself, and then you’ll certainly realize that through one sacrifice, one death, one body, one obedience, one innocence, one holiness, one redemption, and one washing away, we have all obtained forgiveness of our sins and righteousness.

[b2r] Thus it isn’t true that the sacrament forgives us our sins. It is against Moses, the prophets, the apostles, and Christ, and it is a repudiation of the suffering and high obedience of Christ. Those who seek forgiveness of their sins in the sacrament are as mad and evil as the priests who sacrifice Christ daily for new sins, or they are only a little less evil. To know Christ’s obedience or to understand Christ’s will, which was the Father’s will, is our justification and it purifies the heart and forgives guilt (Ps. 39 [40:7–8]). We’ll see this more easily as we consider the text further.

Now I’ve said that the proclamation of Christ’s death flows from the remembrance of Christ, and the remembrance of Christ from the recognition of the surrendered body and the shed blood of Christ, so that we must know the cause and power and fruit of the crucified body and the shed blood of Christ if the proclamation is going to be done rightly, so that we aren’t found in our own wisdom and thoughts. Beware of Christ’s rebuke, who said, “Oh you fools, don’t you believe what the prophets and Moses wrote about me?” [Luke 24:25]. They wrote about the body and blood of Christ, that Christ would wash away our sins in his body and with his blood; no one wrote about the sacrament that forgives sins. Christ told us also about the body that would hang on the cross, that he would pay for our sins, but no prophet or Christ or any other Christian brother ever wrote that Christ forgives sins in the sacrament. For if it could be that Christ forgave sins in the sacrament, it would follow that we must know Christ not on the cross but in the sacrament, and that Christ didn’t forgive our sins through his body, and that his death wasn’t sufficiently powerful. But this would be to tread Christ underfoot, [b2v] to repudiate his suffering, and to call God the Father a liar.

Show me one little letter that says that the sacramental essence of the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament is there for forgiveness. Christ said, “My blood is shed for the forgiveness of sins.” I ask you, is the blood shed in the sacrament, or on the cross? If it is shed in the sacrament, then the boast of the cross of Christ is abolished and false, and Paul, who boasts of nothing but the cross of Christ, is made into nothing [1 Cor. 1:31–2:2]. If it was shed on the gallows, then we must direct our knowledge to the cross and not to the sacrament. We are truly anti-Christians, repudiators or despisers of Christ’s suffering, as long as we attribute to the sacrament what belongs to Christ on the cross.

Christ says, “Do this in remembrance of me,” but they say, “You should think about the sacrament.” Christ: “You should remember my body which is given, not which is now in the sacrament (as they dream), but which will be given on the cross.” But they say, “You should consider the body in the sacrament,” and they can’t show even a little hair of scripture through which we can understand how the body and the blood of Christ are in the sacrament or why they should be there.

Paul says, “As often as you eat of the Lord’s bread and drink from his cup, you should proclaim the death of the Lord” [1 Cor. 11:26]. But they teach the opposite: “You should believe that Christ is in the sacrament. You should believe that the sacrament forgives your sins. You should believe that the sacrament is a sure pledge of forgiveness of sins and your sanctification,” and they continue on all fours in this abominable contradiction to the righteousness, love, innocence, and wisdom of Christ, which he proved through his death. Paul says, “You should speak of the Lord’s death”; they say, “You should speak of the sacrament.”

[b3r] I have written in my Dialogue what “until he comes” means.¹¹

The text follows: “Whoever eats of this bread unworthily or who drinks from the Lord’s cup, he is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11[: 27]).

Christ announced this guilt when he said, “The Son of man goes as is written of him, but woe to him through whom…” (Matt. 26[:24]). Peter says, “You have murdered the Lord of life and denied and rejected your savior” (Acts 2[:23]). Whoever receives the Lord’s Supper unworthily is guilty like the murderers of Christ, who not only repudiated Christ but also killed him. I will explain what unworthiness is and what it consists of by expounding the following text: “Whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (1 Cor. 2 [11:29]). Why? Because he hasn’t discerned the body of the Lord. Here you have the cause of unworthiness, namely, that anyone who doesn’t well discern the Lord’s body eats and drinks unworthily.

Show me a little word from Paul where he says, “Anyone who doesn’t discern the sacrament eats the Lord’s bread unworthily.” We must discern the Lord’s body, I know this, and it is also true that I sit at the Lord’s table with appropriate manners and take his bread and drink in the intention in which he laid it before me, but I haven’t been commanded that I should consider his bread and wine as himself. The Lord can give me life, salvation, redemption, righteousness, and the like goods and treasures, which no bread and cup can give me. Thus I must look not to his bread or drink but to him.

Set your heart, mind, sense, and thoughts on the Lord and [b3v] you will be ravished with delight in him, but it won’t harm me at all whether I shake up some of the sacrament or spill it out. All worthiness lies in knowledge of him and not in his Supper. Unworthiness and the guilt of death, etc., consist in not understanding the body and blood of Christ or in the heedlessness that doesn’t distinguish what should be distinguished.

These little words, “not discern,” can also be understood as “not judge well” or “not rightly know.” For Paul bases his entire teaching on the words of Christ, who says, “This is my body which is given for you. This is my blood,” etc. And he wants to show, as he does in all his epistles, that Christ said, “My body is the body given for you. And this is my blood that shall be shed for you.” Someone must come who must present his body and his blood for our sake. We must understand this same body and blood if we think we can escape destruction in any other way and be saved. We must eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6[:53–56]) and must know that without his knowledge, judgment, and justice or discerning, we can’t be saved.

Whoever does not separate the body of Christ in this way from all other bodies and [does not] esteem it by distinguishing it over all bodies, and then eats from the Lord’s meal, is guilty of his death and of judgment. For Christ gave us his bread to eat and his cup to drink in the intention that we should remember him. Anyone who remembers must first understand the Lord’s words when he says, “This is my body,” etc., “This is my blood,” etc. Anyone who doesn’t understand, doesn’t remember, or he isn’t remembering the Lord as he should. If he doesn’t remember, then he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body and he doesn’t esteem [b4r] the Lord’s body, or he doesn’t value it as greatly and as highly as he should value it. Thus he will be most guilty when he eats the Lord’s bread and drinks from the Lord’s cup and doesn’t recognize the Lord’s body and blood.

Now I ask, where should we discern the body of the Lord, or consider and judge it well? You answer, “In the sacrament.” So I ask, did Christ die in the sacrament? Did Christ give his soul for us in the sacrament? Where is the great and wide bread in which Christ stood with his cross among the great crowd of mockers? Did the Jews and heathens mock the Lord inside the sacrament? They must have been in it with him.

There were also the two thieves with their crosses who must also have been in it with their words and bodies. If Christ in the sacrament was obedient to his father to the point of death, why didn’t his disciples run away from him as he gave them his bread and cup, as they would run away when Christ was captured? Was Christ offered outside the gates of Jerusalem or within the city of Jerusalem where they ate the sacrament? Did the betrayer give Christ into the hands of the Jews when Christ sat with his disciples at table or did he hand him over to them afterwards?

I think that no one can say that Christ gave his body in the sacrament for our sins, for one of these positions must fall away and be destroyed, either that Christ gave his body for us in the sacrament or that Christ gave his body unto death on the cross for us. But the latter is true, through Moses, the prophets, and especially through Isaiah, and as was often prophesied, most clearly through Christ. Thus the first must be false and destroyed, as it has been. If the first were to stand, then almost all the writings of the apostles [b4v] must fall away and be eternally mocked.

We must then judge or measure and well discern the Lord’s body not as he is in the sacrament, but rather as he offered his body as a sin offering, a food offering, a heave and wave offering to his father from his free will,¹² and proved the greatest innocence, highest obedience, and sweetest love. It thus follows that they have all taken the Lord’s bread and cup unworthily and so have made themselves guilty of Christ’s death and judgment who have not looked back on the figured and upraised snake (Num. 21[:8–9]; John 3[:14–16]) but have only turned their attention to the sacrament, that they receive Christ with the sacrament. It would be better for them if they ate figs instead. The Lord’s body is the promised body that would take away the sins of the world through his suffering and death. Thus it was written of him that he would be wounded for the sake of our salvation, etc. [Isa. 53:5]. Christ wanted to remind us of all this and have it understood when we want to eat his bread.

Paul speaks only of his body here, but he doesn’t do so as if we were to leave the blood of the Lord unmeasured and unjudged and not to know with discernment and to value it over all blood. Instead with the blood we must also realize that we should discern the Lord’s blood if we don’t want to be guilty of his blood. Therefore Paul called it all body and blood.

If we had such an earnest understanding of Christ’s body and blood, then no one would gorge himself or drink too much, as the Corinthians who lacked understanding did [1 Cor. 11:20–22], but instead each one would refrain from every kind of sin that is opposed to Christ or that shames him.

Therefore each person should test himself sufficiently beforehand and, as said above, should eat of the Lord’s bread [c1r] and drink from the cup. To test oneself means to know certainly, that is, to experience. Paul uses the word dokimazeto, which in Greek is used in many places,¹³ Romans 5 [2:18] and 12[:2], 1 Thessalonians 5[:21], and it always means to actually experience, to understand with certainty. 1 John 4[:1] uses it in this way when it says, “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God,” etc.

Paul makes this the responsibility of each person and says that each one should go into his own breast, and he wants everyone to test himself, that is, to understand from sure experience whether or not he knows the body and the blood of Christ, which the prophets promised, with knowledge that is loving and holds him dear. For if he has a worthy and ardent knowledge of the body of Christ, who bore our sins through the greatest bitterness and mockery, and of his blood, which has washed him from his evil works and sins, then he will be conformed to Christ and thankful in suffering, sober, modest, wise, reasonable, disciplined, and he will avoid the evil customs of the Corinthians who drank too much, and he will sit at the Lord’s table in a disciplined way, and take care that he doesn’t eat the Lord’s bread for his own pleasure or to satisfy his body, and also that he shouldn’t take it like any other bread or without knowledge of him who gave it to him to eat in his remembrance.

This testing consists of turning inward and looking directly into the ground of the soul in which God acts and creates his gifts. Thus Paul brings each person to himself and into his own ground¹⁴ and not to other men, as the papists have done, who refer the partakers of Christ’s Supper to poor blind leaders (whom they call confessors). Paul was wiser in this matter and allowed each to look to himself and into himself, because [c1v] no man can know what is in the spirit of man except the spirit of that man (1 Cor. 3 [2:11]). You should go into yourself when you want to receive the Lord’s Supper and not superficially recognize whether you have a sound and worthy remembrance of Christ so you can receive it, but instead feel and experience, that is, have a sure knowledge of yourself, that you are what Christ would have you be.

THE SACRAMENT IS NOT AN ARRABO, ARRA,¹⁵ PLEDGE, OR GOD’S PENNY

From this saying of Paul, namely, that each should test himself, etc., follows the overthrow of another saying, as it is commonly said that the bread and the cup of Christ are an assurance and certain pledge through which someone can be sure and certain in himself that Christ’s death has brought his redemption. For if one could or should be sure of his redemption—that is, forgiveness of sins—through the Lord’s Supper, it would be unnecessary for anyone to test himself before he received the Lord’s bread and cup. It would be enough that he afterwards felt and¹⁶ understood whether he was prepared as God would have him be. But this is against Christ, who says, “Do this in remembrance of me”; that is, “Take my bread and my cup in remembrance of me, the bread in remembrance that I gave my body for you, the cup in remembrance of my shed blood.” Thus each one, before he takes it, should test himself to see whether he has the remembrance of Christ or not. If he has it, then he is also sure of his redemption and has peace with God through Christ (Rom. 5[:1]), not through the sacrament, and he can receive it joyfully. If he doesn’t have it and doesn’t find in himself that he has a sure knowledge of his redemption, then he is not prepared as Christ would have those who eat his Supper, just as he was not prepared who sat at the king’s table but wasn’t wearing a wedding garment (Matt. 22[:11–14]). [c2r] Therefore he should abstain from the Lord’s Supper so that he isn’t guilty and thrown into outer darkness as that person was thrown.

This assurance should exist beforehand in those who want to receive the Supper and doesn’t occur or come to them through the bread and cup, which some call signs. This is what Paul showed clearly and fully when he says, “Each one should test himself and then eat of the bread,” etc. What does this verse mean? Doesn’t it mean that he should test himself first and actually understand whether he has the remembrance of the Lord and can proclaim the Lord’s death in the intention, will, and manner that Christ wants [him] to have? If he has this in the ground [of his soul], then he also has the Spirit of Christ who shows him his savior Christ hanging on the cross and that same Christ dying in full obedience, in high righteousness and sweet love and innocence, and assures his heart that he has salvation through Christ. If he has this assurance of Christ’s Spirit, which he must have, then he can eat from the Lord’s bread and drink from the cup. But he eats and drinks when he is already assured and certain that Christ paid for and bore the sins of all the world, before he receives the sacrament. Christ refers us all to him on the cross where he obediently died and fulfilled all that was written of him. We must look at him with blessed eyes, that is, believe in him and know certainly that he has redeemed us, etc. If we know this and look back to the death Christ suffered, then we are justified in ourselves and [are] worthy to eat and drink the Lord’s bread and wine worthily. When we realize that we are such knowers and rememberers, then we can eat and drink joyfully. Thus he said, “Let a man test himself and then. . . .” This phrase “and then” means worthiness and time: worthiness, of remembrance; time, that the worthiness [c2v] must come first, just as someone must have a wedding garment before he goes to the royal table.

Now even if I were to grant and concede that one can experience and be assured of God’s promise or work through some signs, when these are so beyond the grasp of reason that the soul, from amazement on seeing the signs secretly, experiences the high power of God, as Hezekiah experienced God’s power and will through the backward motion of the sun [2 Kings 20:8–11], it is neither sure nor good that we should grant and attribute to the bread and wine of Christ that which actually belongs to Christ and to the Spirit of Christ. Christ is the way, truth, life, and peace, and we have all these through Christ. Whoever ascribes these benefits to the Supper, bread and wine of the Lord, what else do they do than grasp after Christ’s treasure and attribute to lesser creatures than him that which belongs to Christ alone and which Christ alone grants?

He is a thief and murderer who doesn’t enter through Christ [John 10:8]. But this means to enter through bread and wine and not through Christ, or at least it means not through Christ alone but to enter through both Christ and his Supper. But Christ hates this, for he wants to have the entire heart, which would be divided and partial in this way I’ve just described. If Christ is our peace and assurance, how can soulless created things satisfy and make us certain? His blood washes us and our consciences from dead works [Heb. 9:14], that is, the ardent knowledge of the shed blood of Christ.

But if the blood can do this, it must also assure us, just as it does when it is known. But if the cup does it, then the cup that we take today was previously shed for our sins before it grew on the vine. The fault lies in the understanding, and [c3r] for this reason Christ didn’t want to give us a sign that would act on our powers and soul in the way that he otherwise acted when he did works that no one else had done, so that we would attribute to him alone and not to the sign that which many foolish people now attribute to soulless signs.

Christ promised to send us his Holy Spirit and promised, “When he comes he will tell you all things, and he will give you a testimony and you will testify about me” [John 15:16–17]. See, the spirit of Christ gives us the testimony that he gave his body for us, shed his blood for us (Rom. 8[:16]). Now if this belongs to the Holy Spirit, it is wicked and willful to attribute it to bread or wine. It is even robbery through which one steals from the Spirit his actual work and characteristics and attributes them to a poor created thing and so makes a new idolatry.

The spirit of sonship (Paul says) makes us cry, “Abba, Father,” and assures our spirit (Rom. 8[:15]). But the sacrament doesn’t make us cry, “Father, Father,” to God, for it is much too coarse to touch the ground of the soul, let alone teach it. Now the bread or the cup doesn’t teach us to cry to God, “Father, Father,” which we must do in Christ’s passion. If we rightly understand, the sacrament can’t assure our spirit and help the weakness of our spirit, for such crying and assurance belongs to a master workman. The assurance belongs to God’s Spirit and not a created thing. The Spirit of Christ anoints us, he seals us, he assures us,¹⁷ he is the pledge of our salvation (1 Cor. 1[:6–7]; Eph. 1[:13–14]). Because it belongs to God’s Spirit to assure our spirit and make us sure of our salvation, we should hurry after the Spirit, learn to desire him, and receive from the Spirit what belongs to the Spirit, which no one [c3v] but the Spirit can give, namely, the assurance of sins forgiven. If it were true that we might seek such high things in created things as the sacrament, that is, Christ’s bread and wine, then no doubt Christ would have been so wise that he could have told us this and been so good that he wouldn’t have kept it from us. For Christ commanded his disciples that they should go into the world and preach to them to obey all that he has commanded (Matt. 28[:20]), and Paul said that the scripture is rich and sufficient.

But because it can’t be found in any scripture that we are assured or made content through the bread or wine of the Lord, or that we should experience our salvation from them, this is an addition that is against the scripture and should be avoided as a blasphemy of God’s Spirit and Christ (Deut. 4[:1–2]; Prov. 30[:6]).

Anyone who understands me rightly can’t conclude that I have brought such new things to the light for the sake of argumentation or boasting. I do it, as God is my judge and as I must confess, because I fear to remain silent. For I know that I will suffer bad-mouthing and persecution, especially from those who want to be considered good evangelical people. But this concerns the surpassing obedience of Christ, it touches the death and suffering of Christ. Through the nonsense that we now hear preached in all churches, the gospel of Christ is mocked and Christ’s death lessened and Christ’s righteousness made into nothing, or at least is not sufficiently spoken of, which I and all Christians should guard against according to their abilities. Therefore I must also speak out and point Christians to the true gospel, which all the apostles preached. They broke the Lord’s bread only in remembrance and confession of Christ’s death, and for this reason [c4r] ate it after a sermon had been held. God grant that we accept the right gospel concerning Jesus of Nazareth, for this has been deeply hidden and held in dishonor and repudiated almost entirely in the use of all sacraments, which hasn’t been preached rightly.¹⁸