Gerhard and Walther

In the holy Lord’s Supper, we do not just receive bread and wine. Rather, by means of the blessed bread we simultaneously receive the true body, and by means of the blessed wine, the true blood of Christ—as is to be concluded from the words of institution. But then Christ’s body and blood is personally united with His Godhead. It is the holy Temple in which the entire fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis II:49.

When Christ says, “which is given for you” and “which was shed for you,” He tells us that the most important thing about His Supper is not the presence of His body and blood, but the fact that it is the body that was given into death for us and the blood that was shed for us. The phrase “for you” is therefore the key to the mystery of grace embedded in the Lord’s Supper.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 335.