GOD IN FLESH MADE MANIFEST
In the triple-season of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany, the Christian church celebrates not only the birth of Jesus in a particular time and place, but also the wondrous mystery of the incarnation. What is the "incarnation"? The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church defines it this way:
The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation affirms that the eternal Son of God took human flesh from His human mother and that the historical Christ is at once fully God and fully man. It is opposed to all theories of a mere theophany or transitory appearance of God in human form, frequently met with in other religions. By contrast, it asserts an abiding union in the Person of Christ of Godhead and Manhood without the integrity or permanence of either being impaired. It also assigns the beginnings of this union to a definite and known date in human history.
The Lutherans in the sixteenth century had no intent of confessing or teaching anything different. The Augsburg Confession Article III states:
Our churches teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God (John 1:14), assumed the human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So there are two natures -- the divine and human -- inseparably joined in one person. There is one Christ, true God and true man, who as born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried. He did this to reconcile the Father to us and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of mankind (John 1:29).
The doctrine of the incarnation became controversial among Protestants in the sixteenth century. Lutherans affirmed the traditional position of the ancient and early church, while the Reformed (also known as "Sacramentarians") developed a somewhat different doctrine, related to their beliefs about the Lord's Supper. The Formula of Concord states:
In opposition to the Sacramentarians, Dr.Luther maintained the true, essential presence of Christ's body and blood in the Supper with solid arguments from the words of institution. The objection was raised against him by the Zwinglians that, if Christ's body were present at the same time in heaven and on earth in the Holy Supper, it could be no real, true human body. For such majesty was said to be peculiar to God alone. They said Christ's body was not capable of it. Dr.Luther contradicted and effectively refuted this, as his doctrinal and polemical writings about the Holy Supper show. (Formula of Concord SD VIII, 1-3).
After Luther's death, in 1549 the Swiss theologians Bullinger and Calvin, representing Zurich and Geneva, adopted the Consensus Tigurinus which made the Zwinglian view of the incarnation the official doctrine of all the Reformed churches. After Luther's death, there were theologians and pastors in the Lutheran churches that were tempted to adopt the Zwinglian view of incarnation and the Lord's Supper, and this led to great controversy. Those who followed Luther's position called those in the Lutheran churches who were inclined to accept or tolerate the Reformed view "crypto-Calvinists" (i.e., hidden Calvinists). The controversies raged for twenty years. The Lutheran theologians finally met together in the early 1570s and adopted the Formula of Concord, and the subsequent Book of Concord, in order to settle the Lutheran position on these matters. Article VII of the Formula of Concord deals with the Lord's Supper, while Article VIII deals with the incarnation.
The German and Latin editions of the Book of Concord, as well as some of the editions published in North America, included an Appendix called the "Catalog of Testimonies." The sub-title of that document reads:
From Scripture and the orthodox ancient church that show what Scripture and the early church taught about the person of Christ and the Divine Majesty of His human nature, who is exalted to God's omnipotent right hand. They also show what forms of speech are used by Scripture and the orthodox early church.
The "Catalog of Testimonies" is a list of quotes from the early church theologians and councils that demonstrate that the Lutheran view of the incarnation is identical with the Scriptures and the early church. Quotes are from: Scripture, the council of Ephesus (431), the council of Chalcedon (451), Justin Martyr, Origen, Leo the Great, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Epiphanius, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, John of Damascus, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Vigilius, Eustachius, Hilary, Eusebius of Emissa, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, Nicephorus, and Augustine.
This "Catalog of Testimonies" does not mean that the Lutheran church draws its doctrine of incarnation from these early church fathers. What it does demonstrate is that the Lutheran view of Jesus' incarnation is the same as the early church. The early church's and Lutheran view of the incarnation explains why we believe that it is possible for Christ's body and blood to be in the Lord'sSupper. Jesus' Words of Institution are the reason that we velieve that His body and blood are actually present in, with and under the bread and wine and are distributed and given for communicants to eat and drink.
Lutherans who follow the Book of Concord can thus claim that they are closer to the theology and practice of the early church, especially of Ambrose and Augustine, than any other church today. This was the claim of Luther, Melanchthon, and their immediate students like Martin Chemnitz, and it is still the claim of Lutheran churches like the Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Synod, Evangelical Lutheran synod, and our sister churches around the world.
Yours in Christ, Pastor Martin R. Noland
