Scripture and Luther’s Small Catechism teach that Holy Communion is ‘the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ given with bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us to eat and drink’. The benefits of such eating and drinking are ‘the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation’.

Every communicant, even an unrepentant and unbelieving one, receives Christ’s body and blood in this sacrament. But the benefits of the sacrament – forgiveness, life, and salvation – are received only by penitent believers who accept Christ’s words and trust in his promises expressed in the words of institution.

The Lutheran Church teaches that all believers who commune accept and confess the real presence in the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins (1 Corinthians 10:16–17, 17–28). The Apostle Paul warns against the sin of eating and drinking the sacrament ‘in an unworthy manner’ (1 Corinthians 11:27–29). Those who administer the Lord’s Supper and those who receive it both have the responsibility of doing so only and always in a way that is in keeping with the nature of the sacrament.

So the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace. It nourishes and strengthens God’s people. The body and blood of Christ, given in, and with the bread and wine, makes the Lord’s supper a precious gift, which believers receive joyfully and thankfully.