Christian Questions & Answers
prepared by Dr. Martin Luther for those who would go to the Sacrament
(not originally included in Luther’s Small Catechism)
After confession and instruction have taken place concerning the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the words of Baptism and the Sacrament, the pastor may ask, or a person may ask himself these questions:
1. Do you believe that you are a sinner?
Yes, I believe it; I am a sinner.
2. How do you know that?
From the Ten Commandments; I have not kept them.
3. Are you also sorry for your sins?
Yes, I am sorry that I have sinned against God.
4. What have you earned from God with your sins?
His wrath and displeasure, temporal death and eternal condemnation.
5. Do you also hope to be saved?
Yes, that is my hope.
6. In whom, then, do you take comfort?
In my dear Lord Christ.
7. Who is Christ?
The Son of God, true God and man.
8. How many Gods are there?
Only one, but there are three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
9. What did Christ do for you so that you take comfort in Him?
He died for me and shed His blood on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
10. Did the Father also die for you?
No. The Father is God only, as is the Holy Spirit; but the Son is both true God and true Man. He died for me and shed His blood for me.
11. How do you know this?
From the holy Gospel, from the words of the Sacrament, and by His body and blood, given to me as a pledge in the Sacrament.
12. What are these words?
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to His disciples and said: “Take eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup after supper, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying: “Take and drink of it, all of you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
13. Do you believe, then, that the true body and blood of Christ are in the Sacrament?
Yes, I believe it.
14. What moves you to believe this?
The words of Christ: “Take, eat, this is My body! Drink of it, all of you, this is My blood!”
15. What should we do when we eat His body and drink His blood and in this way receive His pledge?
We should remember and proclaim His death and the shedding of His blood, as He taught us: “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
16. Why should we remember and proclaim His death?
So that we may learn to believe that no creature could have made satisfaction for our sins—only Christ, true God and Man, could do that; and so that we may learn to be terrified by our sins, and learn to regard them as serious; and that we may find joy and comfort in Christ alone, and thus be saved by this faith.
17. What moved Christ to die and make satisfaction for your sins?
His great love for His Father, for me and for other sinners, as it is written in John 15, Romans 6, Galatians 2.
18. Why, then, do you wish to go to the Sacrament?
That I may learn to believe that Christ, out of great love, died for my sins; and then, that I may also learn from Him to love God and my neighbor.
19. What should admonish and encourage a Christian to receive the Sacrament of the Altar often?
For God’s sake, both the command and the promise of the Lord Christ should drive him to the Sacrament; then also his own need that hangs around his neck, because of which the command, invitation, and promise are given.
20. But what should a person do if he can’t feel this need, or if he can’t find in himself any hunger or thirst for the Sacrament?
To such a person no better advice can be given than this:
First, he should put his hand on his chest to see if he, too, has flesh and blood, and he should believe what the Scriptures say about it in Galatians 5 and Romans 6.
Second, he should look around to see if he is also still in the world, and he should consider that there will be no shortage of sins and troubles, as the Scriptures say in John 15-16 and in 1 John 2 and 5.
Third, he will, for this very reason, also have the devil near him, who, with his lies and murdering day and night, will grant him no peace, within or without, as the Scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16, 1 Peter 5, Ephesians 6, and 2 Timothy 2.