These excerpts come from a 1527 writing of Luther entitled, "That These Words, 'This is My Body,' Still Stand Against the Fanatics."

"But the glory of God is precisely that for our sakes He comes down to the very depths, into human flesh, into the bread, into our mouth, our heart, our bosom; moreover, for our sakes He allows Himself to be treated ingloriously both on the cross and on the altar, as St. Paul says in I Corinthians 11 that some eat the bread in an unworthy manner." [Note that Christ's flesh sits on the altar! This is not just a spiritual event happening in our hearts and minds.]

"Death indeed tried once, wanting to devour and digest Christ's flesh; but it could not. This flesh tore death's stomach and throat into more than a hundred thousand pieces, so that the teeth of the grave fell to pieces and turned to dust, and this flesh of Christ remains alive. For this food was too strong for death, and has devoured and digested it devourer. God is in this flesh. It is God's flesh, the Spirit's flesh. It is in God and God is in it. Therefore it lives and gives life to all who eat it, both to their bodies and to their souls."

"Therefore Christ wills to be in us by nature, in both our soul and body, according to the word in John 6, 'He who eats Me abides in Me and I in him.' If we eat Him spiritually through the Word, He abides in us spiritually in our soul; if one eats Him physically, He abides in us physically and we in Him. As we eat Him, He abides in us and we in Him. For He is not digested or transformed; but ceaselessly He transforms us-our soul into righteousness, our body into immortality. So the ancient fathers spoke of the physical eating."