22 Protestant Disagreements

Lutheran and Reformed theologians disagreed about the presence of Christ’s body in the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, with Lutherans arguing for the doctrine of real presence and the Reformed insisting that the body of Christ was not physically enclosed in the bread. Calvin tried to close the gap, but he could never accept the Lutheran insistence that even unbelievers receive Christ’s body in the Supper. Calvin developed the forensic doctrine of justification, in which was the righteousness by which we are justified is imputed, not imparted or infused in us. Lutheran theologians concurred with Calvinists in developing a forensic doctrine of justification with an important role for conversion, as well as the “third use” of the Law.