Sacraments

There was a funny scene in the movie “Nacho Libre” where a zealous monk snuck behind an unsuspecting native and dunked his head into a bowl of water to baptize him. This scene got me thinking of how people think of ritual. Rituals are things that people do to get connected to a power (personal or impersonal) to help them cope with life or to obtain a desired result.

Ritual for many people is something magical- being exposed to it automatically brings about desired results. Think of the rabbit’s foot. There is a belief that rubbing it brings good luck. Or think of knocking on wood. There is a belief that it brings good luck. People of a more rationalist bent don’t like the connotation of ritual as something that brings about some desired result. They may deny supernatural reality, therefore the power of ritual. They may also say that the power of ritual is purely psychological. The point for the rationalist is that there is no supernatural reality behind rituals. There are also people of faith who have a rationalist bent. They may say that there is a God who helps us, and he uses circumstances and people. They are comfortable with the idea of a God (or forces) that affect creation in invisible ways. However, they are suspicious of the idea that God acts directly through objects in the universe.

In the Christian tradition, there are powerful rituals called sacraments. Sacraments involve objects (elements) and they are powerful because they are the means of God’s grace whereby he communicates to the recipient the benefits of salvation- forgiveness of sins and eternal life. In the Protestant tradition, it is emphasized that there are only two sacraments that were instituted by Jesus. These two are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Although other rituals are comforting and valuable for marking transitions of life, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the ones that communicate salvation. I see confession/absolution, which some Lutherans identify as a sacrament, to be a function of the word. It is a proclamation of a biblical promise.

There are three components to a sacrament. First there are the promises of God. Promises are presented as certainties, not something dependent on human work. In Baptism, those promises include the forgiveness of sins and regeneration. In the Lord’s Supper, those promises include the forgiveness of sins and spiritual life. Those promises comprise salvation and are the spiritual realities behind the second component of the sacraments, which are the elements themselves. In Baptism, the element is water. In the Lord’s Supper, the elements are the bread and the wine. The elements are signs to God’s salvation and seals of his promise of salvation. However, a question arises as we think of the sacraments, “do they automatically grant the promises of God to the recipients?”

Complicating matters is the presence of the third component of the sacraments. That component is faith. God’s promises are also presented as being appropriated by faith, which on the surface is a human work- believing is an act of the will. When God promised Abraham land and descendants and blessings, Abraham had to act in faith by picking up his bags and moving from Ur to Canaan. Then through all the trials he encountered, God calls him to have faith. In the same way, when the recipient of baptism submits himself to the pouring or sprinkling of water, or dunking in water, while the minister pronounces the initiation into the triune God (father, son, and Holy Spirit), he is professing faith in the promises of God. The promises of baptism are also for the children of believers, therefore children are also baptized as part of the parents’ profession of faith in the promises of God to their children. In the Lord’s Supper, the recipient’s act of eating the bread and drinking the wine is a continuous act of faith in the work of salvation wrought through the broken body and spilled blood of the Savior. Jesus told his disciples to eat his body and drink his blood as an act of faith. His body and blood are the source of salvation and the way to receive the benefits of his body and blood is by partaking of the bread and the wine in communion.

In the Lord’s Supper, there is a controversy as to the relationship between the body and blood of Christ, and the bread and the wine taken in by the recipient. Baptism does not create the same controversy because the water is not proclaimed to be the Holy Spirit, whereas the bread and wine is proclaimed to be the body and blood of Christ. The Catholic view is that the bread and wine (elements) transform into the body and blood of Christ as the priest pronounces the words of institution during mass. This view focuses on the priest’s “magical power” as the cause of the transformation of the elements. The Lutheran view is that Jesus’ body and blood are present in, around, under the bread and the wine, in the context of worship and the words of institution. Therefore, the body and blood of Jesus is being given to the recipients of the elements. The difference with the Lutheran view is that it does not introduce a man-centered magical process- a transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The power of the priest does not make bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, but the proclamation of God's promise is that the bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ.

Jesus juxtaposed faith in him with eating his body and drinking his blood. In other views, the act of eating and drinking is the expression of faith, just like submitting to the waters of baptism. The Old Testament antecedent is the priests’ eating the sin offerings of the people, which is part of the whole ritual called the sacrificial system, a ritual designed to purify God’s people from sin. Since there is no special class of priestly mediators due to the opening up of access to God, the believer is welcome to eat of the sacrifice to complete the ritual.

The difficulty with embracing the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood in the elements is that it proposes that Jesus’ body is somehow dissipated into the elements, but Jesus is in the right hand of God in heaven. I understand that Jesus is and continues to be divine, and therefore all reality is present to him. The right hand of God is everywhere, not in a localized place in “heaven”. However, unlike God the father and God the Holy Spirit who are incorporeal and whose presence fills all of creation, Jesus took on a human body that he took with him to the father’s right hand. It is difficult to conceive of a human body that could be dissipated. A solution is to remember the union of human and divine natures in Jesus. Jesus is not two persons with two natures, but two natures united in one person, without mingling the two natures that they lose distinction. The attribute of divinity (omnipresence) is united to his human body. Therefore, the doctrine of Jesus' real presence in the sacraments can be accepted. We can take Jesus' words in faith that the bread and wine is his body and blood. He is present in them through the union of the elements and the divine body, the mystery of the Lord's Supper.

A spiritual view is that in communion, when we partake of the bread and the wine, we are partaking in the sacrifice that saves us from sin and gives us eternal life. It is as if we are transported to the real presence of Christ who gave his life for us. There is a spiritual reality but that reality does not lie with the elements themselves, but in the presence of Jesus separate from the elements. A memorial view doesn’t acknowledge a spiritual reality but sees the Lord’s Supper as a pure remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice in the past. That remembrance may have psychological power for the believer, strengthening his faith as he focuses his eyes on what has been done for him. However, the sacrifice itself is confined to the past and nothing is happening in the present when the bread and wine is given to the believer.

Baptism creates some controversy. Many Christians, of the more rationalist bent, abhor the idea of baptismal regeneration. This is the idea that a person becomes saved through baptism. I think we need to be careful of telling people adamantly that baptism is not necessary for salvation, because the scriptures proclaim that sacraments grant forgiveness of sins. It is not just an act of obedience similar to not stealing, for example. It separates Christians from non-Christians in a tangible way, and brings God's grace to people in tangible ways. However, the concern that people see rituals as magical things that save them is valid. It creates a false assurance. I want to point out that praying the prayer of faith is also a ritual and it also creates false assurance tell people that they are saved because they said the prayer. Baptism has better biblical grounds for entrance into God’s people than the sinner’s prayer. It is faith that appropriates God’s gifts, but the gifts are the sacraments themselves- both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. God’s grace comes to us in different ways and the sacraments themselves are salvific manifestations of that grace. To reject them is to reject God’s grace, and that rejection results in judgment. Therefore, taking the sacraments without faith results in judgment.

Practically, baptism that saves is baptism into the triune God. People don’t have to be rebaptized if they are already baptized as an infant into the triune God, and it does not have to be in a specific church or denomination. Baptism already imparted God's grace to a person and grace is not dependent on our works; we don't lose it or gain it. If a person is already baptized, a recommitment to Christ would require going back into community with a church that worships the triune God, which he has been initiated into.

In my view, behind the sacraments are spiritual realities of the grace and power of God. In Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, God is truly doing something supernatural in the moment- forgiving, regenerating, sustaining. Sacraments are not just remembrances of a past event or professions of faith borne out of obedience. We don’t do anything to make the sacraments effective, God does all the work. However, scripture indicates that faith is necessary to appropriate the spiritual realities behind the sacraments. Without faith, sacraments are empty rituals and empty rituals incur judgment. Therefore, it does seem that faith does make the sacrament effective. This is a paradox that must be accepted; faith is necessary to make the unconditional promises of God effective. A proposed solution is that faith as a gift of God, not something man is able to produce in his heart, mind, and will (total depravity). The spirit produces faith in some so that God’s Spirit makes the sacraments effective for obtaining God’s promises (salvation). Therefore, salvation remains under God's sovereignty, but the paradox that the sacraments rooted in God's unconditional promise may not deliver the promise still remains.

What is the practical application of this presentation on the sacraments? Faith in God’s grace and power compels us to approach the sacraments with expectation that God is truly working through them, not cynically doubting the sincerity of those receiving them, as if that is the main attraction. The sacrament proclaims God’s work, not man’s faith. However, we still must call people to faith in the God behind the sacraments, because it is faith that appropriates God’s work of salvation. Without faith, there is emptiness and judgment.

On God’s Universal Intent and Election

Because I mentioned that faith is given by God to some (election), it is a good time to discuss the doctrine of God’s sovereign grace. Scripture is clear that no one comes to faith in Jesus except the father draws him. This statement should evoke humility and trust as God reveals that salvation comes from him alone, without man’s help. Scripture is also clear that God desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He does not mean all believers only since this statement is written in the context of praying for those who rule the land, and they are not believers during that time. This tension will not be solved by reason and must be allowed to stand. We continue to proclaim God’s love for all people. We continue to proclaim the availability of the forgiveness of sins through the body and blood of Jesus. We continue to proclaim the Spirit’s invitation to come be baptized into God’s promises. At the same time, we rest on the sovereignty of God’s grace- that God the father is the one who draws men to Jesus, that Christ’s death brings life to those whom God the father draws, and that the Spirit triumphs over the will of those whom the father draws. We continue to trust that despite unbelief, God will save and preserve his people.

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