Sunday, December 03, 2006

On the sacraments. We need to sacramentalize the everyday life. To be a Christian is to adopt a form of life, a Lebensform, a mode of being. We should live holy lives, giving ourself to Jesus Christ. But we can never look aways from the sacraments. The sacraments are holy, and given to us by God for justification, sanctification and deification. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes." (1. Corinthians 11:23-26, NKJV) As Christians we should receive holy communion every day, or at least once a week. This is the celebration of our righteousness, we celebrate that Jesus died for us (and rose again), and that we are made righteous in the face of God. We receive his body and his blood, and what happens can be called transsubstansiation, the wine and bread appears to be merely bread and wine, but it changes in its essence and becomes Christ's flesh and blood. Baptism is equally important. Peter writes -in one of his beautiful letters: "There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him." ( 1. Peter 3:21-22) Baptism is a confession to God, and the water is a symbol of the new convenant with him in Christ Jesus.

3 Comments:

Blogger Andreas Johan said...

Dear Andreas,
You have som beautifil bloggs. I would like to add that the sacraments are given to us as a sign of God's grace and perhaps not so much for our deification - which I think man never can achieve.
OD

2:13 PM  
Blogger Andreas Johan said...

Deification is a central doctrine in the NT. See for instance John 10:34-35. But of course, as you say, we all need God's grace.

5:30 AM  
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