LESSON TWENTY-SIX 2009-2010

LAW, GOSPEL & THE MEANS OF GRACE
  1. "Sacraments and Created Things" (S. 156)
    1. "God and the Ordinary" (S. 156)
      1. Old Testament and New Testament sacraments
        1. As signs, correspond to the realties they contain.
        2. External forms correspond to what God intends to do through them.
        3. Through Word, His full intentions are made known.
        4. Their forms:
          1. Not incidental to the process of salvation.
          2. Chosen deliberately by God as instruments of His grace.
      2. Since creation, God had worked through created things to come to man, e.g. in Old Testament.
        1. Tree of life.
        2. The sacrifices.
        3. The tabernacle
        4. Cloud and pillars of fire.
        5. Temple
      3. In advent of Christ.
        1. God appeared.
        2. God permanently found in Jesus.
        3. Is "in the most profound, mysterious, and ultimate way" (id).
        4. His human nature replaced all the Old Testament forms.
        5. In Him, God has spoken "as His last and ultimate Word" (id)
        6. Heb. 1:1,2.
        7. God made Jesus the temple in which God could be found: Mt. 12:6.
        8. Col. 2:9.
      4. God's presence in Jesus and Jesus' presence in sacraments.
        1. Not of the same kind.
        2. But involve same principle.
        3. i.e. "God uses created things to approach human beings." (id)
        4. Note in FC
          1. Article on the Lord's Supper (VII)
          2. Followed by one on Christ (VIII)
        5. God is known in Jesus.
        6. And, Jesus is known in the sacraments.
        7. By using created things, incarnation and sacraments both have to do with:
          1. Creation, and
          2. Redemption.
        8. Sacraments therefore are affirmation of:
          1. Creation
          2. Redemption
      5. Reformed
        1. Fail to understand incarnation and His sacramental presence.
        2. God separated from man.
          1. By our sin.
          2. But also by His sovereignty.
        3. Have problem also with His coming to us in ordinary words.
    2. "Creation as the Presupposition for Incarnation and Sacraments" (S. 157)
      1. By incarnation
        1. God reasserts His claim as Creator.
        2. With promise of redemption by Christ's death.
      2. Ro. 8:22,23.
      3. Sacramental activity is extension of His creative and redemptive work.
      4. The fall: Ro. 8:19-21.
        1. Adam attempted to achieve glory by himself without God.
        2. Adam acted in opposition of God's command.
      5. Restoration made effective by Word and sacraments.
      6. Christ's death did not destroy the old creation, rather transformed it into new creation.
      7. In this new creation, recipients of sacraments and believe become the first fruits.
      8. Php. 2:7,8: Adam's efforts to be like his creator reversed by Creator Himself.
      9. Sacraments reach back beyond His redemptive work to the creation.
      10. Jn. 1:14.
      11. 2Pe. 1:(3), 4.
      12. Jn. 1:18.
        1. Just as the invisible God is seen in Jesus,
        2. So the sacrament is "a picture of the Word".
        3. Ap. XIII, 5 (Tappert, p. 212; Kolb & Wengert, p. 219f).
      13. Since in the Holy Spirit the Father and Son are present, sacraments have place in creeds after confession of the Spirit. (S. 159)
        1. "The communio sanctorum of Apostles' Creed is better understood as 'the communion of holy things,' that is, a communion of Christ's body and blood, rather than 'the communion of saints.'" (S. 159)
        2. Baptism explicitly mentioned in Nicene Creed.
        3. Sacraments are anticipated in First Articles.
    3. "Sacraments and the Creation" (S. 159)
      1. Sacraments
        1. Authority depends on Christ's command.
        2. Efficacy derived from the Word, that is, the Gospel.
        3. Elements, neither:
          1. Inconsequential, nor
          2. Arbitrarily chosen
          3. cf LC IV, 12 with LC, IV, 27 and 35 (Tappert, pp. 438 & 440,441; Kolb & Wengert, pp. 458 and 460, 461)
          4. Others than those chosen by Christ cannot be used - would be unbelief.
      2. Scaer discusses Reformed vs. Lutherans
    4. "Some Elements and Not Others" (S. 161)
      1. To say was arbitrary
        1. There would be no necessary correspondence between their external forms and the internal mysteries they contain.
        2. Or between forms and the functions and purposes for which instituted.
        3. Would not be revelatory or didactic.
        4. Would put a block between believer and God.
      2. But they were chosen to draw us closer to Him (S. 162)
      3. Preferable (per Scaer)
        1. Forms correspond to internal mysteries offered in them.
        2. Elements and administration are clues to divine actions He intends to accomplish in them.
        3. Intimate relationship exists between:
          1. External shape, and
          2. The invisible gifts they contain
          3. and, the purposes for which established.
        4. Spirit's intentions made visible in their external forms.
    5. "Water and Its Varying Images" (S. 162)
      1. Water allows for multiple images.
        1. Symbolic of washing: Eph 5:[25], 26, [27].
        2. Luther: washing and drowning of sinful self: S.C., Sacraments of Holy Baptism, [10], 12 (Tappert, p. 349; Kolb & Wengert, pp. 359, 360)
        3. Born again.
          1. Tit. 3:5.
          2. Gk: dia loutrou paliggenesias (through (the) washing of regeneration)
          3. "regeneration": a "re-creation"; "a second 'genesis', as the Greek word suggests" (S, 162)
          4. God is not recreating world from nothing.
          5. "He is restoring and perfecting His fallen creation" (id)
          6. cf Ge 1:2: "He works with the water to bring about creation." (id)
          7. 2Pe. 3:5: Creation's water "as a precursor of the church's creation in baptism whereby it becomes the new humanity." (S. 163)
      2. John's writings
        1. Associates the Spirit with the water.
        2. Also uses water as a reference to the Spirit. (id)
        3. Jn 3:5.
        4. "Since water is a customary outward form of the Spirit, birth from the water is a birth from the Spirit." (id)
        5. Christ as the source of the Spirit
          1. Jn. 7:38, 39.
          2. Jn 19:34, 35.
          3. Jn. 4:10-15.
          4. Rev. 22:1; cf Ge. 2:10-14.
      3. 1Jn 5:6-8 (again): He comes in the sacraments (has Trinitarian expression)
      4. 1Pe 3:18-22.
        1. "has all the marks of a creed confessed at baptism" (id)
        2. Water as death and life.
      5. LC IV, 65 (Tappert, pp. 444, 445; Kolb & Wengert, pp. 464, 465)
      6. "So the water of baptism symbolizes creation, birth, destruction, rescue, life and most importantly the Holy Spirit." (S. 164)
    6. "Eucharistic Images from the Pentateuch" (S. 164)
      1. "Baptism as birth implies a one-time occurrence but with a lifelong effect" (id)
      2. Lord's Supper: nourishment; repeated.
      3. LC V, 23, 24 (Tappert, p. 449; Kolb & Wengert, p. 469)
      4. Born in water of baptism then nourished in Supper.
      5. Jn 6:31, 32, [33]; [48], 49, 50, [51].
      6. God again is "the provider for His people" (S. 164)
      7. Bread and wine require cultivation of earth: [Ge. 3:17-19].
      8. Rev. 21:3.
      9. Jn 6:27, 55.
      10. Fruits of creation by toil become fruits of redemption.
      11. Jn 6:58.
      12. Bread, necessary for survival.
      13. Wine, not necessary, "but makes life palatable" (S. 165)
        1. Ps 104:15.
        2. Anticipates in Supper "permanent joy of feasting with Christ in Paradise" (id)
        3. Vineyard: symbol of Israel as God's people.
        4. Is. 5:1-7.
      14. Jesus
        1. Before institution of Supper, He refers to it as "bread"
          1. Mt. 6:11.
          2. Mt. 15:26.
          3. Mt. 16:11,12.
          4. Mt. 26:17.
          5. Lk. 14:15.
        2. In anticipation of participation with believers in Supper:
          1. Reference is to drinking "fruit of the vine".
          2. Mt. 26:29.

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