Forgiveness in the sacraments: How it relates to Christ's ministry

One thing that happens often in controversies is that people of different views don't understand each others' positions. There are a certain number of Protestants who become angry at any mention of sacraments, and particularly at the mention of being forgiven at the Lord's table or that baptism now saves us. If someone believes that sacraments are human works, the reaction is understandable. But here is what they look like from a Lutheran point-of-view: 

We are saved by grace -- that is, God's forgiving love toward us through Christ. We know that Christ cleanses us and sends us the Spirit by which we call God our Father. So non-sacramental types are surprised to hear that's exactly what we believe happens in baptism. In baptism, the Spirit came on Christ like a dove, and the Father acknowledged Christ as a dear son. In baptism, God sends his Spirit to us too. Scripture calls it a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." And here in baptism we are joined to Christ's death and resurrection. So baptism is not "another way besides Christ" that we receive forgiveness and new life. It is exactly through Christ that we receive forgiveness and new life in baptism. Baptism is the good news of Christ in a form we can touch and see. 

We know that Christ's death and resurrection save us. His sacrifice was for us, his blood a new covenant for the forgiveness of sins. Again, the Lord's Supper is not "another way besides Christ" that we receive forgiveness through his death and resurrection. It is exactly in Christ's death and resurrection that we receive new life at the Lord's Supper, in the new covenant in his blood shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Again, the Lord's Supper is the good news of Christ in a form we can touch and see. 

There are people who honestly, earnestly believe that we we speak of "the means of grace" (Word and Sacrament, to a Lutheran), that we mean grace comes outside of Christ. In fact, we mean more simply that Christ himself, and the good news of our forgiveness, it was it received when we are baptized, and when we receive the Lord's Supper. 

Best of the Blogroll 2024

Each year on this blog, I like to welcome the New Year by recognizing blog neighbors whose work enriched my spiritual life during the year. Here are the best-loved posts of 2024:  

• Common Denominator - Ken Schenck is a prolific blogger and YouTuber, and that's just in his spare time. For a sample, see his 2024 year in review. 
• Conciliar Post is on my reading list because of its work in Christian reconciliation, a longstanding interest of mine. This year they reached their 10-year anniversary and announced the publication of selected conversations from the first 10 years of their blog.  
• Dr Claude Mariottini has gone to a lighter posting schedule this year. He posted about Moses and YHWH's interaction face-to-face. 
• Forward Progress - Michael Kelley is a prolific poster of edifying content. Hiss post about The Surest Way to Resist the Devil was both insightful and humbling. I was blessed by his fellowship-centric post on Three Reasons Why 2 Are Better Than 1. I was grateful for his Biblical faithfulness and clarity about temptation when focusing on the original temptation, "has God really said?" His post on "Three Promises You Woke Up To This Morning" are a welcome breath of good news in a sometimes dark world. 
• Glory To God For All Things - Father Freeman's post showed me unexplored depths on the view of sin as "missing the mark" with his ponderings on purpose, direction, the identity of the target as God, and the identity of the arrow as ourselves. 
• Hyperekperissou keeps up a steady and faithful stream of book reviews, such as a recent book about contemporary monasticism. 
• Meta's Blog - Joe Hinman contributes to the field of answering atheist objections. One persistent area of focus is explaining atonement, in which he advocates for understanding atonement as God's solidarity with humanity.  
• The Pocket Scroll - One of his posts that I loved best this year was on spiritual self-control and tools in the post Join the battle, for you are already in it. In another particularly edifying one, he explored how knowing God informs preaching, and included the gem "Theology is good because it helps us know and love God more."
• Reading Acts often posts on current academic literature in the field of Biblical Studies, and takes it in turn to host the Biblical Studies Carnival such as this recent one (November 2024). 
• Roger Pearse is a standout in the field of ancient manuscripts and related fields. I actually had a chatbot use his site as a reference within the last month, and for an area I hadn't realized he'd covered. Some of his thought-provoking posts this year include The Megiddo Mosaic, and a book review of Saints of Ethiopia, which touches on an interest of mine in the under-remembered heritage of Christianity in many places in the world. 
• Sun and Shield - Martin LaBar posted an intriguing collection of hymns and spiritual songs with imagery of rocks and stones, and a related post on rocks and stones in Biblical imagery. There is a lot of depth in Scripture which God reveals through imagery, and it needs someone who follows the deeper themes and motifs of Scripture and God's self-revelation. There lies some of the "treasure hidden in a field" for those who take the time to look for it. 
• Thinking Christian - Tom Gilson contributes a reality-check about serving in the mission field right here at home. 
• Undivided Looking - Aron Wall continued his in-depth series on comparative religion with a piece on the moral depth of religions. 

Thank you to all Christian bloggers in 2024 for posting informative, uplifting, and edifying content, both the ones I'm aware of and the ones I'm not. Best wishes and blessings for 2025!

A moment for beauty

In this peaceful weekend between Christmas and New Year's, I'd like to share some artwork. In this case I am not the artists; these are AI-generated images. Neither is the inspiration mine by way of the prompt, which was based (loosely) on the description of the lampstand in the Tabernacle of the ancient Hebrews. My only involvement was coaching the AI through prompts until it had something approximating the golden lampstand resembling an almond tree, with the flames in the place of the almond blossoms, as the master-craftsmen built thousands of years ago. 

Light has a unique beauty. It is said to be the first of God's creations, and an image of God himself. 

Take care & God bless

Love and renewed relationships: They came in person

Joseph, husband of Mary, is one candidate for the first person to start that Christmas tradition of traveling home for Christmas. Of course, there wasn't "Christmas" yet when Joseph went to his ancestral hometown of Bethlehem, and he wasn't there to get together with the cousins. We'll never know in this world if the innkeeper was a distant relative of theirs. We don't know if Joseph had kept in touch with any of his relatives from the region because nobody recorded Joseph's story in that much detail. We actually know more about Mary's relatives than Joseph's. I can imagine a scene something like a larger family reunion in Bethlehem for the census: maybe people figured out their connections -- they were a very genealogy-conscious culture -- or maybe Joseph was just focused on finding a safe place for Mary as she went into labor. If any relationships were renewed, it's because they came in person. 

We do that at holidays, too: a relationship is renewed when people come in person. There is excitement over who will be there, or disappointment over who couldn't make it this year. 

The angels renewed their presence when Christ was on the way. We hadn't seen them in scripture for centuries. Human thought of them may have faded off into legend or pious myth ... until the time was right. Then Zechariah saw Gabriel, honored among the angels as herald of the Messiah from the days of Daniel. Next, Gabriel visited Mary. By the end, shepherds had also seen angels, and even Joseph in a dream. 

And then God did that for us at Christmas. One of Jesus' most-beloved titles is "God with us" (Emmanuel) It is easy for God, like the angels, to fade from our consciousness. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth steal our focus. As Jesus came to us, our relationship with God is renewed. May I look forward to next time I see him. 

The gifts under the tree: anticipation's role in hope

For those of us who exchange gifts at Christmas, you may already have presents under the tree. We take some trouble to hide the specifics of the gifts. They may be covered in wrapping paper. They may be placed in gift bags. They may be hidden in a stocking or an envelope. They're definitely hidden. 

But if we're so keen to hide them -- if hiding them were the whole point -- why would we make such an effort so everyone knows they're there? The stockings are hung in plain sight. The gifts are on open display, "concealed" by very-visible wrappings. What is the point of displaying the fact that we're hiding something? 

There's a tension about Christmas between waiting for the "right time" to receive the gifts and the anticipation of knowing the time is close and that it includes good things for us. We see that there are gifts, not knowing the contents. Seeing them is an encouragement to know that someone has thought of us and planned good for us. It builds hope to know that there is a set day, not too far in the future, when a good thing will happen. It's a human connection, to see the evidence of someone's loving thought, something specially for us. 

God has done that with us in the times we have to wait. For the ancient Israelites, there were prophecies -- promises -- of a King to come, with a herald before him calling in the desert. For Elizabeth and Zechariah, there was the promise of a child who would fulfill the prophecy of the forerunner. For Mary, there was the the promise of a son. For us, we remember that first Christmas, as our Christmas celebration approaches each year. And as the long years pass, we remember there is another Day to come where we will see him face to face. 

It's important to have something we can see here and now, while we wait. 

The Holy Spirit and the bedrock virtues: faith, hope, and love

In Scripture, we hear less about the Holy Spirit than we hear through the Holy Spirit. If we consider the Father as the God we cannot see, and Christ as God with us, then the Spirit can be considered God within us. There we see Christ most clearly, and through Christ we see the Father; but the Spirit is scarcely seen. At times in the New Testament when someone is said to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit-filled person is generally not speaking about the Spirit, but about Christ. The Spirit is less of a focus, and we often learn of the Spirit only by pausing on verses where the Spirit is pointing us toward God, or a presence in our lives. 

We learn that the Spirit knows the mind of God, reveals the things of God, and speaks through the prophets. And we learn that the greatest gifts of the Spirit are faith, hope, and love: the great life-affirming virtues, the virtues fullest of joy and wisdom. 

I'm beginning to see the "gifts of the Spirit" in a different light. I had for many years supposed that "gifts of the Spirit" are things that the Spirit gives us in some sort of relay, where the Father gives us the Spirit, then the Spirit in good time may give us gifts of faith. I wonder now if those gifts are simply an aspect of the Spirit of God. As for faith: if the Spirit of God knows the mind of God, then the Spirit has no doubt about God's goodness or his intentions, so understanding the mind of God gives faith. As for hope: If the Spirit of God knows what God will accomplish, then the Spirit of God is unwavering in hope, so confidence in the knowledge of God gives hope. As for love: if God is love and the Spirit of God knows the heart and mind of God, then of course the Spirit of God is full of love, so sharing the Spirit of God gives us love. 

It seems that the gifts of the Spirit are not a separate thing from the Spirit. If I look for the gifts apart from the Spirit I will come up empty. If I look for the Spirit, there are the gifts too. 

What the Armor of God Tells Us about the Attacks of Evil

Most Christians are familiar with Paul's call to put on the "armor of God" to stand against evil: 

Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, with the belt of truth around your waist, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17)

Anyone who is preparing for battle is preparing for the expected attacks. Each preparation shows what type of attacks Paul expected in our spiritual battle. So the things we need prepare us for certain attacks: 

• Truth: because we expect attacks in the form of lies and half-truths, omissions and distortions
• Righteousness: not just because we expect wickedness from our enemy, but because we expect a temptation to resort to evil things for a good cause, or expect temptation because of our own weakness
• Good news of peace: because spiritual attacks will disturb our peace and confidence, and can take the form of opening our spirits to look somewhere besides Christ. This leads to Paul's next point
• Faith: because spiritual attacks will sow doubt, especially doubt in the Lord or his compassion or his goodness
• Salvation: because the confidence that God has us in his hands will make many spiritual attacks fail against us
• The Word of God: Jesus showed the Word was sufficient for turning back the attacks of evil. 

Except for the last item, everything Paul lists is general preparation or defensive: belts and shoes, helmets and shields and armor. Only the last, the "Word of God", is the "weapon", the thing that touches our foes. May it change our human foes into allies. Because, as Paul said, "we do not fight against flesh and blood" that is, humans; the real battle is a spiritual one.