Why do we need forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper if we are already forgiven in baptism?
I was answering this question in the March 7 edition of the Lent-Up-Early What-Not podcast (starting at 5:23), and I stumbled across a phrase that I’m going to drop here so I don’t forget:
Evangelicals have a minimalistic spiritual aesthetic.
I’ve been wrestling with this idea for a long time. (Some of that wrestling is in this video, Why the Lutheran View of Baptism is So Difficult for Evangelicals.) The Evangelical Theological construct has a profound difficulty in receiving the sacraments (Baptism, Lord’s Supper, Absolution) as gifts of God, means of grace, and acts of salvation.
This can be accounted for by the creeping Gnosticism that runs as the default theological operating system for all of us. Our hearts are inclined to see the physical and external as bad and the internal as good. Or, at least, we prioritize (or prize, or value, or think we should value) the inner life over the outer life. (Martin Luther calls this “enthusiasm“, and identifies it as the root cause of every heresy.)
Gnosticism looks at a thing like baptism, sees the water, the people coming forward, the pastor saying words, and says: “It must be a work, and therefore it cannot save.” Same with the Lord’s Supper: there is bread and wine, eating and drinking. Because it is external is must not be spiritual or give spiritual benefit.
The result is theological reductionism. In order to exclude works from salvation, we will reduce down salvation to the smallest possible thing. “All you have to do to be saved is believe in Jesus.”
Grace alone becomes “What is the minimum requirement for salvation?” This is the theological question driving much of American Evangelicalism, and I stumbled across a name for it on Monday: A Minimalistic Spiritual Aesthetic.
Minimalism tries to cut out all unnecessary things. If I have a toaster oven, why do I need a toaster? Do I need three winter jackets if I live in Texas? Do I need cream in my coffee? All great questions. But if we bring those questions to the Gospel, something has gone very wrong.
“If I have forgiveness in baptism, why do I need the Lord’s Supper? If we are saved by grace, why do we need baptism?”
The impulse is wrong. The direction is not Biblical. Salvation is not a minimum requirement. The question about what is necessary is the wrong question. We should instead ask, “What has Jesus given?” What has Jesus instituted? What has Jesus promised?
If Jesus has given you the gift of baptism, you are not authorized to throw it out. If Jesus feeds you His body and blood for your forgiveness, you are not authorized to skip the meal.
The Lord justifies the sinner by grace through faith, apart from works. Yes, works are excluded from salvation, man’s works, but not God’s works. Salvation is the work of God, and He uses stuff to accomplish this work.
He used, first of all, the flesh and blood of Jesus. The incarnation means that God is physical, in stuff, and He uses the stuff of Jesus’ humanity to win salvation. And this Godman instituted baptism and the Supper for “the remission of sins.” We cannot exclude from salvation what the Lord has included, even if it seems work-y to our minimalistic spiritual aesthetic.
The Lord jam-packs His church full of gifts. There is no spiritual or theological minimalism here, but abundance. Or, as Jesus says it,
…give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Luke 6:38
God be praised!
PrBW
Thank you for this. As an elder in my church, I gladly receive all support I am given about the beauty and necessity of the Lord’s Supper. Online worship is/was a good tool for a while, but it is only a tool. We need Word AND Sacrament.
One of the things I like about Lutheranism, is comparatively a greater willingness to say “duh… don’t know… He says it, that’s enough of the why”. 🙂 Corinthians 11:23-25).
Almost calvinistic in that… here, almost is a good thing.
“… If I understand all mysteries, ( implies there are mystical things ) but have not love… I’m just making a bunch of noise….” 1 Cor 13.
It’s odd to me, folks argue for the authority of the Bible, but – the theology of polity is all over the board. Yet just 30 years ago, all agreed, elders had a job of protecting “the faith once delivered unto the saints”, which included Genesis as the design of Christ. Today, not so much … woman elders, this is allowed only if you re-define the office to something not in the NT. AND – Ignore the “flavor” of the temptations to each gender based on the curse of Genesis 3. This is not about woman, it’s about God being God. Eat and serve the meal, but ignore the chef? Maybe even insult Him by adding your own spice to what he serves, I’d rather not.
So helpful, thank you for writing.
I think that’s right – ‘minimalism’ as a description of how the Triune God works should jar horribly with what we know of the LORD. Fountain of goodness that He is, it is more fitting (and surely right worship!?) to receive his abundent good gifts and rejoice. What a God!
This is incomplete…
“All you have to do to be saved is believe in Jesus.”
“But this is the work of God… He makes you to believe.”
Nothing about that is small. Nothing can be added to it.
Digression – do you see it … it’s coming….. there it went… the next moment. And the next, and the next…. all in the logos of Christ. Ever pressing forward to His return.
How old is the earth? How old is the next moment? As old as God thinks it ought to be.
Understand? No.
But faith, a new creation – what an incredible work He has done, is doing, now but not yet.
I like reading about the ‘swarms’ in Genesis’ creation account. God always gives so abundantly. Down with gnosticism. It slithers everywhere. Thank you for your generous sharing.
I don’t know why you came to this location… I came to hear what God thinks. And where would I think doesn’t agree, I hope I endeavor to repent.
But… If you came here as a woman, and you put it out there in front of everyone’s face – knowing the death and the extent of the controversy, that you are an elder…
I will unapologetically encourage you to repent.
You might come to this fear and take advantage of the goodness and kindness of Pastor wolfmother Wolfmueller…
But…
I’m not of the same temperament.
Come here as a woman Elder with a false fake agenda…
With the premise that God created Eve to be Adam’s helpmate as being inferior…
That reeks of the very problems Paul speaks about as to why a woman should not be an elder.
I call you out
You’re fake.
You’re not an elder over the body of Jesus Christ.
And I do that without apology.
Where the frick are the rest of the men?
Since women have “rose up in society”, in my lifetime…
By almost every measure…
Life has become worse for everyone…
Except the self-diluted have not repented of their Envy women who have made themselves authorities over men.
Let’s not even begin to talk about the statistics with regard to the misery of children…
If you’re a woman Elder
I call b******* on you.
And I do that without apology.
Make war on that.
Make war on the cosmology logos mind of God…
Christ.
Beautiful instructive article. We thank God for you, Pastor Wolfmueller.