More Than Marks of Faith
When many Christians today think about the sacraments of baptism and communion, they think of them primarily as acts that we perform. That is, that they’re testimonies or marks of our personal profession, faith, and commitment to Jesus Christ. And while they certainly are that, they’re far more than that.
The historic church has affirmed throughout the ages that baptism and communion are, first and foremost, divine gifts. They’re gifts from our triune God so that we may know him and commune with him, love him, and serve him better. So they teach us and they preach to us the gospel, showing us in physical, tangible form both whose we are and who we are.
They teach us that we are primarily people in Christ. We belong to him, and our identity is not something that’s up for grabs, as it were. It’s not something that we can construct on our own through whatever endeavors or pursuits that we might have. Identity is not a means of self-fabrication, but identity in Christ something to receive because we are in Christ and belong to him.
Today’s culture tells us the only way to gain significance and purpose is through a self-fabricated sense of identity. The Water and the Blood offers an alternative way through Christ, visible through the sacraments.
Testimony of God’s Work
And so the sacraments of baptism and communion subvert expressive individualism—the notion that our identity is self-styled, that we can discover who we are in our life purpose on our own, that we can express our identity however we want, that we can live our lives however we want.
And the sacraments teach us that this is not the case. God has reached down to us in Christ, and he has made us his own. We are his people. He has given us his Son and given us new life in him, and he actually wants us to be like his Son. He has given us his Son’s very Sonly, filial identity and wants us, therefore, to act like his Son.
So our identity and our life purpose are not things that we need to discover on our own or construct through our pursuits and endeavors, but they are simply gifts to receive. And the sacraments attest to these beautiful truths.
Kevin P. Emmert is the author of The Water and the Blood: How the Sacraments Shape Christian Identity.
Related Articles
Is the Lord’s Supper Jesus’s Actual Body and Blood? (1 Corinthians)
The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
What Are the Sacraments, and Why Do They Matter?
One of the most important aspects of church life is the celebration of the sacraments—the Lord’s Supper and baptism. But despite this importance, there is much misunderstanding about them.
What Does It Mean to Take the Lord’s Supper in “Remembrance” of Christ?
Many times today, Christians think that this remembrance is simply recalling past events, but this remembrance—at least from a biblical standpoint—means a lot more.
Podcast: How the Sacraments Help Us Know Who We Truly Are (Kevin Emmert)
Kevin Emmert explains why the sacraments are so central to our lives as believers and why their shaping power is more relevant than ever in a world obsessed with identity and self-expression.
