Thursday, July 10, 2008

Proclaiming the Gospel

1 Cor. 11:26 (ESV)
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

One thing that is often missing from a full understanding of the Lord’s Supper is the idea that it is a proclamation. In a sense it is the same as a confession. By proclaiming you make a confession of belief in what you proclaim. Here it is the Lord’s death, which is to say the gospel. As the apostle Paul equates these two earlier in this same epistle. (“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel.” 1 Cor 1:17 “But we preach Christ Crucified, as stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles” 1 Cor 1:23, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Christ and Him Crucified.” 1 Cor 2:2) The gospel and the Lord’s Supper are here intertwined; one does not live without the other, at least not for very long. A skewed view of the Lord’s Supper will result in a skewed view of the Gospel. Where there is no Supper at all, the Gospel will be lost. But where the Supper is the Gospel will live, however weak it might be, it will live. For where the Supper is served, the gospel is proclaimed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a powerful message to "All Christians" who hear and read the Gospel. And to fellow Lutherans and others that partake in the Sacraments, that it,(along with the word), should not be a mere ritual and taken for granted.

Anonymous said...

The Supper is pure gospel, untainted by us.

It is the Word...in the flesh!

Nice job, Bror. You are a heavy underline of that Word.

apollo819 said...

sorry for the repeat, just figured out how to sign in to comment..
What a powerful message to "All Christians" who hear and read the Gospel. And to fellow Lutherans and others that partake in the Sacraments, that it,(along with the word), should not be a mere ritual and taken for granted.

Bror Erickson said...

apollo 819,
Thanks for going through the trouble of signing in. I hate this feature of Blogspot. It is not at all conducive to comments. I am thinking of changing domains in the near future. Part of me though just hopes they change this format.It is ugly, and hard to use. I don't care if it does cut down on spam.