The Water and the Blood E-Book

Kevin P. Emmert

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This Thoughtful Book Explores How the Sacraments Shape Christian Identity in Christ  Our culture today teaches us that we must look inside ourselves to discover our place and purpose in life—we can determine our own identities and express them however we want. This self-centered approach promises freedom and fulfillment, but it leads only to confusion and despair.  In The Water and the Blood, Kevin P. Emmert combats this egocentric mindset with a sustainable solution through Jesus Christ. Emmert explores the depth of Christian identity, which our triune God makes visible through the sacraments of the gospel. This thoughtful, theologically driven book explains how God uses multisensory elements—water, bread, and wine—to communicate to his people and unite them to the life-giving body of Christ. Readers will be inspired to joyfully embrace the identity they have received in Christ as baptized and communing persons.  - Offers a Sustainable Solution for Identity Confusion: This book uncovers how a transformative relationship with Christ produces lasting significance and purpose  - Examines the Sacraments: By exploring baptism and Communion, this book outlines what identity in Christ entails and how it is strengthened - Great for Pastors, Seminary Students, and Scholars: Rich in theology, contents from this book will help Christian leaders teach others how the sacraments shape Christian identity 

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“The relationship between identity and the sacraments is a fascinating and timely subject, and Kevin Emmert is a judicious and thoughtful guide. Even people who differ slightly in their understanding of baptism and Communion, as I do, will benefit from reading this book, thinking through the issues, and reflecting on how it can shape disciples today.”

Andrew Wilson, Teaching Pastor, King’s Church London

“One major problem in the Christian ecclesiastical imagination is that somehow we ‘do’ church. That is both incorrect and harmful, but it plays well in a world where individuals consider their lives to be those of free self-construction and thus worship to be a matter of spontaneity and human creativity. Of the many ways of exposing and correcting this faulty vision, Kevin Emmert offers one of the most powerful: reflection on the sacraments not as things we ‘do’ but as gifts from God by which he binds us to himself. Evangelical neglect of the sacraments has taken a heavy toll on church life and has fueled our inability to resist the siren call of expressivism. This book teaches pastors and laypeople that a large part of the answer to this complicated problem lies in the simplicity of sacramental practice.”

Carl R. Trueman, Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies, Grove City College; author, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

“In our day, questions around personal identity are swirling and ever present. And Christians are not immune from the upheaval and confusion. Kevin Emmert’s book looks for help in what for many Christians might seem an unlikely place: the sacraments. The Water and the Blood, however, is not a partisan plea for a particular view of baptism and Communion. Instead, Emmert presents a compelling and winsome case to all Christians for the value of the rites and symbols of the historic church. Here we learn that the sacraments confirm our identity as those united to Christ and inspire us to live accordingly. Emmert demonstrates how the sacraments bring purpose, meaning, and joy to our lives and invite us to live a story worth telling.”

Brian S. Rosner, Principal, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

“Amid today’s desperate and hollow quest for ‘identity,’ Kevin Emmert reminds us that to be a Christian means not only to identify with Christ but also to be in Christ. And the gateways of grace through which God draws us into Christ and forms us in his image are the very sacraments of baptism and Communion given us by Christ in Scripture.”

Joel Scandrett, Associate Professor of Historical Theology, Trinity School for Ministry; executive editor, To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism

“In an age when many struggle with questions of identity, Kevin Emmert helpfully points to the sacraments as identity-forming activities that can teach us in tangible ways what it means to be persons united to Christ. The Water and the Blood offers a practical guide to how baptism and Communion can shape our identity and daily lives as believers joined to Christ. This work, steeped in Scripture and biblical insights from historical Protestant confessions and Christian thinkers, inspires all types of Protestants to reconsider baptism and Communion as critical identity-shaping rites.”

Karin Spiecker Stetina, Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University

“Saturated in Scripture and the best of the Christian tradition, this book has a word for us that is too good and beautiful to ignore. Far from baptism and the Lord’s Supper being empty signs of an absent Christ, they are safe harbor, true sustenance, and, yes, identity markers. For at font and table, in the life-giving presence of our Lord, we learn whose we are and thus who we are. Read this book! It is full of wisdom and gospel truth—a balm and bulwark against the modern malaise surrounding authentic personhood.”

John C. Clark, Professor of Theology, Moody Bible Institute; coauthor, The Incarnation of God and A Call to Christian Formation

“Identity seems to be the preoccupation of our time. Unfortunately, we tend to look in all the wrong places to find it—some inward, others to the fickle affirmation of others. This book lights the path to a better way. Kevin Emmert shows how only Christ provides a solid foundation for our identity and how we encounter him afresh through the sacraments. With deep yet accessible theology, Emmert demonstrates how the sacraments help form our identity in Christ in a dynamic and tangible way. The Water and the Blood is a profound and beautiful book that will resonate with believers from a variety of traditions.”

Drew Dyck, author, Yawning at Tigers and Your Future Self Will Thank You

“Our culture has sent us and the people we love on a wild goose chase in search of our true selves. Rather than deliver on its promises of authenticity, this chase has left us anxious, divided, and confused. Kevin Emmert’s The Water and the Blood points us in a better way, showing how the heavenly gifts of baptism and the Eucharist have bolstered the people of God in their secure and tangible identity in Christ in every era. Richly researched and pastorally attuned, this volume will help every pastor and Christian exchange the wild goose chase for the still waters and green pastures of our good shepherd.”

Aaron Damiani, Rector, Immanuel Anglican Church, Chicago; author, Earth Filled with Heaven: Finding Life in Liturgy, Sacraments, and Other Ancient Practices of the Church

The Water and the Blood

The Water and the Blood

How the Sacraments Shape Christian Identity

Kevin P. Emmert

The Water and the Blood: How the Sacraments Shape Christian Identity

© 2023 by Kevin P. Emmert

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover painting and design: Micah Lanier

First printing 2023

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8499-2 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8502-9 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8500-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Emmert, Kevin P., 1986– author.

Title: The water and the blood : how the sacraments shape Christian identity / Kevin P. Emmert.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022060725 (print) | LCCN 2022060726 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433584992 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433585005 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433585029 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Baptism. | Lord’s Supper. | Sacraments.

Classification: LCC BV803 .E66 2023 (print) | LCC BV803 (ebook) | DDC 234/.161—dc23/eng/20230523

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022060725

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022060726

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2023-10-24 09:22:00 AM

For Ashley, Jack, Charlie, and Noah

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction: The Problem of the Christian Self

1  Word and Sacrament

2  Sacraments and Identity

3  Baptized Persons

4  Communing Persons

5  Conforming Persons

6  Participating Persons

Conclusion: Reimagining the Christian Self

General Index

Scripture Index

Preface

Countless people today struggle to understand themselves, and they are looking in all sorts of directions to find who they are. Christians, however, do not need to look far to discover their identity. Answers to their questions regarding personal meaning, significance, and purpose lie right before their eyes in the context of God’s people gathered for worship—specifically in the rites and symbols of the historic church.

This book, therefore, is about the sacraments. But it is not a typical book about the sacraments. It is not limited to discussing the nature and purpose of baptism and Communion, though it certainly does explore those features in detail. Nor is it polemical, arguing for, say, a specific mode of baptism, whether the infants of Christian parents can or should be baptized, or whether (and, if so, in what manner) Christ is present in the bread and the cup. This is primarily a book on what the sacraments reveal to us about being persons in Christ, about what it means to have our identity and purpose as Christians constituted in him. It is about what it means to be baptized persons, persons immersed into Christ and into the communion of saints. Therefore, it is also a book on the doctrine of union with Christ and what that doctrine means for the self. This study is my attempt as a scholar, active church member, husband, and father to attain a firmer grasp of what it means to be joined to Christ and his body and what that union means for personal identity. The sacraments have far more to teach us about our identity as in-Christ persons than we realize. Christ and his benefits are presented to us in baptism and Communion, and as we embrace him more fully, we come to understand more profoundly who we are in him.

While I am writing from my own ecclesial context as an Anglican of Reformed convictions, I attempt to appeal to Protestants of various stripes. I have in mind especially those who tend to embrace a “low ecclesiology.” This demographic typically possesses a minimalistic understanding of the sacraments (and often prefers the term ordinances) and thus ascribes them little value in corporate worship. My goal is to set forth what many Protestants have historically agreed on regarding the sacraments while at the same time challenging them to think more deeply on what the sacraments teach us about being persons in Christ. I want readers to know that the gifts of God for the people of God—baptism and Communion—reveal to us who we are in Christ. These visible words of the gospel have power to shape our understanding of Christ and of ourselves, as well as to subvert worldly notions of the self and personal identity. Many people today are seeking to discover themselves through self-referential means, and the result is confusion. For Christians, identity is not constructed but revealed. It is not self-generated but received. Identity is given in Christ and ratified in the gospel sacraments he has ordained.

Just as our identity as Christians is not self-constructed, neither is this book the product of self-isolated exercise. Most of this book was written not in my office or in a study but at my family’s dining table. It was informed by family life and crafted at the center of family life, at the very spot where my family and I enjoy food, Scripture, prayer, and singing—together and with our guests. And so I dedicate this book to my precious family. Ashley, my dear wife and closest companion: I cannot find the words to express just how incredible your love and support is, which you show me day after day, year after year. In so many ways—more than you know—you show me what it looks like to live in Christ and like Christ. Your self-sacrificial love and service are both beautiful and humbling. Thank you for your constant encouragement as I wrote this book and for all the helpful suggestions you provided. You are an incredible editor and—far more importantly—a godly woman. You make my work and life unspeakably better than what it would be without you. My sons, Jack, Charlie, and Noah: Thank you for your joy and energy, which bring me so much happiness. And thank you for your patience as I wrote this book. I am proud to be your father. May the three of you lay hold of your baptismal identity and enjoy a long life of sweet communion with our Lord.

I am also grateful for my friends Meghan Robins, Will Chester, and John Clark. Each of you read various portions of an ever-evolving manuscript and provided keen insight for improvements. John, you in particular read my drafts carefully and offered numerous helpful suggestions for both content and phrasing. This book is better because of your thoughtful contribution, wordsmithery, and godly encouragement.

Several of my Crossway colleagues were also hugely instrumental in the development of this book. Samuel James, you helped me tremendously at the early stages as I was still outlining the book, and you provided incredibly valuable feedback on every chapter. David Barshinger, you made numerous edits and suggestions that greatly improved my work. Thank you for your keen editorial eye and theological expertise. I am honored to work with both of you.

I must also recognize my church family. I could not have written this book without participating in the joyful liturgical work performed week in and week out by the congregation. My own church and ecclesial tradition have given me greater clarity of what it means to enact our in-Christ identity. As we gather around the font and approach the table, in living union with the one holy catholic and apostolic church, I learn more of what it means to be immersed into Christ and to commune with him.

And with that, I gladly acknowledge that this book seeks to be confessional-theological, done in the context of the church and for the church. It aims to confess what Holy Scripture teaches about who we are in Christ and to offer a theological account that is connected to faithful, historic Christian dogma. When we come to understand more who Christ is and what he has done and what it means to be in him, we come to understand more deeply and joyfully who we are.

Abbreviations

ANF

Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Cox. 10 vols. 1885–1887. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995.

BCP

Anglican Church in North America. The Book of Common Prayer. Huntington Beach, CA: Anglican Liturgy Press, 2019.

BDAG

Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

BNTC

Black’s New Testament Commentaries

CCC

Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition. Edited by Chad Van Dixhoorn. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022.

CNTC

Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries

Inst.

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edited by John T. McNeill. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox, 1960.

NIGTC

New International Greek Testament Commentary

NPNF1

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Series 1. Edited by Philip Schaff. 14 vols. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature, 1886–1890.

NSBT

New Studies in Biblical Theology

PG

Patrologia Graeca. Edited by J.-P. Migne. 162 vols. Paris, 1857–1886.

SSBT

Short Studies in Biblical Theology

WCF

Westminster Confession of Faith

WLC

Westminster Larger Catechism

WSC

Westminster Shorter Catechism

WTJ

Westminster Theological Journal

Introduction

The Problem of the Christian Self

In an age when countless people are struggling to understand their identity, Christians frequently tell one another, “Your identity is in Christ.” This statement is often issued in attempts to swiftly tranquilize anxiety when someone expresses uncertainty over place and purpose in life: Who am I? Do I belong? How do I find security? What is my purpose? Yet in many such cases, the adage does little to assuage unwelcome feelings of bewilderment. People often tout it without much elaboration, and thus it feels like a trope. Truthfully, the statement is pregnant with rich theology and deserves greater reflection—especially in an age when many Christians are operating with a confused or undeveloped sense of self. In our day, too many Christians do not rightly understand the Christian self and what bearing their identity in Christ has on their identity as particular persons.

At the core of the statement that the Christian’s identity is in Christ is the biblical truth that our very existence as Christians is constituted in and determined by the living, active, and present Christ. The Christian self is a self in Christ. Put differently, being in Christ is our primary identity as Christians. This is true because Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate, is the God-man. As both God and man, he is not only the one true mediator between God and humanity but also the true revelation of both God and humanity. He alone truly reveals both who God is and who we are.

Trying to understand this unfathomable truth helps us navigate the tides of modern secular culture, which is obsessed with self-understanding and self-actualization. One of the greatest absurdities today is that many of us Christians have followed the world’s advice on how to find a place and purpose in life. Our world tells us to look at ourselves in order to discover ourselves.1 With mantras like “Be true to yourself” and “You do you,” we are conditioned to believe that we are individuals who determine our own identities and can express them however we want.2 But the more we look at ourselves, the more confused we become over who we are. Indeed, the path to self-discovery and self-actualization leads only to despair. While the notion that identity is self-generated is a relatively recent development, the truth is that looking inward, in a manner that is self-focused, is not a uniquely modern disposition. It is the inclination of sinful humans, the proclivity we all have inherited from our primal parents. When Adam and Eve erred, they immediately gazed at themselves and were engulfed in fear and shame. What is significant about this act of looking at ourselves is that it coincides with turning away from God. This is precisely the danger of looking at ourselves to understand who we are, for when we do, we turn away from the power that constitutes our very being. So in our constant search to find ourselves by looking at ourselves, we are actually losing ourselves.3

If we as Christians want to understand who we are—to know what significance, place, and purpose we have—we must fix our gaze on Jesus Christ because he is the one who has constituted our very existence. We can rightly understand who we are only in relation to who he is. Personal identity is therefore not something we must discover on our own through our own narratives and pursuits but is something already granted to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Simply put, our identity is not a construct to self-fabricate but a gift to receive.

How to Understand Ourselves

One of the most powerful tools for helping us understand ourselves in relation to Christ is the sacraments. As historic rites of the church, baptism and Communion are characteristic of the church—her belief, identity, life, and practices. They reveal, in palpable form, who the church is and what she is about, and they do the same for her particular members. To be sure, the sacraments testify chiefly to who Christ is and to what God has done for us in Christ. Yet these divine gifts—alongside and never in competition with the gift of Scripture—also proclaim to us what it means to be persons in Christ. As visible and tangible confirmations of God’s work in Christ, the sacraments therefore give flesh and bones to the statement that the Christian’s identity is in Christ and thus provide an effective antidote to the problems so many Christians today face in understanding their identity and purpose. Stated differently, baptism and Communion are identity-forming rituals that teach us in touchable and accessible ways what it means to be persons in Christ.

Further, because the sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual graces—to use the language of Augustine,4 which has been embraced by countless Christians throughout history—they offer aesthetic appeal in a time when many Christians are being allured and catechized by ungodly narratives and practices. Carl Trueman has urged the church to “reflect long and hard on the connection between aesthetics and her core beliefs and practices.”5 He rightly observes that personal narratives have become the highest authority in our modern world, which means that personal narratives are the arbiter for ethics and morality. To this we can add images, which, as Mario Vargas Llosa explains, “have primacy over ideas. For that reason, cinema, television and now the Internet have left books to one side.”6 This is evident, Trueman argues, in that people’s opinions on gay marriage and complex political issues—to name just a few examples—are shaped nowadays primarily by “aesthetics through images created by camera angles and plotlines in movies, sitcoms, and soap operas.”7Or as Jonathan Gottschall remarks, “People can be made to think differently about sex, race, class, gender, violence, ethics, and just about anything else based on a single short story or television show.”8The stories and images presented to us on a daily basis are shaping not just our views on morality but also our sense of self, for, as Charles Taylor has shown, morality is inextricably linked to identity.9

If our morality and sense of identity—which mutually reinforce one another—are shaped so profoundly by aesthetics, then Christians need to not just participate more frequently in the sacraments but also reflect more deeply on their nature, meaning, and power. When rightly understood, rightly administered, and received with faith, baptism and Communion have the power to shape our self-understanding and moral vision. This is because they connect us to the greatest and most powerful story of all time—the gospel of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the sacraments exhibit the historic church’s core beliefs and practices in an attractive and appealing, though certainly ordinary, manner. In baptism and Communion, we find a direct connection between beauty, orthodoxy, and orthopraxy that catechizes the people of God with a greater understanding of the gospel and how they fit into that larger reality as persons in Christ.

The call for renewed and deeper reflection on the sacraments may seem strange or even faddish—especially to “low church” evangelicals who are not formed by a particular confessional heritage and who tend to have a minimalistic view of the sacraments. But the fact is that throughout the history of the church, the sacraments have been integral to Christian life and spirituality. Back in 1977, a group of evangelical theologians emphasized in “The Chicago Call” a need for modern evangelicals to return to the “historic roots” of the church by not only embracing “the abiding value of the great ecumenical creeds and the Reformation confessions” but also returning to “sacramental integrity” and “a sacramental life.” In their call, they decried “the poverty of sacramental understanding among evangelicals,” which they said was “largely due to the loss of our continuity with the teaching of many of the Fathers and Reformers.” Such loss, they maintained, “results in the deterioration of sacramental life in our churches” and “leads us to disregard the sacredness of daily living.”10 Sadly, “The Chicago Call” has been largely neglected, and our connection with our Christian ancestors and their deep understanding of what it means to be persons in Christ remains largely severed. To return to our historical roots and also understand what it means to be in-Christ persons, we need to embrace a mindset—indeed, a manner of life—that is grounded in and consciously oriented toward the sacraments and specifically the gospel truths they communicate.

The sacraments not only provide continuity with the historic church but—when connected to and given meaning by the written word of God—also give us a clear picture of Christ, what he has done for us, and what it means to be persons in him. A proper understanding of ourselves, therefore, cannot be attained without reflecting deeply on Christ and his body, the church. And the church offers us the greatest and truest story of all. The corporate events of baptism and Communion are a major part of that story because they are integral to the life and identity of the church, and they shape in profound ways our understanding of Christ and his body, of which we are members, thereby helping us discern ourselves better. And as we immerse ourselves into the gospel story heralded faithfully by the historic church, we come to understand with greater certainty that we are, fundamentally, baptized and communing persons.

One passage in Scripture that, when read canonically and theologically with input from faithful interpreters throughout church history, reinforces the truth that we are baptized and communing persons is John 19:34, which reports that “there came out blood and water” from Christ’s side after he was pierced. John Calvin, for one, teaches that the blood and water, the two symbols for sacrifices and washings in the Old Testament, represent atonement and cleansing, justification and sanctification—the chief benefits that Christ has secured for us.11 And following Augustine,12 Calvin believes that our sacraments, baptism (washing) and Communion (atonement), represent these benefits and enable us to embrace them more firmly. John Chrysostom, speaking of the water and blood that flowed from Christ’s side, says that the church exists by these two.13 Those who possess faith in Christ are regenerated by water and nourished by his body and blood. Just as Eve was made from the side of Adam, so the church, the bride of Christ, is made from the side of Christ.14 We are persons of the water and the blood, persons who have been cleansed from our sin and guilt and made one with the triune God. Our very existence and identity as Christians are constituted by Christ and his self-giving work of salvation, which are portrayed to us in baptism and Communion.

Moving Forward

Those in positions to catechize and counsel Christians especially should reflect more deeply on the notion that being in Christ is our primary identity as Christians. Such church leaders need to be sufficiently equipped to relay to those under their care a proper theological account for understanding their identity as Christians, as baptized and communing persons, which, in turn, ought to give meaning and shape to the more specific elements of their identities as particular persons. Yet my hope is that readers beyond this group embark on this journey as well. Those interested in learning more about the sacraments will find here, I hope, a fresh yet biblically and historically faithful treatment of the sacraments, all told to the view of what they reveal about our status and calling as in-Christ persons. Therefore, this book will also be of interest to those looking to understand more deeply the doctrine of union with Christ.

The first two chapters explore the sacraments in a general manner, laying the groundwork for understanding what the sacraments teach us about being persons in Christ—and indeed, how they form us as persons in Christ. Chapter 1 focuses on the relation between Scripture and sacrament. Chapter 2 discusses the nature and purpose of the sacraments in greater detail and how the sacraments form and shape the people of God.

The next two chapters pay special attention to the sacraments themselves and what they show us about Christian identity. Chapters 3 and 4 explore baptism and Communion, respectively, focusing primarily on what they reveal about our identity as persons who have been immersed into Christ and who commune with him.

The final two chapters focus on two biblical-theological themes relating to Christian purpose. Chapter 5 explores conformity to Christ, with primary emphasis on Christian morality, and chapter 6 discusses participation in Christ’s ministry. As those redeemed, we are called to embrace both his moral vision and his spiritual mission. Thus, chapters 5 and 6 focus more intently on the imperative truths of being in-Christ persons. And the sacraments are ever in focus, for, when connected to the word of God, they present to us what it means to live as persons joined to and commissioned by the Savior.

I intend this book to be confessional-theological. It aims to confess what Holy Scripture teaches about who we are in Christ and to provide a theological account that is informed by faithful, historic Christian dogma. It takes “The Chicago Call” seriously and seeks to help others return to the historical roots of the church by promoting deeper reflection on the sacraments. Every chapter therefore appeals to major historical Protestant confessions and stalwart Christian thinkers who have demonstrated faithful exegesis and fruitful theological reflection. I apply what orthodox Christians have affirmed through the centuries to our current situation, one that is marked by agonizing uncertainty over personal meaning and purpose.

It is imperative that I mention at the outset that I do not intend to address the unique aspects of people’s individuality—that is, what makes them persons distinct from others. Features of a person’s particularity—from genetic makeup, personality, and family narrative to vocation, education, and hobbies, to name just a few—are not in view in this work. My goal is to speak to the identity that all Christians share as in-Christ persons and to show that the sacraments of baptism and Communion provide a robust theological grid for understanding that identity. And it is through this grid that every aspect of our individuality must be discerned. Our primary identity as in-Christ persons is the controlling feature of all other identity markers, and it provides clarity amid confusion and produces joy and hope instead of despair.

With that stated, let us think about what it means to be in Christ and how the sacraments testify to and solidify the identity we have received in him as persons of the water and the blood.

1  A 2015 study found that 91 percent of US adults agreed that the best way to find oneself is by looking within oneself. See David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2016), 58.

2  Many have called this phenomenon “expressive individualism” and the age of “authenticity.” On the development of such a phenomenon and critical analysis of it, see, e.g., Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007); Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020). My aim in this book is not to show how such ideas now rampant in our modern world have developed but to offer a theological framework that can help Christians work through their feelings of anxiety and uncertainty with regard to who they are.

3  I am indebted to John C. Clark for this expression.

4  See Augustine, On the Catechizing of the Uninstructed, trans. S. D. F. Salmond, in NPNF1 3:312 (26.50).

5  Trueman, Rise and Triumph, 402; emphasis original.

6  Mario Vargas Llosa, Notes on the Death of Culture: Essays on Spectacle and Society, trans. John King (New York: Picador, 2012), 37, quoted in Trueman, Rise and Triumph, 403.

7  Trueman, Rise and Triumph, 403.

8  Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (Boston: Mariner Books, 2013), 152.

9  Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989).

10  “The Chicago Call of 1977,” Epiclesis, accessed December 14, 2022, https://www.epiclesis.org/. See also Simon Chan, Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 11.

11  John Calvin, The Gospel according to St. John 11–21 and the First Epistle of John, ed. David W. Torrance and T. F. Torrance, trans T. H. L Parker, CNTC 5 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1961), 186.

12  Augustine, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, trans. John Gibb, NPNF1 7:434 (120.2).

13John Chrysostom, Joannis Chrysostomi Opera Omnia, ed. J.-P. Migne, PG 59 (Paris, 1862), 463. Not all interpreters see the water and the blood that flowed from Christ’s side as symbolic of baptism and Communion. Given how the images of water and blood function in John’s Gospel, however, a strong case can be made that the water and the blood from Christ’s side not only prove that he was truly human and that he indeed died but also refer to the sacraments, which signify and seal cleansing from sin and guilt, new life and atonement, sanctification and justification. Numerous premodern interpreters of the passage lean in this direction.

14  Augustine, Gospel of John, 434–35 (120.2).

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Word and Sacrament

Many Christians today have a weak understanding of the sacraments and what they accomplish in the lives of believers. We know they are important because Christ commanded that we observe them, but we are largely ignorant of their purpose and power. Baptism and Communion have existed as long as the church has and are thus integral to the life and identity of the church. They are, as I stated in the introduction, characteristic of the church: they reveal definitive qualities of what the church is, what she believes, and how she acts. If these ancient rites reveal the life and identity of the church, then it is no stretch to say that they reveal something about the particular members of the church. In an age when many Christians, not just people outside the church, are wondering where they can find personal meaning and purpose, clarity and peace and assurance with regard to who they are, the best options lie right before our eyes—literally, in the context of God’s people gathered for worship.

To suggest, however, that the sacraments help us become better attuned to what it means to be persons in Christ raises an essential question: What about Scripture? Does not God’s written word teach us all we need to know concerning spiritual matters and therefore what being in Christ means for personal identity and purpose?

One of the great legacies of the Protestant Reformation is the recognition of the preeminence of Scripture, that God’s written word is the chief source for theological investigation and religious matters, the one to which all others must yield. This is in contrast to the teaching of Roman Catholicism, for example, which ranks Scripture and church tradition so closely that both are deemed equally authoritative. As the Second Vatican Council’s document on divine revelation, Dei Verbum, declares, “It is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.”1 Scripture cannot be rightly understood apart from the equally authoritative magisterium, and the latter is just as necessary as the former for ascertaining divine truth. Protestants say no to this, and doggedly so, as it implies that God’s word is insufficient or unclear in what it communicates to God’s people. And so we champion sola Scriptura (Scripture alone): Scripture, as self-revelation of the triune God—in whom there is no fault or deficiency and who is supremely authoritative as Creator and Redeemer—is the perfect, sufficient, and ultimate authority for the church regarding faith and practice.2

So it may seem that our question is already answered and that we ought to redirect our focus: we need not busy ourselves with discussing the sacraments in attempts to discover what it means to be a person in Christ. Scripture, after all, offers the answers, for it is God’s written word, supremely authoritative on spiritual matters.

Yet sola Scriptura does not, and never has historically, maintained that other sources have no significance for the task of theology or for the shaping of Christian piety—and therefore for molding our self-consciousness as persons in Christ. Sola Scriptura, which maintains that God’s written word is the supreme authority in all matters of faith, must not be confused with nuda Scriptura (bare Scripture) or solo Scriptura (only Scripture), an erroneous and foolish notion that Scripture can be understood outside any ecclesial context or that other sources have no bearing whatsoever on the task of theology, which necessarily informs our manner of living. Never mind that it is impossible to adhere to the idea in practice. Scripture is not the only means through which God nourishes his people and draws them ever closer to himself. That much is affirmed by chief Protestant theologians since Reformation times and by definitive Protestant confessions. And the sacraments in particular have played a significant role in the life of the church, in nourishing God’s people. Thus John Calvin says,

We are assisted by [the sacraments] in cherishing, confirming, and increasing the true knowledge of Christ, so as both to possess him more fully, and enjoy him in all his richness, so far are they effectual in regard to us. This is the case when that which is there offered is received by us in true faith.3

Calvin, as ardent a proponent of the Protestant Reformation as any and one who intrepidly chastised Rome for depreciating Scripture, recognizes that God in Christ by the Spirit strengthens his people by various means—the sacraments being a vital one.

So when it comes to fortifying our understanding of what it means to be a person in Christ, it is detrimental to think along either-or lines, as though we must choose between using either Scripture or the sacraments for theological investigation and spiritual formation. To do so is to misunderstand the nature of both word and sacrament, which are divine gifts, and their relationship to one another. Scripture grounds the sacraments, and the sacraments reinforce or accentuate Scripture; Scripture and sacrament are complementary, not competing, and both offer us Christ.4 As Robert Bruce so wonderfully remarks, there is nothing greater than “to be conjoined with Jesus Christ,” and the “two special means” of procuring that “heavenly and celestial conjunction” are the preaching of the word and administration of the sacraments.5 Both word and sacrament play a vital, complementary role in joining us to Christ, the one in whom we find our identity.

This chapter, therefore, focuses primarily on the means by which God communicates himself to his people and the relationship the sacraments have to the written word. In the next, we examine the nature of the sacraments, though I cannot avoid discussing that in some form here. Once we have laid this groundwork, we will be ready to immerse ourselves into and feast richly on Scripture’s teaching on the sacraments and what they communicate to us about Christian identity and purpose.

Properties of the Word

A good first step to take in understanding the relation between word and sacrament is knowing the nature or characteristics of the word of God, particularly what the principle of sola Scriptura affirms. This is because Scripture is the necessary grounding for the sacraments. The sacraments have no meaning apart from the word. So to understand the sacraments aright and what they reveal about our identity as in-Christ persons, we must first understand Scripture, the ultimate authority on matters of faith.

The most fundamental reason that Scripture is the ultimate authority on matters of faith is that it is God’s self-revelation, or self-communication.6 Scripture is not fundamentally about human beings and therefore is not primarily a cultic or ethics manual, though it does reveal a great deal about who we are and how God would have his people worship and live to him. Scripture is principally God’s revelation of himself, who he is and what he has done and does, as well as who he is in relation to his creation. It is not primarily an anthropocentric or anthropological book but a theocentric and theological one—it is the word about God. And as God’s revelation of himself, Scripture is from God. He is both the main content and primary origin of Scripture—as well as its end goal. Scripture is supremely both about him and from him, and it leads us to him so that we may know and enjoy him more deeply and intimately.

As the apostle Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). All, every bit—the seemingly mundane or obscure, as well as the recognizably exhilarating and profound, every word and not just the parts we prefer—is exhaled by God. Or as the apostle Peter states, the writings of Scripture are the product of men being “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). So while the human authors worked in their own particular ways and communicated with their own unique styles and voices, what they produced was not conjured of their own wills. They were guided by God’s Spirit in such a way that they may be truly called authors, not amanuenses, though God is the originator of the content they produced. This is what is affirmed by the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture, God working through human authors and messengers to reveal himself and his purposes.

Already we come to grasp a little of who we are: creatures made to know God. He wants to communicate, indeed give, himself to us. He has deemed us worthy, not because of some inherent virtue within us but because of his unconditional love and supreme grace, to be recipients of his self-revelation. He has breathed out to us his word about himself so that we may be filled with his very life and enjoy eternal fellowship with him. And he has chosen to use humans in the process. He has deemed us fitting agents for divine communication. We are, as beings made in his image, given unrivaled dignity.

Because Scripture is God-breathed, exhaled by the triune God, who alone is perfect and without error, it is completely trustworthy as “the principal guide and leader unto all godliness and virtue.”7 Scripture is true and reliable, without fault, not because of the human authors but because of who God is. Irenaeus wrote in the second century, “The Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit.”8And the Homilies of the Church of England express, “It cannot therefore be but truth which proceedeth from the God of all truth.”9 It seems impossible that words written and transmitted by sinful humans could be wholly truthful and without fault. Yet the old expression holds true here: God can use a crooked stick to draw a straight line. The human authors, though imperfect in themselves, were used by God, carried along by his Spirit, in such a way that the autographs are dependable guides to truth. As the Westminster divines affirm, “The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependent not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.”10 God in his perfection is able to preserve the integrity and sanctity of his word.

Scripture is also perspicuous, or clear. Our all-wise and all-powerful God both knows how and is able to communicate in such a manner that his revelation of himself is intelligible to humans. God is indeed beyond comprehension, as the prophet Isaiah poignantly captures:

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:9)

But the fact that God is mysterious and incomprehensible, dwelling in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), does not mean he has chosen to remain hidden from us. He has revealed himself to us in his word—and ultimately in his Son incarnate, Jesus Christ. This act of revealing himself to us Calvin calls accommodation, God’s condescending to our level so that we may understand and know him. Scripture, then, is like the “lisping” of a nurse to an infant, Calvin explains.11