It should be equally clear to anyone who is not mentally impaired that the words "This IS my Body" is a far cry from "This merely represents my Body."
You flunk English classes, doc? (Means the same thing in the Greek also).
AITB --
There is a very good reason why we must partake of Jesus Body and Blood. It has to do with organic unity of the Body of Christ.
The issue has to do with whether we are "imputed righteousness" as Calvin and Luther taught, that is, we are declared once and for all time perfect in God's sight because God only sees Jesus and not us, or if we are righteous by our union with and outworking of an alien righteousness which enters us and makes us truly righteous by our unity with it.
Called as sons, we are first made like our Father by the adoption of grace, which takes place in our baptism. Having thus received, if we are imputed righteousness and stand as fully justified before God, why are we called to Theosis, to becoming like Christ? Forensic justification is a declaration that we are already like Christ in God's eyes, for He sees not us, but Christ. If God's declarative justification gives us the perfect righteousness of Christ, then why are we called to grow in holiness? If declarative justification makes us really perfect,where are all the saints in time who suddenly one day were objectively as perfect as Christ upon this earth? If in the forensic model, all we must do is die and we are perfect, why are we warned of the Eschaton Judgement of our works either unto eternal life or eternal death in Romans 2: 6-8? Forensic justification makes this an exercise in silliness. Why judge someone as to whether or not they have been a faithful covenantal son if they are guaranteedto enter Heaven anyway? I hear someone say that it is for determining the rewards in Heaven of the faithful, but that is not the way the verses in Romans are written.
Sacraments are more than just legal declarations. They are Christ uniting Himself with His beloved Bride in the deepest possible intimacy. Can mere legality replace the heart need we have of experiencing Christ in such intimacy? I think not.
Even the understanding of the Eucharist suffers from this legalism as Bishop Sutton's paradigm states that Christ is present in kind, but not in substance in the Eucharist. It is the almost-but-not-quite Real Presence, which is certainly not the understanding of the Early Church Fathers. Certainly Christ is ubiquitous, but that was not the understanding of these men who said that when they partook of the elements, they held in their hands the very same Flesh which was crucified for them and drank the very same Blood which was shed for them.
One must ask why Augustine, Jerome, Clement of Rome, et al would think such a thing. From where did they get such an idea? The pagans? Hardly. It has to be their understanding of the organic unity of the Body of Christ and its members. Just as infused righteousness proves an organic unity with Christ, a true interior unity we can live in and draw strength from, so does the Real Presence of historic Catholicism provide a true and soul nourishing unity with Christ. We are re-infused whenever we thus partake, receiving more than just a restating of imputation, but a restoration of the original righteousness we were infused with at our baptism. Our righteousness, like ocean tides, has high tides and ebbtides. We have, like the Prodigal, wandered away from the household. Maybe not into the land of the swine, but certainly to the outer borders of the Father's Kingdom. Our love wanes, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and we suffer as we become worldly and lose our love for the Father. The Eucharist, when eaten in faith, brings us back into the household and seats us intimately at the Father's table. No mere declaration can do this. I need more than a declaration. I need real, true intimacy with God. And how much more intimately can I experience Him than to do that which He Himself commanded in eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood? It is for this reason that He said, "He who eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has life." Not "He whom the Father has declared to be alive is truly alive."
Scripture says that the life of the flesh is in the blood. May I apply that also to the life of Christ? The life of Christ is in His Blood, so that in partaking of that Blood, I partake intimately with that Life itself. Will the elect be just legally and declaratively related to God in Heaven, or will they experience an experience of God's love in a similar kind of unity and
depth such as the Son has with the Father? Bishop Sutton's declarative paradigm gives false comfort to those who hold to the Real Absence in the Lord's Supper. This is a shame. Those who hold that the Table of the Lord is a mere bare remembrance should be confronted with a theology, which carefully presents to them the total bankruptcy of their position and embarrasses them into changing. They are those who stand outside the household and speak of knowing the Father, but they have not come to the Table and experienced the Father through the Son. They have merely heard of Him and know of Him in a pleasant but most distant way. A concise summary of the difference between forensic (or imputed)righteousness and infused righteousness might help clarify the profound distinction I speak
of.
I have waxed eloquent in an area which seems to be quite unrelated to the need for the Eucharist to be the true Body and Blood of our Lord. But in truth, these concepts are the foundation of the need for the Real Presence. We are born unrighteous by the mere fact of our organic unity with our father Adam. By being flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, in his loins when he sinned, we also are made very real partakers of and participants in that sin. This is no paper declaration of sin in heaven, but a very real participation in both the sin of Adam and the consequent state of separation from God, called “death”, which is the consequence of that sin. It all comes from our organic union with Adam.
Therefore, it is equally necessary that we have not just a paper righteousness in Heaven, but a real righteousness coming from an organic unity with one Who is perfectly righteous Himself.
“Well, surely that is the Spirit of God. We are righteous because we have Him living in us and God sees Him instead of us!”
WRONG!!
I ran several computer word searches through my Bible program. I tried every combination of words and phrases which I could find using the words “spirit” and “righteousness”. Time and time again I came up empty. The best I could find was 3 New Testament verses which mention the spirit and righteousness together. And the only one which mentions them in a way that could possibly look supportive of such a notion actually shows that it is CHRIST living in us who is our righteousness, NOT THE SPIRIT OF GOD!! (Romans 8:10). The work of the Holy Spirit, the purpose of His indwelling is as the seal of our faith and the down payment , or earnest, or our inheritance in Christ. He is never described as being our indwelling righteousness.
Surprised? So was I. I had always held to the Protestant view.
On the other hand, there are a number of verses which connect Christ with righteousness, most especially in us:
Ro 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
I have to jump in right here because I think I hear the sounds of Calvinists doing a victory dance. “See? See? It is FAITH which is our righteousness, not the Eucharist like you insist!”
Agreed that it is faith. The Catholic Church agrees that faith is essential. But you didn't read the verse real carefully, and your conclusion is what happens when you read Scripture through presuppositional lenses. Read that again – slowly. It is the faith OF Jesus Christ, NOT faith IN Jesus Christ. It is the faith of the One who is Jesus Christ, not YOUR faith in Christ Jesus. Get that straight and you will understand what I am saying.
Protestants believe that “faith IN Jesus” is some sort of magic key by which the vaults of Heaven are opened and God gives us a gift called righteousness. A gift which is separate from Christ Himself. Yet Scripture here is showing us that righteousness comes through our organic unity with He Who is Himself righteousness. We become righteous by being placed in Him, staying in Him, and keeping Him in us by the reception of the Eucharist.
Ro 5:17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Look at this. Righteousness is a gift. More tellingly is the context in which this verse appears – Romans 5: 12- 19. The whole point of these verses is how we are condemned by our organic union with Adam, without our having done ANYTHING OURSELVES. By union with him, we are separated from God. Therefore, to reverse the process and redeem us from the curse, we MUST BE IN LIKE MANNER ORGANICALLY UNITED TO CHRIST. A paper declaration of innocency does NO SUCH THING!!!
Ro 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ro 8:10 ¶ And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Oh, look at that! If Christ be IN YOU!! How can Christ be in you except you eat His Flesh and drink His Blood? How can you share in His righteousness in the same organic union you shared in Adam’s unrighteousness unless you somehow unite with His Flesh as you united with Adam’s flesh by your birth? And since Christ is not going to be having a family of faith by the process of having children of His fleshly seed, then God had to find another way. We cannot come forth of His flesh, but his Flesh can come unto and unite within us to give us that righteousness as a real and substantial part of our being.
Ro 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Exactly. Because when we are in Him by baptism, we cease to be in Adam. Our union with Adam placed us under the condemnation of the Law. Our union with Christ places us under the blessing of grace. But how MUCH of Christ we have IN US, how deep that union is determines how righteous we are. The more we receive Him in the Eucharist, the more He permeates our being and conforms us to His righteousness just as the more we received the works of the flesh of Adam, the more we were conformed to evil.
1Co 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
It is Christ who is identified as being made unto (or for) us as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Not the Holy Spirit.
Php 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Just as I said above. The more of Christ we have within us, the more we are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which righteousness comes through our organic union with Him. It is faith which causes us to seek this righteousness, faith which brings us to the altar to receive.
You see? Our fleshly union with Adam separates us from God. Our fleshly union with Jesus reverses that and brings us life. That which was done in the Garden is exactly reversed, and as the eating in the Garden brought death, so the eating in the Church brings life.
And why can God not be holding in His hand that which has been transformed into His true Flesh and true Blood while still sitting there with the apostles? He raises a man from the dead who is four days dead and STINKIN' and yet you think THIS is somehow too hard for Him? When you make this objection, you have left the realm of the mystery of God and begun to think like one who must UNDERSTAND everything to believe in it. That is not faith.
Cordially in Christ,
Brother Ed
[ August 29, 2002, 11:03 PM: Message edited by: CatholicConvert ]
yet is that not correcting Jesus? 
