A Small Defense of Sacramental Theology

"[Your enemies] shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, 'Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no other God. Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior.'" Isaiah 45:14b, 15

It is a lie (and unfortunate Protestant propaganda) that sacramental theology is a Catholic heresy. Catholicism was not wrong because it had a sacramental theology, but because it (among other things) got it wrong, i.e., completely misunderstood its nature and purpose. They turned sacraments into works whereby we obtain grace whereby we can be saved. Such teachings not only are completely unscriptural (the books of Romans and Galatians are two nice starting points), but they have also completely destroyed sacramental theology for all Protestants, with the exception (of course) of Lutherans. Sacraments are not the process by which you receive God; they are the result of the finished reception of Him.
We Protestants must redeem sacramental theology back into our tradition. We must drag it out from under the stinking heap of confused and heretical dogma dumped upon it and return it to its basic (and only) concept, a concept that Martin Luther himself put quite eloquently, "The finite can contain the infinite." That is not heresy; it is the very foundational philosophical assumption of Christianity, for it is the philosophical foundation laid down in the Incarnation: "The Word became flesh."

1. The Sacrament of Creation "That which may be known of God is manifest...The invisible things of Him...are clearly seen [in] the things that are made...." (Romans 1:19, 20) The world is full of His presence. This is what makes evolution so damnable: because men did not want to see God, they found a pseudo-scientific hoax to explain the glory of Creation as produced merely by natural causes, "and changes the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible [Nature]." (Romans 1:23)
2. The Sacrament of the Law "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." (Romans 7:12) The Law is not mere rules; it is the revelation of God's character, both His holiness and His love, for it is by the dreadful crushing of the Law that we find salvation, "for the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." (Galatians 3:24) In revealing the reality of Sin, we realize the need for a savior.
3. The Sacrament of the Word of God "All scripture is God-breathed...." (II Timothy 3:16) The word is alive and powerful, and strikes the very heart of men, because it is filled with the life of God. Scripture is one of God's special revelations of Himself to us, and how more direct can one get than writing an anthology of books where He says, "There is a God and I'm Him"?
4. The Sacrament of the Word "The Word was God...and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us...." (John 1:1, 14) This one goes without saying. The Incarnation is foundation of sacramental theology.
   
5. The Sacrament of the Church "Now ye are the body of Christ...." (I Corinthians 12:27a) Israel was to serve as the earthly presence of God; the temple was where heaven met earth. Now we carry that same blessing and burden. As the body of Christ, we are now God's physical presence of earth (Goodness! Would to God that the Church really understood that).
6. The Sacrament of the Christian "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost...?" (I Corinthians 6:19) Your finite bodies contain the infinite God. Therefore, you are a sacrament. You are a sacrament both corporately (as a member of the Church) and individually. Your are a magnification of the presence of God in you (Goodness! Would to God that Christians really understood that!).

Perhaps more could be listed, but this is enough for now. Sacraments are vessels chosen by God to convey His presence to the world; not means to receive His grace, but the result of His grace having been received. Catholics must realize that; but what Protestants desperately need to realize is that there really are sacraments, that we really are sacraments, both individual and corporately. Protestants must be rewedded to the reality of sacraments and their consequences. Perhaps then we can strive to clean up the messes we have made in trying to live in denial of our true nature and job: "Surely God is in thee...."

"Spirit of the Living, Indwelling God
Magnify Thy Presence
In all the earth,
In all the earth..."
-Jon Vowell