The Sacraments!

Christ ordained two sacraments namely Baptism and Holy Communion. They respectively succeed the two sacraments in the Old Testament, namely Circumcision and the Passover feast.   

The same Word of God that addresses us verbally through reading the Bible and through preaching and the personal witness of our fellow believers, also comes to us visibly and perceptibly through the sacraments.

The sacraments are much more than just symbols of the Word and even less so, only visual aids to understand the Word better, but visible, material forms of the Word of God itself that in a most personal way apply, confirm and seal the promises of the gospel to the individual Christian. In both baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Lord comes to speak to us by name to both comfort and challenge us personally to receive his Word and promises and he renews his covenant with us individually to save us and to sustain us as his children.

To all who are willing, no keen, to receive the holy Sacraments with open hearts and minds, Christ comes personally with saving grace in the power of his Spirit.

As the Holy Spirit awakens faith by means of preaching and personal witness to Christ, so by means of the Sacraments the same Spirit confirms our faith, binds us to Christ and through creating a faith relationship with our Lord, establishes the assurance of our faith and our experience that we are God’s children.

The sacraments convey and effect God’s promises to sinners which we accept in faith and through the experience of the grace of God.

Through remembrance the Lord every time “recreates” the moment that faith entered our lives!  As we at the Table stand next to the cross and see his love and come in awe to the open grave to be renewed by his resurrection, his light shines brightly in the reality of our daily lives and encourages us to fully live for our Lord in future.