The same friend who I mentioned below is trying to convince me we can all be assured of salvation. And that the Bible is the standard for “Truth” with a capital “T.” And Christ’s sacrifice ended on Calvary so there is no purpose in the Eucharist. And that we are saved by faith apart from works of the law. Well the last one is true, since what Paul was saying is that we don’t have to become Jewish before we can become Christian. Why when a mere Christian sees that word “law” in the New Testament they think of the Catholic Church I have no idea. They equate “law” with a church that has rules. Christ gave us rules – what’s wrong with rules? We all know Martin Luther inserted the word “alone” into the passage on being saved by faith apart from works in order to appease his own scrupulosity. It is a terrible sin of pride if when God has forgiven us we cannot forgive ourselves. It is insidious emotion, too – we think we are being righteous or penitent when we are scrupulous but we are not. Rather we should glorify Christ’s love and mercy in the confessional by leaving our faults and trangressions there with Him, accepting His forgiveness and being renewed in our Christian lives. But I digress!
Putting the issues of sola scriptura and the assurance of salvation aside, it’s clear that there is a failure here to understand the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. She sent me this passage from John:
When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30
and said “The sacrifice is complete-finished, ‘paid in full.'” Do we deny Christ’s sacrifice-and say, well maybe it wasn’t good enough?
Of course we don’t say that. What we do say is that Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t over when he died on the Cross, it was accomplished. It is accomplished. Christ offers Himself to the Father perpetually for the redemption of our sins – what else would the eternal High Priest do? Christ appeared with glorified wounds as a sign of His perpetual sacrifice. The Lamb in Revelation is slain. And this from the earliest Christians:
The Didache
“Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23-24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations’ [Mal. 1:11, 14]” (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).
How people can ignore what the first generation of Christians knew of the nature of Christ’s sacrifice is utterly beyond me. It’s going to take me a while to reply to her. I’ll let you all know how it goes.