Ray R. Sutton - Signed, sealed, and delivered: A Study of Holy Baptism

Fourth, the Apostle Paul indicates that baptismal union with Christ leads to communion with Him by way of presenting oneself to God as a living sacrifice. As he speaks of Baptism as incorporation, communion is explained as real participation in Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). It is union and communion by means of the two Sacraments. It is at the Holy Communion that a reckoning occurs through presentation of oneself as a living sacrifice.

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God (Romans 6:12-13).

Later in the Epistle, the Apostle gives us some sense of how and where this reckoning and presentation would occur, when he again appeals to the concept of presenting the person to God. He uses very precise liturgical language, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1). The words reasonable service translate a Greek phrase that implies some kind of liturgical action. They are literally translated, which is your rational

[or reasonable/logical, by extension, well-considered ] act of public worship/liturgical worship. Carefully considered, it is not hard to see why the Church has tied this action to the Eucharist, Holy Communion.

Putting the above passages together, the Apostle calls his people to present their bodies as a living sacrifice through the once for all sacrifice of Christ s death into which they were baptized. The once for all sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is celebrated at Holy Communion. This is where the Church s sacrifice should be offered. Apart from Christ all sacrifice is worthless. In the 1662

Book of Common Prayer , heed the language of one of the classic post-communion prayers (pre communion in the 1928 BCP).

And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness, mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching thee to grant that, by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion. And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him. And although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice; yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord; by whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end. Amen.

The parallel between this prayer and its theology and the passages of Paul in Romans 6 and 12 is unmistakable. Therefore, the Church has understood this presentation through Christ as the best way to avoid any notion of a human being able to earn his way to God by his own efforts, what is called Pelagianism in the Articles of Religion (Article 9). It is by viewing the presentation as being preeminently accomplished through the Eucharistic celebration of the once for all sacrifice of Christ. Union with Christ in Holy Baptism is fed through communion at the Holy Eucharist.