Two Kinds of Sacrifice
Apology XXIV (XII) The Mass. Beginning at paragraph 19. Page 222 of Concordia, Readers Edition.
Distinction between a Sacrament and a Sacrifice
“A Sacrament is a ceremony or work in which God presents to us what the promise of the ceremony offers. Baptism is not a work that we offer to God. It is a work in which God baptizes us. In other words, a minister baptizes us on God’s behalf. God here offers and presents the forgiveness of sins, and so forth, according to the promise “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16).
“A sacrifice, on the contrary, is a ceremony or work that we give to God in order to provide Him honor.”
Two Kinds of Sacrifice
“Furthermore, there are two kinds of sacrifice and no more. One is the atoning sacrifice, that is, a work that makes satisfaction for guilt and punishment. It reconciles God, or reconciles His wrath and merits the forgiveness of sins for others.
“The other kind is the eucharistic sacrifice, which do not merit the forgiveness of sins or reconciliation. It is practiced by those who have been reconciled, so that we may give thanks or return gratitude for the forgiveness of sins that has been received, or for other benefits received.”
- “All Levitical sacrifices can be referred to either of these two distinctions as if [they were] their own homes. In the Law certain sacrifices were named atoning because of their meaning or by comparison. They were not called sacrifice because they merited the forgiveness of sins before God, but because they merited the forgiveness of sins according to the righteousness of the Law, so that those for whom they were made might not be excluded from that commonwealth <from the people of Israel>. Therefore, for a trespass, the sacrifices were called sin offerings and burnt offerings. But the eucharistic sacrifices were the grain offering, the drink offering, thank offerings, firstfruits, tithes [Leviticus 1-7].”
- “In fact there has been only one atoning sacrifice in the world, namely, Christ’s death, as the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches, ‘It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins’ (10:4). A little later, of the will of Christ, ‘By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body’ (10:10).”
- “Isaiah interprets the Law, so that we may know Christ’s death is truly a satisfaction for our sins, or remedy, that the ceremonies of the Law are not. He says, ‘When his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring,’ and so on (Isaiah 53:10).”
- “Let this remain the case: Christ’s death alone is truly an atoning sacrifice. For the Levitical atoning sacrifices were so called only to illustrate the future remedy. Because of a certain resemblance they were satisfactions delivering the righteousness of the Law and preventing those persons who sinned from being excluded from the common wealth. But after the revelation of the Gospel, those sacrifices had to end. Since they had to end in the revelation of the Gospel, they were not true atoning sacrifices, for the Gospel promised specifically to present an atoning sacrifice.”
- Now the rest of eucharistic sacrifices which are called sacrifices of praise (Leviticus 3; 7:11[-18]; Psalm 56:12). These are the preaching of the Gospel, faith, prayer, thanksgiving, confession, the troubles of saints, yes, all good works of saints. These sacrifices are not satisfactions for those making them, nor can they be applied to others to merit the forgiveness of sins or reconciliation by the outward act (ex opere operato). They are made by those who have been reconciled. These are the sacrifices of the New Testament, as Peter teaches, ‘a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices’ (1 Peter 2:5). Spiritual sacrifices, however are contrasted not only with those of cattle, but even with human works offered by the outward act, because spiritual refers to the movements of the Holy Spirit in us. Paul teaches the same thing, ‘Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (λογικἠν λατρείαν)’ (Romans 12:1). ‘Spiritual worship’ means, however, a service in which God is known and is grasped by the mind. This happens in the movements of fear and trust toward God. Therefore, it contrasts not only with the Levitical service, in which cattle are slain, but also with a service in which a work is imagined to be offered by the outward act.”
- “The Epistle to the Hebrews teaches the same thing, ‘Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God’ (13:15).”
- This means that eucharistic sacrifices cannot be simply outward acts (ex opere operato), but must be done through faith. This is why God in several places in the Old Testament rebukes His people for sacrifices, which He Himself commanded, even saying, “I did not command them!” He did not command sacrifices to be done without faith.
- “I did nto speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God,’” (Jeremiah 7:22-23)
- Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,[b]
and perform your vows to the Most High,
15 and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Psalm 50:8-15)
- “Sacrifices and offering You have not desired, but You have given me an open ear’ (Psalm 40:6)
- “You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17)
- “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD” (Psalm 4:5)
- “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD” (Psalm 116:17)
- The Sacrament of the Altar is not an atoning sacrifice offered for the sins of people, but it is a eucharistic sacrifice.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church:
- 1323: “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory to us.”
- 1366: The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies tis fruit:
- [Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper “on the night when he was betrayed,” [he wanted] to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit. (Council of Trent (1562): DS 1740
- 1367: The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: ‘The Victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different.’ ‘And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once ina bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner—this sacrifice is truly propitiatory.” (Council of Trent (1562): Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, c. 2: DS 1743.
- 1368: The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ’s sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering.
- “1369: The whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of Christ. Since he has the ministry of Peter in the Church, the Pope is associated with every celebration of the Eucharist, wherein he is named as the sign and servant of the unity of the universal Church. …
- “Through the ministry of priests the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful is completed in union with the sacrifice of Christ the only Mediator, which in the Eucharist is offered through the priests’ hands in the name of the whole Church in an unbloody and sacramental manner until the Lord himself comes.”
- 1370: To the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth but those already in the glory of heaven. In communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ.
- 1371: The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who “have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified,” (Council of Trent 1562): DS 1743) so that they may be able to enter into the light of peace of Christ
- 2010: “Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the grace needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life.”
- Hebrews 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,[e] then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify[f] for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[g] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church:
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.[h] 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
- Luther on the Sacrifice of the Mass:
- The Mass in the papacy has to be the greatest and most horrible abomination, since it directly and powerfully conflicts with this chief article. Above and before all other popish idolatries the Mass has been the chief and most false. For this sacrifice or work of the Mass is thought to free people from sins, both in this life and also in purgatory. It does so even when offered by a wicked scoundrel. Yet only the Lamb of God can and will do this [John 1:29], as said above. Nothing of this article is to be surrendered or conceded, because the first article does not allow it. (Smalcald Articles: Part II, Article II
- The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us. As St. Paul says: For w hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28) That He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26) Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls [Mark 13:31]. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5) Upon this article everything that we teach and practice depends, in opposition to the pope, the devil, and the whole world. Therefore, we must be certain and not doubt this doctrine. Otherwise, all is lost, and the pope, the devil, and all adversaires win the victory and the right over us. (Smalcald Articles: Part II; Article 1).
- The Mass in the papacy has to be the greatest and most horrible abomination, since it directly and powerfully conflicts with this chief article. Above and before all other popish idolatries the Mass has been the chief and most false. For this sacrifice or work of the Mass is thought to free people from sins, both in this life and also in purgatory. It does so even when offered by a wicked scoundrel. Yet only the Lamb of God can and will do this [John 1:29], as said above. Nothing of this article is to be surrendered or conceded, because the first article does not allow it. (Smalcald Articles: Part II, Article II
- Yet, this distinction between the sacrifice of atonement and sacrifices of thanksgiving has other practical applications besides refuting the Roman Catholic Sacrifice of the Mass.
- It refutes all works righteousness.
- It teaches that we should be busy with good works, constantly offering up our whole selves as living sacrifices of thanksgiving to God.
- I appeal to you therefore, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)
This leads us to the next topic I would like to discuss, which is: Additional rewards in heaven. Does God reward Christians for good works? Will those who have done great good works receive a greater reward in heaven? Scripture and our Lutheran Confessions say yes. This is connected directly with sacrifices of thanksgiving, and must be distinguished from the sacrifice of atonement.
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