I Certainly Do Adore the Lord's Flesh

From time to time we would all do well to review the Catalog of Testimonies in our Christian Book of Concord. Section V is “Christ, as God, has divine majesty essentially in one way. It is His possession, part of His very essence, in and of Himself. As man He has it another way, as a result of the personal union, not in and of His very essence as a man.” In this section is the following quote from Saint Augustine…

“I certainly do adore the Lord’s flesh, yes, the perfect humanity in Christ, because it has been received by the divinity and united to Deity. I confess that there are not two different persons, but that one and same Son of God is God and man. In a word, if you separate man from God, I never believe or serve Him.” - Of the Words of the Lord, Discourse 58 (t.10, pp. 217, 18)

It is the Lord’s flesh we receive at the Blessed Sacrament, and Him we believe and serve. With Augustine we adore our once crucified, now triumphant and living Savior, Lord and God. As our Apology puts it, “we defend the doctrine received in the entire Church, that in the Lord's Supper the body and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present, and are truly tendered with those things which are seen, bread and wine. And we speak of the presence of the living Christ; for we know that death hath no more dominion over Him, Rom. 6:9” Apology X:57.

We sing “O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord” at Christmas, but the adoration of Christ is the ongoing endeavor of the Church, worshipping our God who is man and receiving from Him salvation and life. Read your Book of Concord’s Catalog of Testimonies and consider that the faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the one Scriptural faith, a faith directing the world to Christ Jesus and to receiving Him where He has promised to be.