Do any Protestant denominations celebrate communion as a representation of Christ's sacrifice as a sacrifice of God to Himself?
0
votes
2
answers
184
views
The Catholic understanding of the celebration of the eucharist is that it is fundamentally a representation of Christ's sacrifice, and is a fulfillment of the Levitical sacrificial system. Are there Protestant denominations that continue this tradition of sacrificing God to Himself via the eucharist?
To give some background as to why Catholics celebrate the eucharist this way, the reasoning is that sacrifice is a universal human expression of the ultimateness of God. It is not only about propitiation for sin. Mankind destructively sacrifices to God what is most materially precious to him to demonstrate that all he owns, including himself, belongs to God, and he is even willing to sacrifice his own life. The first instance of this is the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, which were not sacrifices as propitiation for sin, but rather sacrifices to indicate the supremacy of God above all created things.
The Levitical sacrificial system is a continuation and elaboration of Abel's sacrifice, and sin propitiation is only one aspect of this system. That is why after Jesus' bloody sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and non bloody sacrifice during the institution of the Eucharist during the last supper, there is still a need for continual non bloody sacrifice, to still indicate God's supremacy. However, the Levitical system, and all previous sacrifices offered by humans are insufficient, since God is all sufficient and needs nothing from us, therefore nothing we can sacrifice to God is a worthy sacrifice. Jesus fixed this problem by offering God Himself, through Christ transubstantiated in the Eucharist, as a non bloody sacrifice during mass. So, that is why the Catholic church continues to offer the eucharist as a sacrifice of Christ, not because it doesn't believe Christ's death on the cross is all sufficient for forgiveness of sins, but because of the general institution of sacrifice as an expression of God's ultimateness, and only God is an adequate sacrifice for God.
As a side note, this is why the Catholic understanding of the eucharistic sacrifice necessitates the doctrine of transubstantiation. If the bread and wine were not truly turned into Christ's divinity, then the eucharist would not truly be a sacrifice of God to Himself, and so we'd still have to be carrying on the Levitical animal sacrifice system, or something even more extreme.
Asked by yters
(1132 rep)
Jan 5, 2025, 09:06 PM
Last activity: Jan 6, 2025, 03:25 PM
Last activity: Jan 6, 2025, 03:25 PM