Sacraments, Presumption and Assurance

1 Corinthians 10:1-11: For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

I love this passage in 1 Corinthians, because it teaches us some important things for our understanding of Christian perseverance, as well as our doctrine of the sacraments (surprise, surprise, there is a link between the two). It tells us two things in parallel.

A common mistake  

(1) It is a warning to the Corinthians against presumption—against false assurance on the basis of participating in Christian worship (including the sacraments, see vv. 14-22). That is, there was a danger for the corinthian christians to think that they we "done", that they were "home" spiritually speaking, out of danger. The basis for their presumption was the fact that they were baptized, and that they participated in the Lord's Supper (or so they thought! See 1 Cor. 11:20-22).

The truth of course, was that they were "putting Christ to the test", presumably by the way in which they were behaving (1 Cor. 11:17-32) when they gathered together as a Church.

To illustrate this, Paul uses Israel ("according to the flesh", see v. 18) in the Old Testament, during their wanderings in the desert, to illustrate his point. They were all baptized (10:2) and all ate and drank the spiritual food and drink (vv.2-3), that is, the Manna and the water from the rock. Nevertheless, with most of them, the Lord was not pleased.

http://lacedwithgrace.com/

The point for Paul then, is that being baptized, being in the community, and participating with the community in activities and worship (most clearly expressed in the Lord's Supper) is not itself the best indicator of spiritual health. Most of the Israelites in the desert had done the same and died in the wilderness. External participation is not a good way of getting spiritual assurance of one's condition. Paul explicitly says that their case exists for the Corinthians (our) example.

Great. So Paul affirms that we can have a false security the comes from "going through the motions", from participating in the "means of grace" in an external fashion. 

A Better Alternative

(2) However, at the same time, Paul tells us something powerful. In this passage he expresses a systematic truth called "the invisible and visible church". The Visible church is the all in the passage. All were baptized, ate and drank. 

However, there were many "hypocrites", many members of the Old Testament "church" that were not genuine believers. Those are the many. With many God was not pleased, and were overthrown in the desert.

However, none of the takes away from something powerful: something was really going on with the "baptism" and with the eating and drinking.

Paul says that those who ate and drank, ate and drank spiritual food and water (vv.2-3). He says that they drank from the Rock, and that Rock was Christ. That is, there are those (not the many) who by eating and drinking drank from Christ himself, spiritually participated in Christ (cfr. 10:15-21, note how Paul uses "spiritual" in other parts of 1 Corinthians: 2:13-15; 15:43-47).

That is, there was real objective spiritual benefit for those who trust in God and His word by eating and drinking. God had said as much in Deuteronomy 8:3 (emphasis mine): "And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 

To know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of the Lord is to trust in His word for life and learn to live in obedience to Him (Deut. 8:6), trusting that He is guiding you to eternal life with Him (Deut. 8:7-8). That is the grace that is imparted when we feed on what He gives us, when we spiritually feed on His word as we physically eat and drink.

Forget going it alone

So Paul warns us about the false, hypocritical and dangerous spiritual presumption the comes from participating in the Christian community and it's worship in a way that builds our assurance on the rituals, activities, and relationships themselves. 

At the same time, Paul tells us how the sacraments as means of grace can give us real assurance: we drink Christ, when we trust in Him who gives us the manna, the one who calls on us to trust Him and His words despite the circumstances (the desert), to obey Him joyfully and trust that He is leading us to the Promised land.

This tells us something important. We need to remember that there is a normal, ordinary way that Christians persevere until the end. Christians persevere, ordinarily, by being preserved by God. And God does this principally by the ordinary means of grace: Word (preached, read, studied, discussed), prayer and sacraments, in the context of the communion of saints. This is not an attempt to limit God nor to obligate Him to act the way we think He ought. It is just a recognition of the fact that this is the way that God has said He will act in the context of church.

The implication is that we must be wary of the idea that Christians can (or are even meant to) "survive" spiritually on their own. It explains why generally those professing christians who we observe begin to neglect to meet with others seem over time to eventually abandon the faith altogether. It has nothing to do with a "roman catholic" view of salvation, where we equate "belonging to a church" with "being saved". The passage above is clear: God ordinarily uses the means of grace within the context of the church community to preserve His saints. I think a common mistake is to assume that He has promised to do so outside of this context, and besides these means, as if the "perseverance of the saints" was something that happened "automatically" and in which our participation was the spiritual equivalent to lying on deck chairs sunbathing alone in the yard.

It seems to be the mistake that A.W. Pink made, and sadly, one that I see too many christians making. Let us be wise in dealing with this pastorally!