The Mystery Revealed – Romans 16:25-27

The Mystery Revealed – Romans 16:25-27

They agree in having God for their author, and in the things which are signified; for the sacraments, both of the Old and New Testaments, signify, promise and offer the same blessings, viz: the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost through Christ alone, as the following passages of Scripture prove: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” “Our fathers were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” “In whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands,” by which it is declared that we receive the same blessings in baptism which the saints of old did in circumcision. “Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.” (Heb. 13:8. 1 Cor. 10:2-4, Col. 2:11, 1 Cor. 5:7.) Augustin says, The sacraments of the Old and New Testaments differ in their signs, but agree in the thing signified. The fathers all ate the same spiritual meat. The earthly meat, however, which they ate was different from that which we eat; they ate manna, we do not; but the spiritual meat which they did eat, is the same as that which we eat. Without Christ, who is the thing signified in the sacraments, of both testaments, no one ever has been saved, or can be saved. It follows, therefore, that the fathers, who lived under the Old Testament, had the same communion with Christ which we also have, and that this was signified no less to them, by the word and sacraments, than it is now to us under the New Covenant. Hence it is not only idolatry to seek in the sacraments another communion with Christ, than that which is in his word; but the same thing may also be said to be true, when we seek another communion in the sacraments of the New Testament, from that which was in the sacraments of the Old. – Zacharias Ursinus

Passage: Romans 16:25-27

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