The Water and the Blood: How the Sacraments Shape Christian Identity

The Water and the Blood: How the Sacraments Shape Christian IdentityOur culture today teaches us that we must look inside ourselves to discover our place and purpose in lifewe can determine our own identities and express them however we want. This self centered approach promises freedom and fulfillment, but it leads only to confusion and despair. In The Water and the Blood, Kevin P. Emmert combats this egocentric mindset with a sustainable solution through Jesus Christ. Emmert explores the depth of Christian identity,

Our culture today teaches us that we must look inside ourselves to discover our place and purpose in life—we can determine our own identities and express them however we want. This self-centered approach promises freedom and fulfillment, but it leads only to confusion and despair. In The Water and the Blood, Kevin P. Emmert combats this egocentric mindset with a sustainable solution through Jesus Christ. Emmert explores the depth of Christian identity, which our triune God makes visible through the sacraments of the gospel. This thoughtful, theologically driven book explains how God uses multisensory elements—water, bread, and wine—to communicate to his people and unite them to the life-giving body of Christ. Readers will be inspired to joyfully embrace the identity they have received in Christ as baptized and communing persons.

Publisher: Crossway
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781433584992

______________

Kevin P. Emmert (PhD, London School of Theology) is an academic book editor at Crossway and the author of John Calvin and the Righteousness of Works. He is married to Ashley, and they have three sons: Jack, Charlie, and Noah.

______________

“One major problem in the Christian ecclesiastical imagination is that somehow we ‘do’ church. That is both incorrect and harmful, but it plays well in a world where individuals consider their lives to be those of free self-construction and thus worship to be a matter of spontaneity and human creativity. Of the many ways of exposing and correcting this faulty vision, Kevin Emmert offers one of the most powerful: reflection on the sacraments not as things we ‘do’ but as gifts from God by which he binds us to himself. Evangelical neglect of the sacraments has taken a heavy toll on church life and has fueled our inability to resist the siren call of expressivism. This book teaches pastors and laypeople that a large part of the answer to this complicated problem lies in the simplicity of sacramental practice.” Carl R. Trueman, Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies, Grove City College