No. 55 Great question, Josh, and I agree with you about this course with Professor Sanchez. Sometimes when I am thanking God for blessings in my life, I include the online DELTO program, for I don�t know how I could access this kind of instruction and learning apart from what we experience here on the Internet. � Now Joshua�s question had to do with Luther�s two kinds of righteousness. I want to ask about the Apology�s two types of sacrifice. How does the Apology�s distinction help us to speak more meaningfully about the Lord�s Supper? >>DR. LEOPALDO SANCHEZ M.: Thank you, Eric. It is always a good thing to look to the Confessions for deeper reflection on various theological issues. Apology 24 deals with the mass with the Lord's Supper. This was written at a time when it was common among God's people to think of the Lord's Supper as a work that we do to receive God's favor apart from the merits of Christ's own atoning work. To address this problem, the confessors taught that the Lord's Supper is a work that God does to offer us the merits of Christ's atoning work, the forgiveness of sins. The apology defines the atoning sacrifice of Christ as a work of satisfaction for guilt and punishment that reconciles to God, conciliates the wrath of God or merits the forgiveness of sins for others. It is on account of Christ's atoning sacrifice that we receive the forgiveness of sins when we partake of his body and blood in the supper. What would happen often at that time is that people would for example have masses for the dead. So that God would be favorable towards them. And give them less years of purgatory or something like that. So the mass was clearly being used in the wrong way. As a work that we do or do for others to please God. And so here the notion of the supper as given the benefits of Christ's atoning sacrifice was important. Was to stress that the Lord's Supper is a sacrament, is a work that God does. But the confessors also speak of the mass, the Lord's Supper as a eucharistic sacrifice which does not merit the forgiveness of sins or reconciliation but is rendered by those who have already been reconciled as a way to give thanks. As a way of expressing gratitude for having received forgiveness of sins and other benefits. The idea here is that the Lord's Supper brings those who have been justified and forgiven into a eucharistic life. One of thanksgiving and praise that includes all good works. Saint Paul refers to this life as a spiritual worship. He writes: Present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. We see that the notion of eucharistic sacrifice is helpful because it gives us a way to talk about the sanctified life as an act of worship. Sanctified life, life in the Spirit, is a constant act of praise to God for his gifts. And this praise to God includes, also, all our good works in relationship to the neighbor.