Don’t Miss The Meaning Of The Sacraments

PART 1 - WHAT ARE THE SACRAMENTS?

It’s the hope of the pastoral team that you came away from our annual Communion Service with a renewed appreciation for the sacraments of the church. That even now, you’re both remembering the Lord’s Table and anticipating the next time we’d gather around it. That you reflected on your baptism - whenever it was and whatever level of Christian maturity you then possessed - and we’re freshly reminded that you’ve entered into the house of God through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

To help our church think well about and get the most out of our participation in the sacraments of baptism and communion, we’ve put together a series of articles to provide a foundational understanding of the two sacraments of the New Testament Church.

As we do, we offer two disclaimers: 1. The sacraments are also commonly referred to as “the ordinances” and we don’t object to this phrase. An ordinance refers to something which has been ordained, and in the case of baptism and communion, the thrust of the term is that these particular practices of the church have been solemnly and specifically ordained by the Lord of the Church - Jesus Christ - to be observed all throughout the present age until he comes. However, we prefer the use of the term “sacrament” because it: a. connects us to the historic language and expression of the church (see below), and b. refers not just to the origin of the practices in view, but provides a framework to understand their function as well (again, see below). 2. When speaking of the particular sacrament of communion, the terms “communion,” “Lord’s Table,” and “Lord’s Supper” will be used interchangeably throughout.

WHAT IS A SACRAMENT?

Now, even as we begin, we know the word sacrament may seem clunky, unfamiliar, just too Roman Catholic, too mystical, too traditional, or too inaccessible to us, for some reason or another, as it crosses our ears and sparks connections in our minds. But, hear us out, we believe it’s a fine word to use to describe these two practices Christ has commanded his church to carry out until he returns.

So, let’s define our terms, what is a sacrament? Historically, what have believers understood this term to mean & how do we use it in the life of our church today? We’ll answer this question in 3 parts: First, a sacrament is a visible word.

A VISIBLE WORD

The term “sacrament” comes from the Latin word sacramentum which was “originally a military term describing the oath of allegiance and obedience that a soldier solemnly pledged to his commander” (Christ, Baptism, And The Lord’s Supper, Leonard Vander Zee). The term was taken up in the second century by Christians to describe “the pledge of faith and allegiance made by candidates for baptism to their Lord” (Vander Zee). From here, the term over time became applied to the practice of baptism itself and then, later on, to the Lord’s Supper as well. Once the term was firmly associated with these practices, the meaning of sacrament essentially became “the sign of a sacred thing” (Vander Zee). The sacraments are physical signs which point our minds and hearts to sacred spiritual realities.

As signs, baptism and the Lord’s Supper become for us, as Augustin puts it, “a visible form of an invisible grace.” They physically, visibly, and outwardly represent the spiritual, invisible, and inward grace of God that has worked in us through the gospel by the Spirit. Physical immersion into water in baptism signifies our spiritual death to sin and resurrection to new life with Christ. Ordinary bread broken and eaten by us signifies that Christ has become for us the all-satisfying, soul-nourishing, bread of life that sustains our spiritual life and joy. A cup poured out and drunk by us signifies that Christ has poured out his blood to wash all our guilty stains, cleanse our consciences, and seal all the promises of the New Covenant for us.

In this understanding, the visible sign of the sacraments become to us a visible, tangible, and experiential proclamation of the gospel. The sacraments demonstrate the saving work of Christ and depict the drama of our own redemption. As they do, they allow us to participate in the redemptive work of Christ in a special way as we engage it with the fullness of our senses.

Beholding immersion and rising out of water, the breaking of the bread, and the pouring out of the cup. Hearing, “Be buried with Christ and rise to walk in newness of life” and “This is my body, which is for you…this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured our for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Feeling the cool wetness wash over us in baptism and grasping the broken bread and poured out cup of the Lord’s Supper. Smelling the smell of the wet ground around us as we emerge from the water or taking in the scent of freshly baked bread and the aroma of the cup. Tasting the liquid as we rise up out of the baptismal pool and it drips down our face and is caught upon our lips or experiencing the rich flavor of the bread and the sweetness of the cup making first contact with the tastebuds on our tongues. In all these ways, the invisible spiritual reality of our life in Christ and his redemptive work which was applied to our souls becomes visible, tangible, and participated in by us in a physical way that drives our appreciation of it deeper down into our hearts.

Think of it like a kiss between husband and wife. The kiss they share is a sign of their love for each other. It is not the fullness or substance of their covenant-love itself, but it points to that invisible love with which they love each other. But not only that. The kiss doesn’t just point to their love, it expresses their love, and truly joins them in love. And as it joins them in love, it deepens their experience of love. In this way, the kiss is a sign that points to and increases the enjoyment of the love that is signified. In the same way, the sacraments are signs which not only point to the finished work of Christ but allow us to connect with it in such a way that our participation in all the benefits of that work is deepened: strengthening our faith, reinvigorating our joy, and refreshing our appreciation for all we have in Christ.

2. AN ACTIVITY ORDAINED BY GOD

Second, a sacrament is an activity which has been ordained by God. From its inception, the Church of Jesus Christ has participated in the sacraments because Christ, the head of the Church, has commanded it. Baptism and communion are the only two sacraments ordained by Christ for his Church to observe, practice, and carry on in until he returns. In the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus, the one who said, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” told his disciples to “make disciples of all nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” He told his disciples to proclaim the gospel message and baptize those who would receive it by faith.

Similarly, in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, as Jesus took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, and later took the cup after supper, he commanded his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). Instructing them to continue commemorating his sacrificial death upon the cross as they participated in a meal in which they ate the bread which represents his broken body and drank the cup which represents his spilled blood (Lk 22:19-20). Christ commanded his Church to preach the gospel, baptize those who received it by faith, and to commemorate his redemptive death via a meal in perpetuity until he returned.

From the very beginning of the early church in Acts, we see the sacraments observed according to this pattern (Acts 2:37-42). As the gospel was proclaimed by Christ’s disciples and received by those who heard, “those who received” the word were baptized and “added” to the church (Acts 2:41). And as those baptized believers gathered together for worship, “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The “breaking of bread” referring to the observance of the Lord’s Supper.

In this way, the proper order of and participants in the sacraments are made clear. Baptism occurs first and marks the entryway and initiation into Christ’s people. The “breaking of the bread,” or Lord’s Supper, follows this and is an on-going observation for those who have: heard the gospel, believed the gospel, and been “added” to the church through baptism. The proper order of participating in the sacraments is baptism and then communion (the New Testament lacks a category for an unbaptized believer taking the Lord’s Supper). The proper participants in the sacraments are those who receive these signs (understanding the gospel realities that they signify) by faith. For a sign is only as effective and as meaningful as it manages to point the one who receives it to the greater reality that it signifies. It wouldn’t make sense to give the sign of baptism or communion to anyone who had not first heard, understood, and grasped the gospel realities to which they point by faith. The sacraments are signs that confirm our participation in the promises of God to give and sustain new life in Christ and those promises must be received by faith. In short, the sacraments are for believers.

The sheer fact that Christ has commanded we observe the sacraments in and of itself makes them worthy of our serious attention, obedience, and willingness to rightly understand what our Lord intended by them. Because Christ commanded them, they are not optional. Because Christ instituted them, he gets to define what they mean and how they are to be observed. We must obey the Lord in our proper practice of the sacraments. But, we shouldn’t allow the reality of this obedience to make them into a mere matter of duty. Far from it! The sacraments are not a matter of dispassionate duty nor a method of meriting grace as we rightly observe them, but a means through which the free grace of God flows out into us to the satisfaction, nourishment, and delight of our souls.

3. A MEANS OF GRACE TO US

Third, the sacraments are a means of grace. What do we mean when we say, “means of grace?” Richard Barcellos provides a helpful explanation as he says the “means of grace” are, “Delivery systems God has instituted to bring grace - that is, spiritual power, spiritual change, spiritual help, spiritual fortitude, spiritual blessings - to needy souls on earth…The means of grace are those conduits through which Christ alters, modifies, adjusts, changes, transforms, and develops souls on earth” (The Lord’s Supper as a Means of Grace).

Through these means of grace (which we understand to be the Word of God, prayer, the gathered worship of the local church, and the sacraments of baptism and communion) we receive grace from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit as he works through the ordained means. By faith, we participate in these means and the grace that Christ acquired for us in his redemptive work is distributed or delivered to us.

Think of it this way: Jesus is the great storehouse or warehouse of grace. The means of grace are the delivery trucks which bring his grace to us. And the Holy Spirit is driving the truck, distributing the grace of Christ in heaven to believers upon the earth. If we put it into an equation, it look like this: God’s ordained means + the Spirit + our faith = soul-altering grace to us. It’s important we note every part in that equation here. The means of grace, and the sacraments especially, aren’t magic. They don’t give grace in and of themselves. The equation is not: baptism or communion = soul-altering grace. But, the Spirit of God works to bring us the grace of God as we receive the ordained means by faith. Faith that is placed in the One from whom grace comes and his finished work of redemption, not faith placed in the power and effectiveness of baptism or the Lord’s Supper in and of themselves.

The sacraments are a means of grace to us in many ways, but one of the primary benefits we receive from them is the grace of assurance. As Calvin said a sacrament is “an outward sign by which the Lord seals to our consciences the promises of his good will toward us in order to sustain the weakness of our faith” (Institutes 4.14.1). This is where the grace of the sacraments hits home. They are given “in order to sustain the weakness of our faith.” Because, being honest, we doubt the reality of our new creation life in Christ and the steadfast love of God for us. We doubt. We sin. We struggle. We sometimes find ourselves unable to tell our lives apart from those of unbelievers. We feel spiritually dull or stagnant. We don’t feel like new creations in Christ. We don’t have unity with the church like we know we’re meant to. We hunger for the things of God, but the world is ever-enticing, ever distracting, and always trying to get us to consume this or that and our appetite for spiritual things is affected. We truly, though imperfectly, love Jesus, but we don’t now see him (1 Pet 1:8). Because this is the reality of our lives, we need the real grace of Christ offered through the sacraments.

Our own baptism and the baptism of others assures us that basis of our entry into the house of God is nothing we’ve done but our faith in what the death and resurrection of Christ have accomplished for us.

The Lord’s Table continually assures us that our seat at God’s table and ongoing place in his house are based upon the body and blood of Christ alone. Not maintained by our acceptable record, nor taken away because of our sin, but guaranteed for us because Christ has given his body to bring us into his body and shed his blood to cover all our sins.

Much more could be said, but suffice it to say: In his kindness, God has given us the sacraments to assure us that Christ and all his benefits are ours. They give to us assuring-grace that revives and refreshes our weary souls when we doubt the reality of our redemption.

APPLYING OUR SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY

How can we practically apply this theology of the sacraments? In two ways, remembering & anticipating.

Would you be encouraged as you:

Remember your baptism. Just how much have you died to sin and been raised with Christ to newness of life? How much were you immersed in water and buried in that symbolic grave? How wet did you get? How soaked were your clothes? How fully did you rise up out of that water and exit the tomb of the baptistry or inflatable pool you were in? As real as the water into which you were immersed, is the reality of the new life you have received in Christ. As truly as you physically were buried and raised, so too have you spiritually died and been raised with Christ (see Rom 6:1-4).

Remember the Lord’s Table. What is the basis of your acceptance with God? The body and the blood of Christ represented by the bread and cup that you hold in your hands. How confident can you be that all the promises of the New Covenant are yours? As confident as you beheld the bread broken and the cup poured out for you. How truly do you belong to the body of Christ and live life in the love of God and his saints? As truly as you gathered around the table and shared a meal with a family of redeemed sinners brought together by the grace of God in Christ.

Anticipate the baptisms of others. Look forward to the next time we’re privileged to witness baptisms in our church as new believers are added to the body of Christ and make their public entrance into Christ’s kingdom. Anticipate the moment in which the visible word of the sin-shattering, death-defeating, life-giving power of Christ is proclaimed. Be eager to encourage those baptized to celebrate all the significance of the sacrament and to remember the waters of baptism when waves of doubt assail them.

Anticipate the next time we gather around the Table. Long for that spiritual communion with Christ and expect to be met with grace. See communion as more than just a memorial of Christ’s death, but an active participation in all the benefits he acquired for us through that death. A real spiritual fellowship with the same Christ who gave his body and shed his blood and was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, and now sits exalted above every power. Our coming to the Table is our coming into the presence of the Risen and Exalted Christ. And not only that! But a Risen and Exalted Christ who is eager to give us himself and feed our souls as often as we gather around his table. Anticipate the Table and expect Christ to work in you by the power of his Spirit next time you eat the bread and drink the cup.

Thank the Lord that he’s ordained the proclamation of these visible words that bring his grace to us!

Part 1 concluded

This concludes, part 1 of this series of articles. In later posts, we’ll dive more deeply into the waters of baptism and feast our minds and hearts even further on the riches of the Lord’s Table. Stay tuned for those, and until then, please see additional resources for further reading below!