# Westminster Larger Q: 153- faith + sacraments?



## saintandsinner77 (Feb 8, 2011)

Question 153: What does God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us by reason of the transgression of the law?

Answer: That we may escape the wrath and curse of God due to us by reason of the transgression of the law, he requires of us repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and the diligent use of the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation.

I will be teaching on this question in Youth Sunday School. Now, on the face, it seems to be teaching that sacraments are part of the means by which we can escape God's wrath. I realize that the WLC does not contradict itself and does teach justification by sola fide in Christ in Questions 70, 71, and 73. 

So then, did the Westminster divines include the sacraments when speaking of escaping God's wrath since they believed salvation can occur in baptism and in the Lord's Supper? 

It is my understanding that the Lord's Supper is a confirming ordinance, not a converting one, and that in baptism, salvation may occur, but not necessarily...anyone have a more in-depth explanation of Q 153?


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## Contra_Mundum (Feb 8, 2011)

Instead of starting with the ordinary means of the sacraments, lets start with the ordinary means of the Word of God.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Should anyone who does not make "diligent use" of the Word (preached, especially) expect Christ to communicate the gospel to him?
OK then, how much do we need the gospel? Once? Are we punctilliar Christians? Don't we live by the gospel? Don't we need the gospel all our lives?
So, the Word is *constantly* communicating to us the benefits of his mediation.

The sacraments are a different "form" of the Word of God. They communicate the gospel to us symbolically. The meaning of the truth in those signs is repeated in the Word that is preached alongside it, and minimally expressed in the words of institution that are to be spoken in conjunction with them.
We are ministered to by the promises embodied by the sacraments. Christ communicates his blessing to us in baptism: both when we are baptized, and in all the rest of the baptisms in which we are observing participants rather than active. Christ communicates his blessing to us in the Lord's Supper when he strengthens our faith by our exercise of that means, given for just such a purpose.

Christ doesn't just bless us once, and that's it. The gospel isn't something that Paul includes in "forgetting what is behind..." The gospel is fresh every Lord's Day. The gospel is fresh every Lord's Supper, and whenever we are present for a baptism. Fresh unto believers, that is.

How can anyone have confidence that he is going to heaven, if he neglects the ordinances of God? It is a peculiar and perverse hyper-individualism that refuses the ordinary means of grace. There's no ordinary possibility of salvation outside the church, so who are all these Christians who have no connection to the church, where God promises his blessings? Don't they have more in common with apostates, _visibly_ to say the least?

There's no meaningful way to tell the difference between some atheist who has nothing to do with church, and some self-attested Christian who has nothing to do with church. That Christian shouldn't have the confidence he's been given (possibly by some well-meaning evangelical) that he's alright with God--not when he is absent from the appointed means for growing and strengthening his faith--not when all he has is a decision-card in his wallet, and a Bible he might read now and again. "Didn't I get all the gospel/Jesus I needed?"

Repentance and faith in the gospel are living activities of the soul, that are watered and fed by the Spirit through the means of grace. The means are not merely for starting us in the Faith, but for keeping us alive in it. They are the *means* by which we are made to *persevere*. God is not only the God who predestinates the ends, but the means to the ends, even especially our salvation.


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