The Sacraments as a Means of Grace

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Quatchu

Puritan Board Sophomore
I have been having trouble rapping my mind around what the Means of Grace actually are, and what it does within Baptism and the Lords Supper. I think it is in part because grace and salvation are so intertwined within my mind that i don't understand it so well. Can anyone take the time to explain it to me or to recommend some articles that can help me through it.
 
The questions:
What is meant by grace?
What is meant by means?

By grace, we mean God revealing himself to us as our Redeemer. In giving us grace, God gives us himself. In grace, God draws near to us, draws us near to himself. Grace is divine embrace.

By means of grace, we speak of the instruments by which God reveals himself to us as our Redeemer. God gives himself to us in the Word, in the Sacraments, and in prayer. He promises to meet us in and by such ordinary things, and to really minister to our believing Spirits. It is faith alone that makes saving use of the means God has appointed, and apprehends the Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. Without faith, partakers merely in the outward forms of spiritual things (whether of the Word or the sacraments or prayer) only incur judgment.

The Sacraments are visible Word. They are "sensible signs." They are the gospel in "dramatic" form. And they need the Words of institution and the preached Word to help us make rational sense of them. Still they minister to us even in their wordless essence. But they are authorized augments or adjuncts to the Word. And God has promised to bless believers in the using.

"We don't receive a different Christ in the Supper, than in the Word. But sometimes we receive him better."
 
For the sake of understanding i have some specific questions. In regards to means of grace what takes place at the Lords Supper? Are there consequences for a Christian who for one reason or another fails to take part in a means of grace for a period of time? This might be on the wrong track but is the means of grace in a sense understood as the station from which we get our fuel for a our Christian walk.
 
Well as a Reformed Anglican, I can say that in the Lord's Supper we are renewing our covenant with God and He is renewing the Covenant with us. It is a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and a sacramental means by which God communicates to us the benefits of the atonement on the Cross. But Anglicans tend to be more sacramentel in their thinking then Presbyterians and Baptists. I do not believe in transubstantiation but have no problem with referring to the Lord's Supper as the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ because we are receiving the benefits of the broken body and shed blood through the sacrament. No I do not believe Jesus is resacrificed in the Eucharist. But I am not sure that is what the Roman Catholics believe either, though the way they describe the Sacrament surely sounds like that is what they believe.
 
I'm still not sure i completely understand the idea. I have however come to realize what in complicating things for me is that I have this preconceived idea that the Means of Grace are more mystical then they really are. And that its not some super mystical event that happens, am i correct in his revelation.
 
In regards to means of grace what takes place at the Lords Supper?
Christ communicates to us the benefits of his redemption by that means (cf.WSC.88). There isn't any essential difference in what or Who is communicated to us. The difference is in how such things are communicated. The principle behind the different means used is that various vehicles convey different aspects of the same thing better one way than another, or best all together.

Think of your relationship to your wife. You communicate with her one way in the kitchen, or in public, and in a different way in the bedroom. Plus, there are a variety of wordless communications that you engage in. Holding her hand can convey virtually the same thing as saying "I like walking with you," but talk can be cheap; and besides, the word and the act complement one another. But don't tell me that walking and taking her hand--saying nothing at all--couldn't say something "better" than if you just said words to her.

Are there consequences for a Christian who for one reason or another fails to take part in a means of grace for a period of time?
Can you live without sustenance? Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word out of the mouth of God. Your soul must be fed as much as your body must. Or it will shrivel and atrophy. Maybe a "lone-ranger" Christian can "live" on his nut-and-berry gathering private Bible-reading devotions. But God gave us the church to go there, and be fed on the Word. Your pastor should be cooking you a well-laid feast at least once a week. What are you missing out on, if you skip it? You tell me.

What about getting preaching, but skipping the Lord's Supper? If you seldom sleep with your wife, or skip the habit for a period of time, are there consequences? Obviously, the effects are person/marriage/circumstance specific; but I'd say that truncating the life of marriage to really good conversations with your wife once a day, and never missing a sit-down meal with her, is probably not as good as it could/should be. What about those 19th century missionaries who went to Africa or India, and left their wives (and sometimes kids too) home for years or a decade? I would never do that of purpose; but I sure think I understand why those letters were fondled to lint--they were the limits of communication for those people who were designed for much more than that.

This might be on the wrong track but is the means of grace in a sense understood as the station from which we get our fuel for a our Christian walk.
Its "Romanist" to think of grace as a "substance" that is like gas in the tank. Grace isn't a spiritual additive. Grace is God's embrace. It is God communicating himself (in the benefits of his Redemption purchased for us by Christ, the Husband of his Bride/Church).

But we DO need the Word, and the Sacraments (the adjunct Word), to sustain our souls. Our relationships live or die by our participation, by our nourishing them and being nourished by and in them. The wife is sustained by her husband's life-with-her (and vice versa). Of course, all analogies have their limits (but it helps that these are biblical imagery). Jesus doesn't "need" us like we need him. But he chose to describe our relationship to him in the way of marriage, eating and drinking, etc.

Hope this is helpful.
 
I think your husband; wife analogy has finally helped me.
To get this straight, means of grace are actions of God in which he draw nears to us in a way that strengthens our relationship with him. He is in essence spending time with us, embracing us.
 
Well as a Reformed Anglican
Lakepointe Baptist Church

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I attend Lakepoint Church but theologically am a Reformed Anglican. That is why I have never officially joined Lakepoint Baptist Church. I will go once or twice a month to an Anglican church for the Liturgy, etc. But I see no way to show I attend two different local churches or to say Anglican attending a Baptist Church. I started attending Lakepoint in 2006 after my wife died because they have a ministry to singles over 40 and to widows/widowers. No other church is our area has such a ministry. Just for clarification. And there are Reformed Baptist types at Lakepoint.
 
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