Biblical Emphases: Means of Grace

Sermon for Midweek of Oculi – Lent 3

Romans 10:5-17  +  John 6:47-63

Original sin means that all people are corrupt by nature and incurable. Justification by faith alone means there’s hope for sinners, because our acceptance by God into eternal life doesn’t depend on our sinlessness, but on faith in Jesus Christ, the Sinless One, whom faith lays hold of, whose benefits faith receives. But where does this faith come from? If we’re truly corrupt and even dead by nature and hostile to God in spiritual things, if we have no true fear of God or true faith in God by nature, as the doctrine of original sin reveals, how can we ever believe in Christ Jesus so as to be justified by faith?

Our Augsburg Confession puts it beautifully: That we may obtain such faith, God has instituted the preaching office; He has given the Gospel and the Sacraments, through which, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, where and when He wishes, in those who hear the Gospel—the Gospel that teaches that, through Christ’s merit, not through our own merit, we have a gracious God, if we believe this.

It’s so rare to find this basic teaching in modern Christian churches. The idea that God works through instruments, through means—what we call the Means of Grace—is completely foreign to American Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, who may speak very highly of the Bible as being the inspired Word of God, but then they come right out and deny that God uses preaching and the Sacraments as His chosen instruments to create faith in men’s hearts. And yet, this is an integral part of the doctrine of Christ. The Holy Ghost works through the instruments, the means of preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments. This is how He stirs up faith in the hearts of men. This is how He nourishes and strengthens and sustains faith.  Everything depends on the Word.

This is the same thing Jesus taught His apostles when He told them the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. The seed that sprouts into faith in men’s hearts is the Word of God, according to Jesus. And what did He say in the lesson you heard tonight? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. And when Jesus gave His apostles the great commission, He said, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Or, Go and make disciples of all nations. How?  By what means?  By reasoning with them? By doing miracles? By telling them to find God within themselves? No. Baptizing them…and teaching them.

Paul says to the Romans in chapter 1, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

And what did Paul say in our lesson from Romans 10? For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? … So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So let’s make sure we have a solid understanding of the Means of Grace. The phrase which we so commonly use in the Lutheran Church, the ‘means of grace,’ refers to the instrument or tool that God the Holy Spirit uses to bring people to faith, to preserve them in the faith, and thus to save people from sin, death, and the devil.

What is that tool? What is that instrument? It’s the Word of God, specifically the Gospel of Christ: God’s promise to be merciful and gracious, to forgive poor sinners their sins for Christ’s sake, through faith. The Gospel is preached to the ears with words alone. But the Gospel is also preached to the eyes and to the other senses when those words, when those promises are attached also to visible things, like water, bread and wine. That’s why we sometimes say that the Sacraments are “the visible Word.”

So the message of Christ is proclaimed in the world. That’s a tool of the Holy Spirit for applying grace to men, for bringing them to faith and, through faith, applying the merits of Christ to them.

Water is applied to a person in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, with the promise that “He who believes and is baptized will be saved,” or, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,” or, “Baptism now saves you,” or, “God saved us through—by means of—the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” Those promises attached to Baptism make it a tool of the Holy Spirit, applying the promises of the Gospel to the individual who is baptized.

Bread and wine are consecrated with the Words of Christ’s institution, then distributed, eaten and drunk by communicants, with the promise that “This is My body; this is My blood of the New Testament, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” That promise, “for the forgiveness of sins,” attached to the bread and wine which each communicant receives, makes the Lord’s Supper a tool of the Holy Spirit, a means of applying grace to sinners, to each and every one, each and every time you receive it.

What things are not means of grace? For one, prayer. Prayer is good. Prayer is powerful. But prayer itself isn’t a tool of the Holy Spirit for conferring grace on sinners, for creating or preserving faith. You talking to God, you asking God for things doesn’t bring His grace and forgiveness to you. Only His appointed means do that.

For another, the heart of man. Your heart is not a means of grace. Neither are your feelings or emotions. If you’re feeling guilty for sins you’ve committed, don’t look inside yourself, don’t look to your feelings in order to find forgiveness or a gracious God. God doesn’t work directly on your heart. He doesn’t forgive you on the inside or communicate with you through your feelings. He communicates with you through His Word and works forgiveness through the appointed means of grace.

Another non-means of grace is things that happen in your life—success or failure, a good day or a bad day, sickness or health, good fortune or bad. God doesn’t tell you whether He accepts you or rejects you through any such things. He’s given you a better way, a dependable way to know His will with certainty, to receive His grace and favor, to be strengthened and confirmed in your faith and preserved in it till the end: His Word preached to you by the servant whom he specifically sent to do it, and His Sacraments administered according to His command.

Be thankful for this doctrine of the means of grace! Rejoice in it! Because it gives you a firm and dependable place to find God in the world, a channel to Christ that is open to all, intended for all, and powerful to work in all people the faith by which alone we must be justified. Amen.