Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - July/95

Contributor - John Muller

Title - I Believe: The Sacraments

Topic - Sacraments

ARTICLE 33 introduces the idea of the sacraments with this statement: 'We believe that our God, mindful of our crudeness and weakness, has ordained sacraments for us.

Just as words like Trinity, Sunday, and Infant baptism are not found in the Bible, so the word sacrament is not there either. But in all these cases the truths are found in the Bible. So also with sacrament. DeBres states that God "ordained sacraments for us." The Bible does give instruction concerning rites, such as Circumcision, and the Passover in the Old Testament and Baptism and the Lord's Supper in the New Testament.

"They are visible signs and seals of something internal and invisible." Augustine put it this way: It is 'a visible sign of a sacred thing," or 'a visible form of invisible grace." Calvin points out that whenever the Greek word musterion (mystery) was rendered in Latin it was sacramenttum, or sacrament. "Therefore he has used the word sacrament for a sacred or divine secret" (CALVIN'S INSTITUTES, Vol. 2, p. 556).

The CONFESSION continues: "He has added these to the Word of the Gospel to represent better to our external senses both what He enables us to understand by His Word and what He does inwardly in our hearts, confirming in us the salvation He imparts to us." The Word is basic and has priority. It is a means of grace. Joined with the sacraments we gain a better understanding of the Word. QUESTION 66 of our catechism puts it this way: "They were instituted by God so that by our use of them He might make us understand more dearly the promise of the Gospel."

Both the Word and the sacraments present Christ to us with all His grace and blessing. The sacraments tend to dramatize the truths of the Word. Calvin concludes "that the sacraments are truly called testimonies of the grace of God, and are, as it were, seals of the benevolence He bears to us, which, by confirming it to our minds, sustain, cherish, strengthen, and increase our faith" (p. 561).

The ARTICLE concludes on the note of the number of sacraments: 'We are satisfied with the number of sacraments that Christ our Master has ordained for us. There are only two: the sacrament of baptism and the Holy Supper of Jesus Christ." There is an inference here to the fact that others were not "satisfied" with two, but had more.

The Roman Church has seven sacraments instead of two. They claim that this is a holy and perfect number. They add to our two: penance, confirmation, extreme unction (usually before death), marriage and ordination. No Roman member can normally experience more than six, because, to them, ordination and marriage are mutually exclusive.

A study of the Word of God shows us that only two were instituted by Christ, baptism and the Lord's Supper. They both witness to the fact of redemption in Him. Osterhaven concludes that "they alone, among all the other religious rites and ceremonies found in scripture or in the mind of man, have the dignity and right to be known as sacraments in the Church of God" (p. 176).

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