SACRAMENTS.

I. The meaning of the term. The word was used to refer to something sacred or consecrated, related to a “mystery.” In the Vul. sacramentum is used to tr. the Gr. word μυστήριον, G3696, (cf. Eph 1:9; 3:2f., 9; Col 1:26f.; 1 Tim 3:16; Rev 1:20; 17:7). In a wide sense it came to designate any sign which possessed a hidden meaning. Religious rites and ceremonies such as the sign of the cross, anointing with oil, preaching, confirmation, prayer, aid to the sick, etc., were equally called sacraments. Harnack indicates that Tertullian “already used the word to denote sacred facts, mysterious and salutary signs and vehicles, and also holy acts. Everything in any way connected with the Deity and his revelation, and therefore, for example, the content of revelation as doctrine, is designated ‘sacrament’; and the word is also applied to the symbolical which is always something mysterious and holy” (History of Dogma, II, 138, 139).

It became increasingly evident that the religious significance of the term was too free and broad for careful Biblical precision, although the word itself is not used in the Bible. For this reason theologians early endeavored to assign definitions to the word which would reflect a more scriptural exactness. As might be expected however, such efforts brought neither agreement on the essence nor on the number of the sacraments.

In our day Van der Leeuw and Schillebeeck argue that the Christian sacraments receive their meaning from the background of a general sacramentology. Such a general sacramentology is said to be a providential precursor of the Christian sacraments, a tutor to bring us to Christ. One of the difficulties with this view is that it raises the problem of pansacramentalism with its anthropologically rather than Biblically anchored general sacramentology.

Conservatives maintain that sacraments exist because of a divine signifying. Not every sign is a sacrament, and therefore it is impossible to base the Christian sacrament on a phenomenological analysis. The sacraments of the Church are those appointed by Christ in the NT. They are signs and seals of the covenant between God and His people. They are visible and outward attestations of the covenant entered into between them. As signs they represent the blessings of the covenant of redemption; as seals they ratify and confirm its validity.

II. The relation between the Word and sacrament. Priority is to be given to the Word, written and preached. The Word can exist in completeness without the sacraments but the sacraments cannot exist in any meaningful way without the Word. The interpretive Word of God is of decisive significance for the power and the understanding of these visible signs of His redemptive work.

There are certain points of agreement between the Word and sacraments. (1) Their author is the same. God has decreed that they should both be means of grace. (2) Christ is their focal point of meaning; He is their center. (3) They both must be accepted in faith. Calvin rightly stated, “They avail and profit nothing unless received in faith.” (4) Both are instruments used by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who alone makes both real to the Christian.

There are certain points of dissimilarity between the Word and sacraments. (1) They differ in their necessity. The Word is indispensable to salvation; the sacraments are not. Some have been redeemed without the use of sacraments; e.g., believers before the time of Abraham and the penitent thief on the cross. The Christian is under a compelling moral obligation to obey His Master’s commands respecting the sacraments unless external circumstances make it impossible, but, this necessity of precept is not to be confused with a necessity of means. The sacraments are nothing less than, but nothing more than, a visible sign of the Word. Faith alone (sola fide) is the instrumental cause of salvation (John 5:24; 6:29; Acts 16:31; etc.).

(2) They differ in their application. The Word is to be preached to everyone (Matt 28:18-20); whereas, the sacraments are to be administered only to those who profess faith and, as held by a large segment of Protestants, to those within the covenant relationship, as infants in the case of baptism. The sacraments are meaningless to those who are not within the Church. In the case of the Lord’s Supper, Paul even indicates that professing Christians should be warned lest they partake unworthily (1 Cor 11:27-32).

(3) They differ in their object. The Word is designed to initiate and strengthen faith; whereas, in the Protestant tradition, the sacraments are understood to contribute either solely or principally to its strengthening. There is some difference between the Lutheran and Reformed perspective on this point.

(4) They differ in their medium of expression. The Word expresses itself most powerfully through the medium of sound (preaching); whereas, the sacraments do so through the medium of sight, in association with taste and touch. The sacraments are a visible Word; a sacrament is “a visible form of an invisible grace.”

III. The number of the sacraments. The question concerning the number of sacraments is integrally bound to the matter of their essential nature. The Roman Catholic Church maintains that their essential nature is that of an infusion of supernatural grace into all of life from beginning to end. With appeal to the selective principle of divine appointment and tradition to the harmony and beauty which they display and to the doctrinal authority of the Church the number of sacraments was inviolably fixed at seven: (1) baptism (Matt 28:19; John 3:5); (2) confirmation (Acts 8:14; 19:6); (3) Eucharist (Matt 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:15-20; John 6:1-71; 1 Cor 11:23-25); (4) penance (John 20:21-23); (5) extreme unction (James 5:13-15); (6) orders (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 11:26); (7) matrimony (Matt 19:4-9; Eph 5:21-32).

In sharp contrast to this multiplicity of sacraments stands the Protestant doctrine with but two: (1) baptism and (2) the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist). It should be noted that such diverse ceremonies as orders, matrimony and extreme unction may all be Biblical in their own way but they were clearly not directly instituted by the Lord Himself as uniquely signifying the saving work of Jesus Christ and therefore they do not qualify as sacraments. Jesus calls His death a baptism and a cup (Matt 20:22) and unlike the other observances these actions themselves directly reflect the redemptive work which Jesus Christ accomplished. By their very nature therefore, these two sacraments stand in a class by themselves and cannot simply be included with other ecclesiastical ceremonies; they are unique.

IV. The efficacy of the sacraments. The question as to the efficacy of the sacraments has been argued around the concept of symbolism (Reformation) versus realism (Rome). It should be clearly understood however, that symbolical does not mean without real efficacy. Symbol is not opposed to reality. The real question concerns the manner in which this reality is represented.

According to Roman Catholic theology the sacraments work ex opere operato; that is, the working is objective and does not depend in any way upon the recipient. The sacrament is an instrument of God and the cause of redemptive grace. This idea has led some to see in Roman Catholic sacramentality a certain magical quality. This ex opere operato was understood as a matter-of-fact working from above in which there was no element of human subjectivity. To view the Roman Catholic sacramental doctrine as magical would be too simplistic. In addition to her appeal to the objectivity of the sacraments Rome has maintained that a certain subjective disposition is necessary for the working of the sacraments; a disposition which simply presents no opposing obstacle. The problem then becomes one of understanding how this necessary disposition may be harmoniously connected with the ex opere operato, that absolutely objective structure of the sacrament, which works independently of the recipient.

Representative of the Reformed Protestant position on the efficacy of the sacraments is the statement of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Answer to question 91), “The sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them; but only by the blessing of Christ and the working of His Spirit in them that by faith receive them.” The efficacy of the sacraments thus is not in themselves as outward acts but rather in the blessing of Christ and His Spirit conditioned upon faith in the recipient.

Reformed theology maintains that the efficacy of the sacraments is seen in three ways: (1) as representative of the benefits of the new covenant; (2) as seals of the same; and (3) as the application of the same. As seals the sacraments constitute outward signs of an already established inner spiritual relationship with Christ through faith. They are presumptive evidence for the validity of the divine redemptive covenant; that is, they are applied subsequent to the time when the individual is presumed to be regenerate. The sacraments in no way accomplish that of which they are a sign. As seals they are applied in obedience to the command of Christ, as an outward sign of the inward grace which is confidently expected in the case of infant baptism, or believed to have been actually received in the case of adults.

When the sacraments are viewed as applying grace, what is meant is that they are a means of actually bringing us grace. They do not simply portray something in order to bring to remembrance but they also do something in order to bring spiritual strength. This is not to contend for a special sacramental grace but rather for the idea that the working of the sacraments rests essentially on saving grace.

Representative of the Lutheran Protestant position on the efficacy of the sacraments is the statement of the Augsburg Confession (Art. V), “For the obtaining of this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted.” The conservative Lutheran theologian, Francis Pieper, indicates in his Christian Dogmatics (Vol. III) that the Lutheran symbols stress the fact that the sacraments and the Word of the Gospel have the same purpose; namely, that of the attestation and conferring of the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith in this forgiveness. Lutherans agree with Reformed Protestants in affirming the necessity of faith but they tend to ascribe the efficacy of the sacraments to a real objective virtue of grace resident in the elements.

Bibliography G. C. Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics, The Sacraments; E. Schillebeeck, Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter With God.