Precisely what do the means of grace accomplish? How do they communicate grace to us? The Shorter Catechism, for instance, says that the Word read and especially preached, the sacraments and prayer are the "means by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption" (Q&A 88). What are these benefits? Earlier in the Shorter Catechism, the divines identify these benefits as "justification, adoption, and sanctification" (Q&A 32). As strange as this may sound, there is a sense in which we can say that we are justified, adopted, and sanctified through worship. And this is not all. There are additional benefits that "accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification." These are "assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end" (Q&A 36).
What more could we need in the pilgrimage and difficulties of the Christian life? What could be more blessed than to receive these benefits on the Lord's Day when throughout the week we experience suffering and persecution, and fight the residue of sin and temptations of the flesh? What could be more comforting than to receive God's blessing? And how else are we to obtain his mercy and reassurance than through the diligent use of the means of grace?
The instrumentality of worship in communicating these benefits is explained in the Shorter Catechism. It is "the Spirit of God" who makes "the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation" (Q&A 89). This is a bold claim. But it is exactly what Paul teaches when he writes that faith comes through hearing the preached Word of God (Rom. 10:13-15). This also seems like an archaic claim. In a media-saturated and increasingly visually-oriented culture, communication experts are telling church leaders that the sermon is an ineffective and outmoded means of communication. After all, people cannot devote sustained attention to anything, much less a "talking head," for more than five to ten minutes. Yet here the church must be countercultural and trust in the promises of God, even if it appears foolish according to the wisdom of our age. As Paul also writes, "...God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). Ultimately, the work of salvation belongs to the agency of the Holy Spirit who applies Christ's work of redemption. So too the effectiveness of preaching depends not on the pastor but on God. Relying on "foolish" means is nothing more than trusting in the power of God.
What is said here of preaching applies to the other means of grace. They also convince and convert, and sustain us in the faith. Baptism, the Shorter Catechism says, is a "partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace" (Q&A 94). Moreover, in the Lord's Supper believers "are ... made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace (Q&A 96). Notice again the language of benefits. Believers receive these benefits through the means God has appointed.
In this teaching the Westminster divines are simply following Calvin. He wrote that "the sacraments bring the clearest promises; and ... they represent [the Word] for us as painted in a picture from life." The sacraments, Calvin argues, are sermon illustrations from God. They are the images he uses to show us the gospel. Moreover they confirm us in the good news of God's saving promises. According to Calvin baptism and the Lord's Supper, along with the Word read and preached, "have been instituted by the Lord to the end that they may serve to establish and increase faith."
Finally, prayer as a means of grace also comes with the promise of God's blessing. When we offer up our requests to God for things agreeable to his will, then our prayers will be a blessing to us and cause us to grow in grace. This can happen of course, in private prayer. But corporate prayer knits the hearts of church members together. The Lord's Prayer is a "we" prayer, a model for praying together, with and for others.
But the Word, sacraments, and prayer do not become means of grace on their own. We are not advocating the Roman Catholic idea that the sacraments or other ordinances confer grace whenever a man rightly ordained performs them, that is sacerdotalism. Instead, what we are talking about is the communication of grace through means that ultimately depend for their efficacy on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit accompanies the preaching of the Word. The Spirit enables the spiritual presence of Christ in the sacraments. And the Spirit prays with us, translating our groaning into words pleasing to God and edifying to us. The Reformers stressed the work of the Spirit in order to avoid the errors of Rome. Grace is not dispensed by any virtue in the means themselves or in those who administer them, as if by some automatic or magical way. Rather, grace only comes as God works through these means. The reassuring teaching, though, is that our loving and merciful God has ordained these means for the good of the ones whom he has graciously saved. Ultimately, the means of grace are only effective through "the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them" (WSC Q&A 91).
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