Let me ask you a question

How does the Holy Spirit accomplish the great work of “calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying the whole Christian Church on earth and keeping it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith?”

God could by a mere act of His will impart His Holy Spirit and change our hearts. However, He doesn’t. Rather, God chooses to use definite means in generating and nourishing the “new” life within us through what is called the means of grace, namely the Word of God, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.

The term means of grace doesn’t occur in the Bible. Christians use the phrase to confess that God’s grace operates through the Word and Sacraments to bring us salvation and forgiveness of sins. This term, then, signifies the channels used by God to bestow His grace on us… His love for us that is unmerited and undeserved.

As a way of explanation, consider how electricity operates in your life. Electricity exists all around us. Yet to receive its benefits in our homes, offices, and workplaces, we use channels: transformers, cables, and wire.

Similarly, God’s rescuing power and grace surround us on all sides, but we receive His gifts through the instruments He has designated, namely His Word and the Holy Sacraments.

The means of grace are not mechanical or magical. We don’t perform certain acts to receive the benefits. The posture of the heart does, however, matter. Receiving the benefits of the means of grace requires a genuine faith that trusts in Jesus, our one and only Lord and Savior.

But please note, God’s grace is resistible. That means we can reject His salvation in Christ. And God’s grace doesn’t come automatically. Yet God has promised to work through His Word and Sacraments, and the Holy Spirit is always present, drawing sinners to Christ, whenever and wherever we find the Means of Grace.

Finally, let it be said, all of the means of grace have a common element: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That Gospel gives each “means” is power. Yes, the Bible is the written Word of God and the Sacraments are the visible Word of God which offers and bestows the forgiveness of sins Christ earned for us by His suffering, death, and resurrection. And we have God’s Word on that!

In Christ Jesus,

Pastor Dean Rudloff

“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9