The Apostles’ Creed: The ChurchSample

The Means of Grace: Romans 10:14 The means of grace are tools or mechanisms that God ordinarily uses to apply grace to His people. John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist Church, described the means of grace in a way that reflects the beliefs of many Christian traditions. Consider what he wrote in his Sermon number 16 , based on the text of Malachi 3:7: > By "means of grace" I understand outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men, preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace. Some people refer to the means of grace as spiritual disciplines or works of piety (depending on the tradition that you come from). When I hear that phase, “How do they work?” The thing that I always want to say is, “They don’t work. It is God who works; it is the grace of God that is at work.” But, the means of grace provide us with the opportunities to receive and process that grace. They create the time and the space to pay attention to the grace of God at work in our lives. I like to think of them as pipelines. We don’t want to confuse the pipe with the water. It’s the water of life that we want to receive. But it’s the pipelines that help carry that water to us. So that we can drink of that water, the means of grace enable us to drink of water of life. – Dr. Steve Harper Practically speaking, there are many means God uses to apply grace to us, including such things as adversity and suffering, faith, charity, and fellowship itself. But traditionally, theologians have focused especially on three particular means of grace: the Word of God, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and prayer. All three of these means of grace belong to the visible church as a whole, including both its believers and its unbelievers. The Westminster Shorter Catechism , a traditional Protestant summary of Christian teaching, describes the means of grace in this way in its question and answer number 88: > Q: What are the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption? > A: The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation. Scripture talks about the benefits of these means of grace in places like Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 10:17, and 1 Peter 3:12, 21.