The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q88. 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.[1]

Proofs

[1] Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 2:42, 46–47.

Comments

The Lord Jesus Christ has purchased the benefits of salvation for His elect by way of His life and death. But these benefits must be put into our possessions. We learn from WSC 29, that “we are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit.” In other words, it is the Holy Spirit who directly applies the benefits purchased by Christ to our souls. However, the Scripture also teaches us that Christ has appointed for the Church, outward and ordinary means by which His benefits of redemption are communicated to the elect, for our salvation.

What is the relationship between the work of the Spirit and the use of means? Roman Catholicism teaches that the means, such the Word and the sacraments, always work grace ex opere operato, that is to say that they contain inherent power to communicate grace, when executed by a lawfully ordained priest. So baptism regenerates man ex opere operato, and the eucharist (their equivalent of the Lord’s Supper) raises the spiritual life of the partaker to a higher level, simply by his partaking of it. Accordingly, Roman Catholicism teaches that there is no salvation outside the church, seeing that the only way to communicate the benefits of salvation is through the ordinances of the church. On the other hand, there were the Anabaptists and mystics who stressed that God is absolutely free to communicate grace without any of the outward means. To them, the Word and sacraments (which they would call “ordinances”) are only symbolic and serve to indicate the immediate bestowal of grace by the Holy Spirit.

What is the Reformed position? The Reformed Church teaches rather that God usually or generally bestows grace mediately, i.e., through the means, but the means themselves have no inherent power to communicate grace. They must be accompanied by the operation of the Holy Spirit. In this way God is not bound to the means, and so He can, in extraordinary circumstances, work grace without the means, but ordinarily, He would require the means.

The appointed ordinances, such as the Word, prayer and sacraments, are the most usual means of salvation (including conversion, sanctification and glorification). Without using them we cannot ordinarily expect that any benefit of redemption should be communicated to us. Thus God can immediately regenerate an elect infant dying in infancy whether he is baptised or not, but He would require the use of the means in ordinary circumstances. Therefore in the case of an adult with normal mental capacity, we may say that out of the visible church “there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (WCF 25.2). But conversely, though it is “a great sin to contemn or neglect” to baptise our infants, “yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it” that we can say all infants who are not baptised are damned or that all infants who are baptised are regenerate (see WCF 28.5).