At every meeting of the Council of Presidents we spend time studying the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions together, in addition to other theological study and discussion. At our September meeting, beginning this past weekend, we looked at Article XIII of the Augsburg Confession, “Concerning the Use of Sacraments.” That study prompted some rigorous and fruitful conversation, touching on a variety of points pertinent to our practice of the faith.
To begin with, while we acknowledge that the Sacraments are “marks of profession among men” (a fact of significance in connection with closed Communion), we further confess and emphasize that the Sacraments are “signs and testimonies of the will of God toward us, instituted to awaken and confirm faith in those who use them.” In this way, as the Apology explains, the Sacraments are visible words of the Gospel, which strike the eye in the way that audible words strike the ear. This comparison underscores the need for a consistent harmony of preaching and practice; that is, the way we administer the Sacraments should correspond with the way we speak the Gospel.
These points lead directly to the other primary concern of AC XIII, which is that the Sacraments are given to be received and used in faith. The Sacraments themselves do not depend upon the faith of the minister or the recipient, but upon the Word of Christ Jesus. “When the Word is joined to the element or natural substance, it becomes a Sacrament, that is, a holy and divine matter and sign” (Large Catechism IV.18). But the benefits of the Sacraments, as means of the Gospel, are received and embraced by “faith which believes that sins are forgiven.”
In truth, the Word and faith go hand-in-hand, and that likewise encompasses the Sacraments, as well. The Word and the Sacraments are given by God “to awaken and confirm faith in those who use them.” So, too, faith comes into being and exists as it receives and lays hold of God’s Word and promises. Accordingly, to emphasize the necessity of faith in the use of the Sacraments is to underscore the corresponding necessity of the Word in the administration of the Sacraments.
The requisite role of the Word is included, both explicitly and implicitly, in the Lord’s institution of the Sacraments. Not only the instituting Words – though they certainly are to be spoken in the Name of the Lord in administering the Sacraments, that is a given. But there is also a need for a preaching of the very Gospel that is embodied, enacted, and made visible in the Sacraments, to express audibly the forgiveness, life, and salvation of Christ which are bodily bestowed therein.
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism is not given in isolation, but is intimately bound up with the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (St. Mark 1:4; Acts 2:38) and the teaching of all that Jesus has commanded (St. Matthew 28:19-20). Indeed, the baptizing and teaching belong together as the divinely ordained means of making disciples, that is, followers and students of the Lord Jesus Christ, who live by listening to and learning from His Word and the preaching of it. The preaching and teaching of His Word are thus integral to the administration of Holy Baptism.
Similarly, the administration of the Lord’s Supper requires not only the clear and articulate speaking of the Words of Institution – whereby the bread and wine are consecrated to be the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus – but also the proclamation of “the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Indeed, it is by the preaching of Christ Crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23, 2:2), and by the confession of His Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-4), that the servants of Christ celebrate this Sacrament “in remembrance” of Him (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). It’s not a case of emotional nostalgia but of the objective preaching and catechesis of His Word.
The faithful and appropriate use of the Sacraments calls for and requires faith. And such faith comes by the preaching and hearing of the Word of Christ, upon which everything depends.