The Grace of the Father, Merits of the Son, and Efficacy of the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments

Trinity 12| Mark 7:31-37| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| August 18, 2024

In this Gospel lesson, Christ reveals that God wants to be gracious to us through His Word and Sacraments, so that we may find comfort and peace in them. However, the church has become divided on the topic of sacraments, how to define a sacrament, and what they do, so that many find no comfort in them. Today, the Roman Catholic Church accepts seven sacraments, which include some traditions of men as well as rites, which do not offer God’s grace and salvation, while many protestants reject the concept of sacraments completely and deny that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper do anything for one’s salvation. The word sacrament means mystery. They are called a mystery, because they give something far greater than what you see. From ancient times, the Church has defined a sacrament as a sacred act, where God joins His Word to a physical element in order to give us grace. So, under the cover of the visible thing, God’s power secretly works salvation. Since Baptism and the Lord’s Supper fit this description (Baptism has Christ’s promise joined to water and the Lord’s Supper has Christ’s promise joined to bread and wine), Lutherans recognize these two Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Although teachers in the church throughout her history have disagreed on how many sacraments there are and which rites should be included as sacraments, the church has always unanimously recognized Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as Sacraments. Despite what those in the church today may call them, Jesus instituted Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in order to give to us God’s grace, so that we may receive it through faith.

Jesus foreshadows His institution of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in our Gospel lesson by touching the deaf man’s ears, spitting, touching his tongue, and speaking. Jesus joined His Word to a physical visible element, and so He healed the deaf and mute man. Likewise, Jesus joined the promise of forgiveness and salvation to water, bread, and wine when He instituted Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. However, many get upset at this talk about Sacraments. They think that the Sacraments distract from God’s Work and from faith! But the opposite is true. The Sacraments instituted by Christ proclaim God’s Word and demand faith in Christ.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus displayed how God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit works in the Sacraments. Jesus looked up to heaven, demonstrating that all healing comes from the grace of God the Father alone. He sighed deeply from His innermost self. The word for sighed can also be translated, He groaned. This demonstrated that our healing is earned by the merits of God the Son’s passion for our sins on the cross, where His soul was troubled even to death and He gave up His spirit to God the Father when He died. And Jesus spoke, demonstrating the work of the Holy Spirit. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit works through the Word of Christ (Galatians 3:2; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Samuel 23:2). So, we see with this proto-sacrament of Christ’s, where He spat and spoke to heal the deafmute, He demonstrated the work of the Holy Trinity to save us by the grace of the Father, the merits of the Son, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit.  

We see this same work in Baptism. Jesus commanded that we be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). St. Paul writes that God saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3), demonstrating that the Father shows us grace in Baptism through the merits of Christ His Son by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 6 that those who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into His death and resurrection, demonstrating that Baptism does not work independently of the meritorious passion of Christ. And Jesus says that those who are baptized are born of the water and the Spirit (John 3:5), as St. Peter also declares that those who are baptized receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). So, in Baptism, we have God’s Word and a physical element water, just as we see in this Gospel’s healing. And in Baptism, we see the grace of God the Father, the merits of God the Son, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit through the Word, just as we see in this healing of the deafmute.

Likewise, in the Holy Supper we see Christ’s Word and promise joined to physical elements of bread and wine. And in the Lord’s Supper, we see the grace of God the Father, the merits of Christ the Son, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. When Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, He gave thanks and blessed the bread and wine. He gave thanks to God the Father, who by His grace desired that Christ offer Himself and that He give this meal to His Church for her forgiveness and strengthening of faith. The words of institution clearly proclaim the merits of Christ. “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Only by the merits of Christ, God the Son, by His innocent sufferings and death, may we partake of this Supper. Finally, Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me,” teaching us that only by the work of the Holy Spirit, who creates faith in our hearts, can we receive this Sacrament worthily. That is what Jesus means when He says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” He means do this in faith, which is only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Sacraments only offer God’s Grace and the merits of Christ through the Word! Many claim that the Sacraments conflict with Word Alone, but they do not. For without God’s Word, the water is just plain water and no Baptism, and without Christ’s institution, the bread and wine remain only bread and wine and are not Christ’s body and blood, and if Jesus had not spoken, “Ephphatha!” the deafmute would have remained deaf and mute. The Sacraments are not Sacraments without God’s Word. They have no power without God’s Word. We do not believe that the water is some magic potion. We trust in the Word of God spoken with the water. When Naaman, the leprous commander from Syria complained that Elisha told him to wash in the Jordan River, because he thought the rivers of Damascus were better, his servants did not argue with him over the quality of the Jordan River’s water. They said, “Master, was it not a great word that the man of God spoke to you, ‘Wash and be clean!’” (2 Kings 5) When God gives us a Sacrament, He desires us to trust in the Word He attaches to it.

This means that you should also listen to the words spoken in and concerning the Sacraments. In remembering your own Baptism, you should remember the promise of Scripture that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16), that when you were baptized, you received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) and washed away your sins (Acts 22:16) and were clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27). Remember that when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, so that you might also rise with Him (Rom. 6). And you rise with Him through Baptism not only on the Last Day, but every day. Your Baptism still works in you today through daily contrition and repentance, so that you die every day and rise again to new life in Christ, putting away your sins and living by faith.

When you receive the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, you should discern the body of Christ lest you eat and drink to your own judgment. Yet, you should also live your entire life in preparation for the Sacrament, because the Sacrament of the Altar prepares you for the great banquet in heaven. This also means to daily repent of your sins and to recognize that you have been joined to one body of Christ, the Christian Church. So, live in unity and at peace with one another as Scripture teaches. By preparing yourself to receive the Sacrament of the Altar each Sunday, you are preparing yourself to feast at the heavenly banquet in heaven.

Christ did not institute the Sacraments to distract us from His Word or to give us something in addition to His Word as if His Word is insufficient. No, Christ’s Sacraments drive us deeper into His Word, so that we search it more diligently and trust in Christ more fervently.

Finally, only faith receives the benefits of the Sacraments. Again, there are many who say today that we do not need the Sacraments or that the Sacraments do not save, because faith alone saves. But this comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of both the Sacraments and of faith. Faith is not a good work you do. Faith is trusting in God’s promise. The Sacraments are not a good work you do. The Sacraments are God’s promise joined to physical elements for our sake. Faith alone receives the promise of Christ, which God joined to the Sacrament.

In fact, Christ instituted the Sacraments for the sake of our faith. Jesus’ Word and Promise are certainly not insufficient, but our faith is weak and our nature is frail. We naturally doubt, no matter how often God assures us of His grace and mercy through His Word. So, Christ joined His Word and Promise to physical elements, so that our faith could trust in the promise joined to them that we might have stronger faith and be saved. The Sacraments make the Gospel personal. Christ Jesus made atonement for the sins of the whole world. Baptism, which places water on your head, tells you personally that this atonement, forgiveness, and grace is meant for you. Christ Jesus gave up His body to the cross and shed His blood for the forgiveness of all sins. When you hear the words of institution and eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord in the Sacrament, Christ communicates to you personally that this is given and shed for you.

When you put your faith in the Sacraments, you are not putting your faith in something outside of Christ and His suffering and death, because faith in the Sacraments is faith in the promise Christ attached to the Sacraments. When you trust in the promise attached to Baptism, you are trusting in God the Father’s grace to save you, in Christ His Son’s merits on the cross to redeem you and wash you with His blood, and in the Holy Spirit’s efficacy to grant you new birth and make you a child of God. Faith in the promise of Baptism is faith in the Holy Trinity. Likewise, faith in the promise of the Lord’s Supper is faith in the Father’s grace to send His Son to die for you, in the Son’s merits on the cross when He gave up His body and shed His blood for you, and in the efficacy of the Holy Spirit to strengthen your faith, so that you may always remember and proclaim Christ’s death.

Apart from God’s grace through His Word, we cannot speak rightly about God or ourselves. We are blind and dumb in our sin until the Holy Spirit awakens us through the merits of Christ. The Sacraments are not a bonus, a good thing you can do without. You need the Sacraments, because you need God’s grace, Christ’s merits, and the Holy Spirit’s work. We are even more needy than the deafmute. Yet, when we receive the Sacraments in faith, clinging to Jesus’ Word and Promise in them, then we learn to hear clearly and to speak rightly. Then we confess with Christ’s Church, He has done all things well! Amen.