The means of grace and the Word

Question 88 answers that the outward and ordinary means by which Christ gives us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments and prayer; Question 89, that the Spirit makes the reading and especially the preaching of the Word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners and building them up in holiness and comfort.

Eberhard Cornelis Rahmsnaar after Johannes Bosboom, A Service in a Village Church, 1833–1891 · Source

This week's questions

What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption? 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.
Question 88

How is the Word made effectual to salvation? The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.
Question 89

Question 85 (week 36) asked, beside faith and repentance, for "the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption". This week those means are named. Questions 88 to 97 teach the Word and the sacraments, and Questions 98 to 107 teach prayer.

Outward and ordinary means

A half-length portrait of John Calvin in a black cap with a long beard, his name and a note on his life written in Italian below. — After Cristofano dell'Altissimo, John Calvin, c. 1563–1600 · Source

Each word of Question 88 opens something. ‘Outward’ means things heard, seen and done: reading Scripture, hearing a sermon, washing with water, breaking bread, praying together. The catechism calls them Christ's ordinances; the church has long called them the means of grace. In the first proof text the risen Lord sends his disciples to baptise and to teach, and promises to be with them to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20). The next shows the first church doing just that:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts 2:42

‘Ordinary’ means the way God usually works. God is not bound to these means. The Westminster Confession teaches that elect infants dying in infancy, and other elect persons who cannot be outwardly called by the ministry of the Word, are saved by Christ through the Spirit, "who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth" WCF 10.3. But we are bound to them. John Calvin, the Reformer of Geneva, warned against despising public preaching, for "although the power of God is not confined to external means, he has, however, confined us to his ordinary method of teaching" Calvin, Institutes 4.1.5.

‘Made effectual’ matters too. It is Christ's Spirit who makes an ordinance effectual; the ordinance is his instrument. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), long taught in the Reformed churches of the Continent, asks where faith comes from, and answers:

The Holy Ghost works it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy Gospel, and confirms it by the use of the holy Sacraments.
Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 65

The Word read, and especially preached

Question 89 says the Spirit uses the reading of the Word, but ‘especially’ its preaching. In one of its proof texts Paul traces the road to salvation backwards:

How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?
Romans 10:14

To call on the Lord we must believe; to believe we must hear; to hear, someone must speak. The English minister Matthew Henry adds what the preached gospel is for: "The gospel is given, not only to be known and believed, but to be obeyed" Matthew Henry. Preaching does not replace reading; it opens what is read. After the exile, Ezra and the Levites read the Law and explained it so that the people understood (Nehemiah 8:8).

The Second Helvetic Confession (1566), written by Heinrich Bullinger and received by Reformed churches in Switzerland and beyond, says it boldly: "The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God" Second Helvetic Confession, ch. 1. Not because preachers are great: Calvin counts it among God's most remarkable gifts to our race "that he deigns to consecrate the mouths and tongues of men to his service, making his own voice to be heard in them" 4.1.5. He also calls the church a mother, who bears us, feeds us and keeps us at school all our lives 4.1.4.

Question 89 names four works of the Spirit by the Word: convincing us of sin; converting us, turning us "from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God" (Acts 26:18); building us up in holiness by "the word of His grace" (Acts 20:32); and comfort, the hope that comes "through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures" (Romans 15:4). All of it comes through faith.

Other churches also believe God works through Word and sacrament, with a different stress. The Lutheran Augsburg Confession (1530) teaches that "by the Word and Sacraments, as by instruments, the Holy Spirit is given" Augsburg Confession, art. 5, and Lutherans usually name Word and sacraments as the means of grace without counting prayer among them. Catholic and Orthodox Christians give the sacraments the first place, and the Word is read and proclaimed within that worship. Pentecostal and charismatic churches stress the Spirit's direct working in worship and prayer, and they too honour Scripture and preaching. Reading with the Spirit's light is taught in Reading with prayer and the Spirit's light and Starting to read the Bible; see also How does God speak? and Why do we need the church?

To ponder this week

In a quarry between high rock walls a great crowd, many holding up parasols, stands round a covered pulpit to hear the sermon, with more people perched on the rocks above. — Unknown French printmaker, The Quarries of Lecques (a Huguenot open-air service near Nîmes), 18th century · Source

When you go to hear the sermon this Lord's Day, do you expect God to speak to you through it? Some Sundays that expectation is hard to find. Even then, lean less on the preacher's gifts or your own mood than on the promise that the Spirit uses the Word. Pray briefly before the service, write down one sentence from the sermon, and turn it over through the week. Next week, Question 90 teaches how to read and hear.

Practice

Practice 1 of 6
What does Question 88 name as the outward and ordinary means by which Christ communicates the benefits of redemption?
Practice 2 of 6
What is the best sense of the word ‘ordinary’ in Question 88?
Practice 3 of 6
According to Question 89, what does the Spirit make ‘especially’ effectual, beside the reading of the Word?
Practice 4 of 6
Which proof text of Question 89 asks how anyone can hear without someone to preach?
Practice 5 of 6
What does Question 89 say the Spirit does in sinners by the Word?
Practice 6 of 6
Which pairing of a church with its teaching on the means of grace is accurate?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1559 — The classic statement of Reformed theology: first a small book printed at Basel in 1536, revised and enlarged until the last edition of 1559. Book 1, chapters 7–8: Scripture is confirmed by the inner witness of the Spirit, and the proofs of its credibility (ch. 8) are secondary helps to our weakness. Read
Heinrich Bullinger, The Second Helvetic Confession 1566 — A confession received by Reformed churches in Switzerland and beyond. Ch. 1: the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.