- #GC301 Where do you find this Word? It is comprised for us in the Holy Scriptures.
- #GC302 How are we to use it in order to profit by it? By receiving it with the full consent of our conscience, as truth come down from heaven, submitting ourselves to it in right obedience, loving it with a true affection by having it imprinted in our he...
- #GC303 Is all this within our own power? None of it; but God works them in us in this way by His Holy Spirit.
- #GC304 But are we not to take trouble and be diligent, and zealously strive by hearing and reading its teaching, as it is declared to us? Yes, indeed: first each one of us in particular ought to study it: and above all, we are frequently to attend the sermons in which this Word is expounded in the Assembly of the Christians.
- #GC305 Do you mean that it is not enough for people to read it privately at home, without altogether hearing its teaching in common? That is just what I mean, while God provides the way for it.
- #GC306 Why do you say that? Because Jesus Christ has established this order in His Church (Eph 4:11), and He has declared this to be the only means of edifying and preserving it. Thus we must keep ourselves to it and not be wise...
- #GC307 Is it necessary, then, that there should be pastors? Yes; and that we should hear them, receiving the teaching of the Lord in humility by their mouth. Therefore whoever despises them and refuses to hear them, rejects Jesus Christ, and separates himself...
- #GC308 But is it enough to have been instructed by them once, or ought he to continue to do this? It is little to have begun, unless you go on to persevere. We must continue to be disciples of Christ right to the end. But He has ordained the ministers of the Church to teach in His Name.
- #GC309 Is there no other means than the Word by which God communicates Himself to us? To the preaching of His Word He has conjoined the sacraments.
- #GC310 What is a sacrament? An outward attestation of the grace of God which, by a visible sign, represents spiritual things to imprint the promises of God more firmly in our hearts, and to make us more sure of them.
- #GC311 Does a visible and natural sign have this power to assure the conscience? No, not of itself, but in so far as it is ordained of God for this end.
- #GC312 Seeing it is the proper office of the Holy Spirit to seal the promises of God in our hearts, how do you attribute this to the sacraments? There is a great difference between the one and the other. The Spirit of God in very truth is the only One who can touch and move our hearts, enlighten our minds, and assure our consciences; so that a...
- #GC313 You think, then, that the efficacy of the sacraments does not consist in the outward element, but proceeds entirely from the Spirit of God? Yes; for the Lord is pleased to work by these instruments which He has instituted: without detracting from His own power.
- #GC314 And what moves God to do that? For the alleviation of our weaknesses. If we were spiritual by nature, like the angels, we could behold God and His graces. But as we are bound up with our bodies, it is needful for us that God should...
- #GC315 Since God has introduced the sacraments to meet our need, it would be arrogance and presumption to think that we could dispense with them? Certainly: hence he who voluntarily abstains from using them thinks that he has no need of them, condemns Jesus Christ, rejects His grace, and quenches His Holy Spirit.
- #GC316 But what assurance of grace can the sacraments give, seeing that good and bad both receive them? Although the unbelievers and the wicked make of none effect the grace offered them through the sacraments, yet it does not follow that the proper nature of the sacraments is also made of non effect.
- #GC317 How, then, and when do the sacraments produce this effect? When we receive them in faith, seeking Jesus Christ alone and His grace in them.
- #GC318 Why do you say that we must seek Jesus Christ in them? I mean that we are not to be taken up with the earthly sign so as to seek our salvation in it, nor are we to imagine that it has a peculiar power enclosed within it. On the contrary, we are to employ...
- #GC319 Seeing that faith is required, why do you say that they are given to confirm us in faith, to assure us of the promises of God? It is not sufficient for faith once to be generated in us. It must be nourished and sustained, that it may grow day by day and be increased within us. To nourish, strengthen, and increase it, God give...
- #GC320 But is it not a sign of unbelief when the promises of God are not firm enough for us, without support? It is a sign of the smallness and weakness of faith, and such is indeed the faith of the children of God, who do not, however, cease to be faithful, although their faith is still imperfect. As long as...
- #GC321 How many sacraments are there in the Christian Church? There are only two sacraments common to all which the Lord Jesus has instituted for the whole company of the faithful.
- #GC322 What are they? Baptism and the Holy Supper.
- #GC323 What likeness and difference is there between them? Baptism is for us a kind of entrance into the Church of God, for it testifies that instead of our being strangers to Him, God receives us as members of His family. The Supper testifies that God as a g...
- #GC324 That the meaning may be more clear to us, let us treat of them separately. First, what is the meaning of baptism? It consists of two parts. The Lord represents to us in it, first, the forgiveness of our sins (Eph 5:26, 27) and, secondly, our regeneration or spiritual renewal (Rom 6:4).
- #GC325 What resemblance has water with these things in order to represent them? The forgiveness of sins is a kind of washing, by which our souls are cleansed from their defilements, just as the stains of the body are washed away by water.
- #GC326 What about the other part? The beginning of our regeneration and its end is our becoming new creatures, through the Spirit of God. Therefore the water is poured on the head as a sign of death, but in such a way that our resurre...
- #GC327 You do not mean that the water is a washing of the soul? By no means, for that pertains to the blood of Christ alone, which was shed in order to wipe away all our stains and render us pure and unpolluted before God (I John 1:7; I Peter 1:19). This is fulfil...
- #GC328 Do you think that the water is only a figure to us? It is such a figure that the reality is conjoined with it, for God does not promise us anything in vain. Accordingly it is certain that in baptism the forgiveness of sins is offered to us and we recei...
- #GC329 Is this grace fulfilled indiscriminately in all? No, for some make it of no effect by their perversity. Nevertheless, the sacrament loses nothing of its nature, although none but believers feel its efficacy.
- #GC330 From what does regeneration get its power? From the death and resurrection of Christ. His death has had this effect, that through it our old Adam is crucified, and our evil nature is, as it were, buried, so that it no longer has the strength t...
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