Questions & Answers

#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...
#GC331 How is this grace applied to us in baptism? In it we are clothed with Jesus Christ, and receive His Spirit, provided that we do not make ourselves unworthy of the promises given to us in it.
#GC332 What is the proper use of baptism on our part? It consists in faith and in repentance. That is, assurance that we have our spiritual purity in Christ, and in feeling within us, and declaring to our neighbours by our works, that His Spirit dwells i...
#GC333 If this is required, how is it that we baptize infants? It is not said that faith and repentance should always precede the reception of the sacrament, but they are only required from those who are capable of them. It is sufficient, then, if infants produce...
#GC334 Can you show that there is nothing inconsistent in this? Circumcision was also a sacrament of repentance, as Moses and the prophets declare (Deu 10:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4); and was a sacrament of faith, as St. Paul says (Rom 4:11, 12). And yet God has not exclud...
#GC335 But can you show that they are now admitted to baptism for the same reason as in the case of circumcision? Yes, for the promises which God anciently gave to His people of Israel are now extended to the whole world.
#GC336 But does it follow from this that we are to use the sign also? That becomes evident when everything is considered. Jesus Christ has not made us partakers of His grace, which formerly had been bestowed on the people of Israel, in order to diminish it in us, or mak...
#GC337 Do you reckon that if we denied baptism to little infants, the grace of God would then be diminished by the coming of Christ? Yes; for the sign of the bounty and mercy of God toward our children, which they had in ancient times, would be wanting in our case, the very sign which ministers so greatly to our consolation, and to...
#GC338 You mean then that since God in ancient times declared Himself to be the Saviour of little infants, and wanted to have this promise sealed on their bodies by an external sacrament, it is right that confirmation of it should not be less after the advent of Christ, since the same promise remains and indeed is more clearly attested by the Word and ratified in action? Yes. And besides, since it is quite evident that the power and the substance of baptism pertain to little children, to deny them the sign, which is inferior to the substance, would be to do them injur...
#GC339 On what conditions should we baptize little children? As a sign and testimony that they are heirs of God's blessing promised to the seed of the faithful, that when they come of age they are to acknowledge the truth of their baptism, in order to derive be...
#GC340 Let us speak of the Supper. And, first, what is its signification? Our Lord instituted it to assure us that by the communication of His body and blood, our souls are nourished, in the hope of eternal life.
#GC341 But why does the Lord represent His body by the bread and His blood by the wine? To signify that as it is the particular virtue of bread to nourish our bodies, to refresh and sustain us in this mortal life, so it pertains to His body to act toward our souls, i.e., in nourishing an...
#GC342 Do you mean that we must truly communicate in the body and blood of the Lord? I understand so. But since the whole affiance of our salvation rests in the obedience which He has rendered to God, His Father, in order that it may be imputed to us as if it were ours, we must posses...
#GC343 But did He not give Himself to us when He exposed Himself to death, to reconcile us to God His Father, and deliver us from damnation? That is true; but it is not enough for us unless we receive Him, in order that we may feel in ourselves the fruit and the efficacy of His death and passion.
#GC344 Is not the way to receive Him by faith? Yes. Not only in believing that He died and rose again, in order to deliver us from eternal death, and acquire life for us, but also that He dwells in us, and conjoined with us in a union as the Head...
#GC345 Does this communion take place apart from the Supper alone? Yes, indeed, we have it through the Gospel, as St. Paul declares (1Co 1:9): in that the Lord Jesus Christ promises us in it, that we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone (Eph 5:30), that He is...
#GC346 What is the blessing that we have in the sacrament, and what more does it minister to us? This communion is more abundantly confirmed in us, ratified as it were, for although Jesus Christ is truly communicated to us both by baptism and by the Gospel, nevertheless this only in part, and not...
#GC347 What then fully do we have through the sign of the bread? That the body of the Lord Jesus which was once offered to reconcile us to God, is now given to us, to certify to us that we have part in this reconciliation.
#GC348 What do we have in the sign of the wine? That the Lord Jesus, who once shed His blood in payment and satisfaction for our offences, gives it to us to drink, that we may have no doubt at all of receiving its fruit.

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