Shepherd the Flock

Means of Grace: instruments that God uses to convert and bless people, like the reading and preaching of the word, prayer, singing (psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; Acts 16:25; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16)…baptism, and the Lord’s supper.

During a discussion on the ‘means of grace’, a man once told me that the only true ‘means of grace’ was faith. That is, according to his view, with faith he could worship God mowing his grass to the same (or more) profit to this soul as participating in corporate worship, and without faith he could do nothing pleasing to God or worthy of drawing God to be pleased with him.

Now on one hand this is an excellent point. Faith is of course absolutely necessary for any worship, grace, or even good deed in the site of God. Without faith, we can participate in any and all ‘means’ of grace and only heap condemnation and divine judgment upon our heads.

However, I do not believe we have the liberty to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I do not believe that this position can be sustained biblically. Faith is necessary for any ‘means’ to truly be instruments of grace, but there are very specific things that are given by God to convey His goodness to our hearts.

Consider for example, Matthew chapter 18. In the context of talking about ‘the church’, V17, Jesus says,

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Now, this passage has for some time been ripped out of its context and made to mean all sorts of mystical things in modern evangelicalism, but the clear implication of Christ’s words is that there is a special presence of Christ when the church is gathered, specifically in His agreement with the decisions of the elders He has raised up.

This presence/agreement of Christ cannot be said to take place when we’re alone, or when just any two or three believers are gathered. He is giving special significance to the gathering of the local church.

Secondly, consider Paul’s words in 1 Cor 11 when he rebukes the Corinthians for abusing the Lord’s Table:

“...in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse…When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?”

Notice a few things: the coming together was a corporate context of celebrating the Lord’s Table, and Paul implies that their behavior, though shameful in this context, would be permissible (or at least more permissible) in their own ‘houses’. But their conduct was certainly not at all permissible in ‘the church of God’.

Notice also a few verses later, Paul concludes by saying:

“For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

Does God’s word ever threaten and/or indicate judgment upon the one who profaned His name by not ‘discerning the body’ while mowing his grass? Doesn’t common sense (and a proper interpretation of this chapter) teach us that the Lord’s Table is a more important, holy, and indeed, means of grace to us than just normal everyday duties?

So the conclusion of this matter is this:

Just as faith comes by hearing God’s word preached, according to Romans 10:17, God has chosen specific instruments to channel grace/faith/edification/sanctification to His people. These ‘means’ of grace are not just anything; there is a special presence of Christ in them when His people gather in His name. This calls for our great attention, sincerity, care, and reverence, as we like Moses walk here on holy ground. Paul all throughout 1 Cor 11-14 teaches/corrects the Corinthians on ‘proper conduct’ in the household of God (corporate gathering), and we too, less we displease God and bring His divine judgment upon us, had better regulate our corporate worship by the instructions/traditions given to us in Holy Scripture.