# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1857_S6
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

6                         On the Efficacy of the Sacraments.

Scripture-conformed one — so let us, in this point too, faithfully preserve the dearly inherited treasure of pure doctrine, flee the dangerous error, not yield a finger's breadth from the recognized truth, and never grant to our adversaries that in this point they teach and are Lutheran.

Thus it is stated in Article VII of the Apology, "Of the Sacraments and Their Right Use":

"For to this end the external signs are instituted, that thereby the hearts may be moved, namely, through the Word and the external sign at the same time, so that they may believe, when we are baptized, when we receive the body of the Lord, that God truly wills to be gracious to us through Christ, as Paul says: faith comes by hearing. But as the Word enters through the ears, so the external sign is set before the eyes, to stir and move the heart inwardly to faith. For the Word and the external sign work the same thing in the heart, as Augustine has well said in a fine word. The sacrament, he says, is a visible word. — For the external sign is a picture by which the same thing is signified that is preached through the Word; therefore both accomplish the same thing."

And in the Smalcald Articles, Part III, Article 4:

"We will now come back to the gospel, which gives counsel and help against sin in more than one way; for God is overflowingly rich in his grace. First, through the spoken word, in which is preached the forgiveness of sin in all the world, which is the proper office of the gospel. Secondly, through baptism. Thirdly, through the holy sacrament of the altar. Fourthly, through the power of the keys, and also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers, Matthew 18:20: 'where two or three are gathered together in my name'" etc. —

Likewise Article 5:

"Baptism is nothing else than God's Word in the water, commanded by his institution, or as St. Paul says, Ephesians 5:26: the washing of water in the Word; as also Augustine says: let the Word be added to the element, and it becomes a sacrament." —

Here, then, one and the same efficacy is ascribed entirely to the sacraments and to the Word of the gospel, and that this is the pure biblical truth is beyond doubt certain from Romans 1:16 compared with Mark 16:16, Titus 3:5, and 1 Peter 3:21; for as in the first passage the power to save is attributed to the gospel, so in the latter ones it is attributed to the sacrament of holy baptism. And accordingly, on the ground of these clear passages of Holy Scripture, and in agreement with our precious, Scripture-conformed confessions, our faithful teaching fathers have unanimously held that all means of grace have the same efficacy. Thus, for instance, Chemnitz writes in his Examen Concilii Tridentini, Part II, Locus I, "Of the Sacraments in General":