# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1857_S7
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Efficacy of the Sacraments.                    7

"In what way, then, does baptism now, according to 1 Peter 3:21, make us blessed? How is it, according to Titus 3:5, the washing of regeneration? Paul explains this simply when he says, Ephesians 5:26: 'and has cleansed it (the congregation) by the washing of water in the Word.' And Augustine draws the very same conclusion from Christ's own saying, John 15:3: 'you are now clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.' Rightly, therefore, does the Apology of the Augsburg Confession say that the efficacy is one and the same, that the power and effectiveness of the Word as well as of the sacraments — which are seals of the promise — are one and the same" etc. —

And further below:

"For a fuller explanation belongs also the consideration that in this doctrine a twofold intermediate cause is found. The one is, as it were, God's hand, by which he, through the Word and the sacraments in the Word, offers, holds out, imparts, and seals to believers the benefits of redemption" etc. —

Further, John Gerhard in his Locus de sacramentis:

"Of the sacraments there are two chief purposes. The first, that they are instruments, means, and vehicles by which God offers, holds out, and imparts to believers the actual promise of the gospel concerning the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life, which we prove by the following arguments: 1. Whatever belongs to the Word of the gospel in general must not be denied to the sacraments. Now it belongs to the Word of the gospel that it is an efficacious means by which the heavenly goods — namely, the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins, and eternal blessedness — are offered to men and imparted to believers. Therefore this must not be denied to the sacraments. The truth of the major premise is evident from the fact that the sacraments are a visible word, that they are, as it were, a short summary of the gospel, and that all their standing, all their effectiveness and power, they have from the Word of God, which by divine ordinance is joined with the outward element in the sacraments, as we have shown above. The confirmation of the minor premise is to be taken from passages such as Isaiah 55:10-11, Romans 1:16, Galatians 3:2, 1 Timothy 4:16, Hebrews 4:12. — Immovably firm, then, stands the conclusion that this efficacy must not be denied to the sacraments" etc., etc. —

In the face of this certain divine truth and such clear, bright testimonies, let it then be far from us, without any scriptural ground, on mere fancy, to ascribe with some of the moderns a particular and different efficacy to each of the means of grace. Rather let us, in this point too, remain with the salutary, Scripture-conformed doctrine of our good, old, faithful fathers — that Word and sacrament have the same efficacy — in all simplicity and with all firmness, and gladly bear for it the reproach that we merely chew the cud of the ancients, and view Scripture with their eyes,