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    The two previous Saturday Faith posts have been about the One, Holy, Christian Church and the Tradition of the Church. Each of these posts dealt with the nature of the Church’s belief and doctrine. Core to both the belief and doctrine of the Church is one of its most fundamental doctrines, the mechanism by which one comes to have saving faith. In the Tradition of the Church, the doctrine of how one receives faith is called the Means of Grace.
    The Means of Grace are those things that, by their nature, act as avenues for the saving Gospel and the Holy Spirit. These avenues are tied directly to the Word of God, either being the Word itself or some action tied to that Word. In general, the Tradition of the Church identifies the Means of Grace as the Bible, Baptism, and Communion. Each of these individual means will be discussed separately in later posts.
    The concept of the Means of Grace itself, however, is important in its own right, because unless there is a mechanism for saving faith, how does one know that such saving faith has been achieved? This is not some arbitrary mechanism, but rather one established by God and communicated to us by His word, which is the first Means of Grace. Because we know of these mechanisms by God’s grace and His word, we can be assured that they have the power to achieve faith in us and to bring us into Christ’s body and His kingdom.
    We also know, then, that the Means of Grace is the mechanism by which we can carry that same saving faith to those who do not yet have it. Primarily through the Word and then through Baptism, we can bring that faith to the world presenting them with both the power of the Gospel and physical means by which they can know that they have received the saving Grace of God.
    As a result, the Means of Grace acts as the method by which the Church strengthens itself and brings the saving message of the Gospel to those who do not yet have faith. These are the means ordained by God for our benefit, and without these means, there is no other way by which anyone can be saved.
DLH
