The sacraments are visible Holy signs and seals appointed by God for this end, that by their use He may the more fully declare and seal the promise of the Gospel, namely, that of free grace he grants the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life for the sake of the one sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross. Sacraments are similar to the circumcision of Abraham. God commanded Abraham to circumcise himself and all the male members of his household in order to mark them in a designated way that signified God's favor upon him and his entire household. This mark signified God's promise to make Abraham a great nation and to ultimately provide them with eternal sanctuary in the new Kingdom of God of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit works faith in us by the preaching of the Holy Gospel and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments. I say this because on the night after Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews in the first century of our Lord, came to Jesus to inquire about the truths about Heaven, "Jesus replied, 'The truth is, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit (NLT, Jn 3:5)."  What this means is that their sins must be forgiven by an act of God. The term sacrament is a religious rite or ceremony. It is understood that ". . . in Christianity, a rite that is considered to have been established by Jesus Christ to bring grace to those participating in or receiving it (EDT)" is a sacrament. Furthermore, "In the Protestant Church, the sacraments are baptism and Communion. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Churches also include penance, confirmation, holy orders, matrimony, and the anointing of the sick (EDT)." The term sacrament is a rendering of the Latin term sacramentum which is a "rite, mystery, (gospel) revelation, [or] sacrament (EDT)."

Ms. Van Wyhe TeacherWeb 9th Grade Handouts