What Is a Sacrament?

Question 92: What is a sacrament?
Answer: A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

Question 93: Which are the sacraments of the New Testament?
Answer: The sacraments of the New Testament are, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. (WSC)

The medieval church had developed a list of seven sacraments: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage, and Ordination. The Reformers saw that not only had these seven practices been distorted by error, but also that they had been improperly grouped together as sacraments. For example, while marriage is a divine ordinance, marriage is unlike Baptism and the Lord’s Supper because marriage is a creation ordinance that is common to all humanity. And while marriage is an earthly analogy of Christ and the church, it is not a sensible sign of invisible grace in the way Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are.

A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ for his church in his capacity as our Redeemer. Not only that, but a sacrament is an ordinance with two parts: a sensible sign and spiritual grace. There are other ordinances appointed for the church, such as the reading and preaching of the word, but sacraments are those ordinances instituted by Christ in which sensible signs represent, seal, and apply Christ to believers.

The sacraments of the New Testament are two: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The old covenant had sacraments as well, which also pointed to Christ and built up the faith of believers in those days (1 Cor. 10:1-4, Rom. 4:11, Heb. 8-10). But with the coming of Christ, new sacraments were instituted by him as part of the clearer and more powerful new covenant administration (Matt. 26:26-29, 28:18-20).

In Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers by sensible signs, i.e. water, bread, and wine (Gal. 3:27, Acts 22:16, 1 Cor. 10:16-17, 11:23-26). They represent Christ and these benefits to us. They seal and confirm them to us, assuring us of our share in them, as a handshake or wedding ring seals a promise. They apply them to us, truly offering us what they symbolize, that we might participate in them by faith.