Encore Post: The Roman Catholics have seven sacraments. Lutherans have two (or maybe three). Protestants of a variety of confessions have none. The reason why the list differs is because each has a different definition of sacrament. The word is from Latin and literally means “holy things.” It was used by Jerome in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible used by the Catholic Church, to translate the Greek word μυστήριον (mystery), a word for the saving truths of the Christian faith.
The Church came to use it for the ways God gives his grace to his children. The Roman Catholic Church lists seven sacraments: Baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Penance, Marriage, Ordination and Anointing of the Sick (Last rites)
Lutherans, following Martin Luther, use a narrower definition. For us, a sacrament is something that Jesus instituted, that God uses to give us his grace and so create faith and save us and that combines God’s promise with a physical element (water in Baptism, bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper) Lutheran theologians sometimes have included Absolution, where God forgives the sins of his people through the voice of a pastor. Because Absolution does not use a physical element, Martin Luther and other Lutheran theologians have been reluctant to list it as a sacrament.
We treasure the sacraments because they are gifts from God. They are objective and outside of ourselves. Because they do not depend upon us, but upon Christ who gives them, we are absolutely certain that in them we receive God’s grace, that we are saved, that he forgives our sins, that we are his children and that we will live with him forever.
For us, this changes why we go to church on Sundays and other days. We don’t go because we are doing something for God but because God has done something for us and wants to give us gifts. Here is the strength to live life in the struggle against the world, the devil and our flesh. Because of these gifts, we have the strength to do good works. For these gifts we thank him and give our lives over to his service and to care for others.
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Thank you for your thoughtful post! If I may build on your thoughts…
In our confessions, (for example, Apology 13), we do not dogmatically define or enumerate sacraments. In Apology 13, we are willing to accept Ordination and Holy Matrimony, for example, as sacraments – for although they do not offer forgiveness, they do bear the Holy Spirit and the promise of God.
I believe we have been overly influenced by American Protestants to downplay the Lord’s role in these sacramental, supernatural, holy rites.
This is especially valuable in our dialogue with people in a culture that accepts same sex marriage (so-called). Instead of “marriage,” perhaps we should refer to Holy Matrimony and emphasize its sacramental nature to distinguish it from its watered-down and mangled secular counterpart that calls itself “marriage.”
The state will never refer to its “marriage” as sacramental holy matrimony.
We would do well to speak in the language of our confessions!
Thanks again!
Thanks! With these posts, I do not like to get overly complicated. Marriage is certainly holy, and under other definitions, we could classify it as a sacrament. But since most Lutherans are going to encounter this definition, I think I’ll stay with it.
As a lay person, what you say makes perfect sense to me, Pastor Beane. I wonder if the reason that marriage was included among the sacraments in the first place was because of the immorality that was rampant in Rome in the first and second centuries. Perhaps it was done to distinguish between Christian Holy Matrimony and the various secular relationships that have become common today? Perhaps the LCMS would do well to include Holy Matrimony among the sacraments.
I suspect it is not likely we will change Luther’s definition of marriage, although we certainly will be highlighting it holy nature in the next few decades, given how our society so bent to destroy it. So, because it does not convey grace, it’s not likely to be so classed. Absolution, on the other hand…
Beloved of the Lord, et alioquid,
In sem, we were urged to think clearly about the fact that our Roman Church friends did not become formally didactic about seven as the number of how many sacraments were biblical until Trent. I remember reading that prior to Luther’s writing that up to perhaps twenty things\events\acts were considered under various definitions of the term *sacrament* or *mystery* to be such.
It is worth noting that the usefulness of Luther’s “strict,” or (as I prefer “tight’), reading of what’s a *mystery* or *sacrament* related to conveying grace, [Word & Sacraments being the means of grace], is the confidence a baptized believer may have in the surety and completeness of the free gift.
Blessings on this Friday before Palm Sunday, 2024!