Westminster Confession of Faith 1.7 says,

All things in Scripture are not alike plain themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them (emphasis added).

That phrase, “due use of ordinary means” was an important theme in Reformation theology that, because of the rise of Pietism, and later revivalism, the Holiness movement, and out of that movement Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movements, has largely been lost. By “ordinary means,” we meant to say “the divinely ordained means.” It was a way of capturing what Paul says in Romans 10:14–17:

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (ESV).

Paul says that we cannot call on the Lord until we hear the gospel and we cannot hear the gospel until someone preaches is to us.

He takes it for granted that God has ordained a process, or means (or media), by which he brings his elect to new life (regeneration) and to true faith. The reason that the feet of gospel preachers are beautiful is not the feet themselves but the message they bring. In case we missed his point he puts a fine point on it: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.” By his sovereign grace, God uses the sense experience of hearing the good news. That tells us how important are the means by which he has decided to work.

The Heidelberg Catechism summarizes Paul’s teaching this way:

Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all His benefits by faith only, from where comes this faith?

The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel, and confirms it by the use of the Holy Sacraments.

It is the Spirit, the “Lord and giver of life” (Nicene Creed) who sovereignly gives new life and true faith. It is the Holy Spirit who unites believers to Christ but he uses the gospel to do it and he uses the sacraments not to create faith (contra the sacerdotalists) but to confirm and strengthen it. The means of grace are important as we come to faith and as we grow in that faith.

Resources On Church Growth And Ordinary Means Ministry

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