Steven A. Bush - March 6, 2022
The Ordinary Means of Grace
Acts 2:42 describes the early church just after Pentecost: "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." (ESV) The Creeds and various Church Confessions are wonderful summaries of the key doctrines of Scripture. One of the things we gain from them are what's commonly called, "The Ordinary Means of Grace." By means of grace we're referring to the means by which God, through the work of His Holy Spirit, gives, bestows, reveals, imparts to us--His grace. So by ordinary things like opening our Bibles, hearing God's Word preached, singing praises to our Lord, praying earnestly for God's presence and help, commemorating our Lord's sacrifice with bread & wine, and immersing a new believer in water to signify they're buried and risen with Christ, the Holy Spirit uses these means to enrich, fortify, deepen, and reinforce our walks of faith. God can use anything, but these are clearly the instruments which He uses most according to Scripture. He uses the ordinary to achieve what's extraordinary. And because He uses these means, we should heartily embrace them and never underestimate their potency and potential in our ongoing process of transformational redemption...