OUR SEVEN SACRAMENTS
by Cecil Hook

In our eagerness to be seen as the scripturally produced, undenominational church, we in the Church of Christ have insisted that we are neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish. However that may be, it is unrealistic to claim that we have no theological inheritance from any of those sources.

Just as we can see marks of the parents in the child, we can identify various theological concepts marking the Church of Christ that were formulated by our predecessors. Perhaps, we are more kin to the Catholics than to the Protestants. One of the most influential non-scriptural concepts affecting our fundamental beliefs is sacramentalism. The Catholic theologians, who devised the sacramental system, teach that a sacrament is a ritual through which grace is poured into the soul. They have seven of them: Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Penance, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Extreme Unction.

Except in unusual circumstances, these ceremonies can be performed only by the clergy. So, whether by design or chance, the sacramental system binds the individual to the church for no spiritual grace can come outside the system. The sacraments established the power of the papacy and reinforced the authoritarian stance of the church. Only the church had the sacraments which were the avenues to God and salvation. The powers of excommunication and interdiction, which could withhold the sacraments, demanded subservience to the one true church.

Sacramentalism is a reinforcement of legalism. Legal technicalities are emphasized in demanding that, to be effective rather than damning, the ritual must be done in a precise manner, by the right person, at the right place. When we mix up the sequence of numbers in dialing the telephone, the call does not go through; likewise, one cannot get through to grace while ignoring the technicalities of the ritual.

Sacramental religion is built upon the concept of infused grace, goodness, and righteousness. It is something accomplished in us which makes us good, pure, and Christlike. A ritual does it! It ignores that righteousness in imputed on the basis of faith rather than infused through our ability to keep ceremonies and laws. It is a works-oriented system.

Our sacramental concept alters the purpose and meaning of our performances. It makes our activities an effort to please God and to gain his grace through keeping legal details of commands. And it makes us fearfully cautious lest we slip up on some technicality which would make our sincere effort bring a curse instead of grace.

In the Church of Christ we have transferred much of the sacramental concept into our purposes for participation in assemblies, singing, praying, teaching, giving, communing, and baptism. We might say that these have become the seven sacraments of the Church of Christ. They have become the rigidly controlled route to heaven, binding the disciple to the one true church and its elders. Being technically correct in each detail is of high importance lest we fall short of the grace of God and arouse his displeasure. Anyone who questions or seeks to change any of these well defined steps or patterns is looked upon as a troublemaker and, if he persists, he is dealt with as a heretic.

Now, let us review the seven sacraments of the Church of Christ to see how our inheritance has prevailed in our thought and practice.

1. In assemblies, “let all things be done for edification.” God left it to us to conduct meetings that are relevant to the needs of those present so as to upbuild them. The value derived from assemblies is the strength gained from them. Traditionally, that purpose and practice has been altered among us. Now assemblies emphasize worship through rituals done in specific detail so as to fulfill commands, please God, and thus be made righteous. Thus grace comes through our ceremonial works rather than growing in grace through strengthening the inward man.

2. Singing is for the purpose of teaching and admonishing one another, a horizontal outreach. But we have sold ourselves on the idea that we sing because we are commanded to as a ritual of worship which, when done technically right, pleases God, who then checks us as righteous, a vertical upreach. But if anyone attempts to teach and edify by means of a quartet or a guitar, the blessing is withheld and the worshippers are condemned. The value of the performance is in doing it as required rather than in the good that is accomplished in us.

3. Because we are “commanded” to pray, we must be sure to keep that command correctly so that we will be in the good grace of the Father, according to our sacramentalism. The sincere prayer is in vain if one forgets to say “in Jesus’ name” or if it is voiced by a woman in the presence of men! This emphasizes detail rather than a living, reconciled, communicating relationship with God.

4. Since we see teaching as an “act of worship,” we conclude that its performance satisfies God and credits a blessing whether it is uplifting or not. Even though the subject matter is learned, however, according to our contention, a blessing is not forthcoming if the teacher is of the wrong gender. The specifics of the performance must be correct in order for a sacrament to bless the soul!

5. Having made the giving of money an “act of worship,” we have made it a sacrament also. But the blessing of giving is invalidated if it is not given on the first day of the week, or if the disciple has used his resources to help others and has none left to “lay by in store” in the collection basket to support the system. He has robbed God of tithes and offerings! His offering must be “given to God” in worship rather than to be used for the benefit of man.

6. What is the value of the Lord’s Supper? Its value is in causing us to remember and declare the basis of our hope. Participation blesses us only in what it causes us to think. If our faith has not been strengthened, then the ritual is fruitless. Sacramentalism allows one to “take communion” for a blessing and to be judged righteous without truly communing. It becomes a sort of magic ceremony that is effective when we work the right combination of unleavened bread, unfermented grape juice, the bread first, the cup second, separate prayers for each, separate serving, with no singing during the eating and drinking. But regardless of how vividly participation might renew our memory and revive our faith, it becomes damning if any of the details are changed. That is sacramentalism in the truest sense of the Catholic definition.

7. Baptism is our most emphatic sacrament. Isn’t baptism a ritual or ceremony through which grace is conferred to the soul? Doesn’t it affect a new birth in us? Most of our people have given affirmative answers to those questions. We have taught baptismal regeneration—that in baptism, divine action transforms and regenerates the soul in a new birth process.

Baptism symbolizes and confirms the change that the convert has undergone rather than accomplishing the change. The conversion process is similar to the birth process. There is an insemination, a conception, a period of gestation, and a parturition or birth. The birth finalizes what has been taking place in the womb rather than being the cause of the life developing process. The parturition is necessary, but not the cause of life. Life is not infused into the fetus at birth, yet the life-giving process is incomplete without it.

In a similar manner, a sinner hears the gospel, believes, repents, and is baptized. Although baptism is necessary in this procedure, it is not the cause of life. Baptism confirms what has already taken place. Regeneration is a process finalized by baptism instead of being produced by it.

At the completion of this birth process, righteousness is imputed rather than the person having been made righteous by an act of grace in response to performance of a sacramental rite. Baptism imparts grace no more than belief, repentance, or confession does. These are all necessary for salvation. When baptism is said to save us, a part of the saving process is being put for the whole. That is a literary device known as a metonymy when the part is used for the whole.

The above is in harmony with the Baptist view: “Baptism, as taught in the New Testament, is a picture of death and burial to sin and resurrection to a new life, a picture of what has already taken place in the heart, not the means by which the spiritual change is wrought.” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, V. 1, p. 387). However, Baptists may not always teach that.

This subject involves an understanding of how a person is justified at conversion and throughout life. Does God justify a man by accounting him innocent or by making him innocent? Is a man justified by having Christ’s perfection given to his credit, or by having Christ’s perfection put into his heart? Does God account us as regenerated because of our faith and commitment, or are we justified by a renovation within the heart produced by the Spirit? Does God accept us while sinners by accounting Jesus’ goodness to us, or must he change us into persons pleasing to him to be accepted?

The latter choice of each of these questions attributes a sacramental effect to baptism through which a person is made clean, holy, and regenerated. It calls for justification by God’s work of grace in man rather than justification by God’s work of grace in Christ. This is works salvation in which a person must cease to be a sinner before he is justified instead of the sinner being justified by faith.

When we find our security in performing rituals of “worship services,” there is the problem of never being sure we have performed enough. In supposing that we can achieve the grace of God, we forget that salvation is free and that salvation is a gift of God.

When we abandon the sacramental ideas we have inherited, we can take more thought to minister to the needs of the Body, both in the assembly and in daily life, through caring service rather than rituals. —1350 Huisache, New Braunfels, Texas 78130

The fact that our minds are operated on chiefly by ideas of things, should teach us on all occasions to seek correct knowledge; and never to clothe things with fancied properties and excellencies which they do not possess. If so, our happiness will be ill-founded and false. — Walter Scott