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presuppose the existence of the principle of the new life in the soul. Shedd and Dabney both
speak of them, without any qualification, as “means of sanctification.” Says the former: “When
the world of unregenerate men are said to have the means of grace, the means of conviction
under common grace, not of sanctification under special grace, are intended.”[Dogm. Theol. II,
p. 561.] Honig also distinguishes between the Word of God as a means of grace and the Word
as it contains the call to conversion and serves to call Gentiles to the service of the living
God.[Handboek van de Geref. Dogm., p. 611.] Dr. Kuyper, too, thinks of the means of grace
merely as means for the strengthening of the new life when he says: “The media gratiae are
means instituted by God that He makes use of to unfold, both personally and socially, for and
through our consciousness, the re-creation that He immediately established in our
nature.”[Dict. Dogm., De Sacramentis, p. 7 (translation mine — L.B.).] There is, of course, a
truth in this representation. The principle of the new life is wrought in the soul immediately,
that is, without the mediation of the Word that is preached. But in so far as the origination of
the new life also includes the new birth and internal calling, it may also be said that the Holy
Spirit works the beginning of the new life or of faith, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, “by the
preaching of the holy gospel.”
C. HISTORICAL VIEWS RESPECTING THE MEANS OF GRACE.
There has been considerable difference of opinion respecting the means of grace in the Church
of Jesus Christ. The early Church does not furnish us with anything very definite on this point.
There was far more emphasis on the sacraments than on the Word of God. Baptism was rather
generally regarded as the means by which sinners were regenerated, while the eucharist stood
out as the sacrament of sanctification. In course of time, however, certain definite views were
developed.
1. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW.
While the Roman Catholics regarded even relics and images as
means of grace, they singled out in particular the Word and the sacraments. At the same time
they failed to give due prominence to the Word, and ascribed to it only preparatory significance
in the work of grace. As compared with the Word, the sacraments were considered to be the
real means of grace. In the system that was gradually developed the Church of Rome recognizes
a means that is even superior to the sacraments. The Church itself is regarded as the primary
means of grace. In it Christ continues His divine-human life on earth, performs His prophetic,
priestly, and kingly work, and through it He communicates the fulness of His grace and truth.
This grace serves especially to raise man from the natural to the supernatural order. It is a
gratia elevans, a supernatural physical power, infused into the natural man through the
sacraments working ex opere operato. In the sacraments the visible signs and the invisible
grace are inseparably connected. In fact, the grace of God is contained in the means as a sort of