Means of Grace*

  • Pray scripture and listen
  • Preach scripture and obey
  • Baptize and commune, as in scripture, to maintain peace and purity**
Spiritual Focus Practice   Teaching Kingdom Outcome
Means of Grace (Word, Prayer, and Sacraments) Preaching of Word Peacemakers' Pledge Peace and Purity in God's Institutions
Praying Scripture
Peacemaking Affirmed by Sacraments**

* See a more complete summary of the Mean of Grace at https://www.covenant.net/grace/means
** See, such as at www.BiblicalPeace.com/Commitments, how the sacraments of baptism and communion are part of the Biblical peacemaking process affirmed in church membership vows.

Note: The Reformed churches refer to the ordinary means of grace as the Word (preached primarily, but also read) and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper). In addition to these means of grace recognized by the Continental Reformed (Dutch, etc.), the English Reformed also included prayer as a means of grace along with the Word and Sacraments (Westminster Larger Catechism 154; Westminster Shorter Catechism 88). The means of grace are not intended to include every means by which God may edify Christians, but are the ordinary channels he has ordained for this purpose and are communicated to Christians supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.[14] For Reformed Christians divine grace is the action of God giving and Christians receiving the promise of eternal life united with Christ. The means of grace are used by God to confirm or ratify a covenant between himself and Christians. The words of the gospel and the elements of the sacraments are not merely symbols referring to the gospel, they actually bring about the reality of the gospel.[15]