Together, we have faith

Oct 15, 2025
Week #41 — Sensible SIgns
Q. 92. What is a Sacrament?
A. A Sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.
Gen. 17:7, 10; Ex. 12; 1 Cor. 11:23, 26.
“And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you
throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.. . . This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.”
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,. . . For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
“Note that two key words in Calvin’s definition of sacraments reappear in the catechism’s treatment of the subject. The first word is sign. The sacraments are “sensible signs”—objects that we can actually handle and see. These signs are water, bread, and wine, and as signs they point away from themselves to something else: all that is ours when we have Christ. We will be sorely disappointed if we look to the sacraments for anything other than a display of Jesus’s person and work.”
Excerpt From Glorifying and Enjoying God: 52 Devotions through the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Boekestein & Cruse & Miller)
Sensible signs. The first word (and for some the only word) that accurately and adequately describes the sacraments is “signs.” They are pointers to Jesus Christ and his work for us. Baptism is something we see, as the candidate is either immersed or splashed with the water, we are reminded of Jesus burial and resurrection for us. When we eat the bread and drink the cup we are reminded of the broken body and shed blood of Christ. Again, the bread is something we eat and the cup something we drink. The sight and sense, the use of our eyes and felt emotions, make these sacraments “sensible signs.” They objectively point us to Jesus as we subjectively partake of them.
A Puritan Prayer —
“O LORD GOD,
I pray not so much for graces as for the Spirit himself,
because I feel his absence,
and act by my own spirit in everything.
Give me not weak desires but the power of his presence,
for this is the surest way to have all his graces,
and when I have the seal I have the impression also;
He can heal, help, quicken, humble suddenly and easily,
can work grace and life effectually,
and being eternal he can give grace eternally.
Save me from great hindrances,
from being content with a little measure of the Spirit,
from thinking thou wilt not give me more.
When I feel my lack of him, light up life and faith,
for when I lose thee I am either in the dark and cannot see thee,
or Satan and my natural abilities content me with a little light,
so that I seek no further for the Spirit of life.
Teach me then what to do.
Should I merely humble myself and not stir up my heart?
Should I meditate and use all means to bring him near,
not being contented by one means,
but trust him to give me a blessing by the use of all,
depending only upon, and waiting always for, thy light, by use of means?
Is it a duty or an error to pray
and look for the fullness of the Spirit in me?
Am I mistaken in feeling I am empty of the Spirit
because I do not sense his presence within,
when all the time I am most empty
and could be more full by faith in Christ?
Was the fullness of the Spirit in the apostles chiefly a power,
giving the subsistence outside themselves in Christ,
in whom was their life and joy?
Teach me to find and know fullness of the Spirit only in Jesus.”
Excerpt From
The Valley of Vision
Edited by Arthur Bennett