Traditionally, Protestantshave recognized only two sacraments–baptism and the Lord’s Supper. There hasbeen some debate about this amongst the more high church Protestants, butbasically the  position has been the samethroughout recent church history. What is interesting about this view is thatit overlooks the Protestant theology of and about the Word of God.  While ‘de jure’ baptism and the Lord’s Supperare the Protestant sacraments,  ‘defacto’ there has always been another one, and in fact one that has been seenand believed to have a far more regular and enduring effect–namely the Word ofGod.  

The term sacramentum in the Latin has had variousdefinitions over the ages of church history but perhaps the most familiar oneis ‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace’ or moresimply, a means of grace.  If a sacrament is a means of grace, by which is meanta means of divine influence and change in a person’s life, then surely the Wordof God and its proclamation, reading, hearing learning, memorizing is asacrament.   We just don’t tend to callit that.  Consider however what is saidabout the Word of God in the NT at various junctures.   The Word of God is seen as something livingwhich dwells richly in the believer once received, probing and changing theperson inwardly. 

For example, Paulreferring to his preaching of the Good News in Thessalonike in one of hisearliest letters says this–“And we constantly thank God because when youreceived the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as ahuman word but as it actually is–the Word of God which is at work in you who believe.“  (1 Thess. 2.13).   Paul is not talking about  consuming communion wafers or gettingwet,  but he is talking about a means ofgrace that is at work in a person’s life. 

Or consider thefamous passage in Heb. 4.12–“for the Word of God is living and active. Sharperthan any two edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing life breath andspirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of theheart.”  What is especially interestingabout this passage is once again we are referring to oral proclamation of theWord and its reception into the inner life of the person, and notice that whatis said about the Word here could just as easily be said about the role of theHoly Spirit in a person’s life (cf. e.g. what is said about the spirit in Jn.14-17 or 1 Cor. 1-4 and elsewhere). 

So much is theWord of God seen as a living and active thing in the NT, that Luke can actuallyspeak about the ‘Word of God’ growing or increasing (Acts 6.7; 12.24)  by which was meant it affected and infectedmany people and the church grew.  Christiansare exhorted in Col. 3.16 to ‘let the Word of God dwell in you richly as youteach and admonish one another’. In 1 Tim. 4.5 speaks of the consecration orsanctification of all things including food by means of the Word of God andprayer.

Much more could besaid along these lines,  but this issufficient to establish that the Word of God is not only seen as a livingthing,  its proclamation is seen assomething that changes things, including people,  indwells them and saves, sanctifies, andillumines them.  This surely makes theWord of God and its proclamation and reception a sacrament on any normalunderstanding of the term.

This in turnbrings me to a crucial point.  At leastin the Protestant Church we  partake of the sacrament of the Word atgreater length and far more often, than we do the other sacraments. It is farmore influential and provides a far more lasting effect on the congregationsimply because of the frequency of encounter with the Word, and its inwardappropriation.   If we are thinkingpastorally about our flocks one of the things that we need to ask is–What isdoing them the most good, including sacramentally, on an ongoing basis,  as a means of grace?  Here again the answer must be that de factoit is the Word of God. 

I do not say thisbecause I think we should neglect the other sacraments.  I say this because we actually need a moresanctified view of the Word of God.  TheWord of God, when faithfully preached and openly received is far more than justpreaching, or a good life lesson, or an edifying discourse.  It is the unleashing of God’s transformativepower in the human life.  In short–theWord does things to the recipient that the recipient might well be unaware ofat the time, much like taking a medicine the effects of which take time to benoticeable.    There is of course acorollary to this–  the less one consumesthe Word, the less grace, the less spiritual health, one is likely tohave.  In an age of Biblical illiteracyeven within the church, it is no wonder that the church is sickly and open toall sorts of false teaching and its bad spiritual effects. 

And there is moregood news.  Ever since William Tyndale,  the Word of God has been available to all andsundry English speaking persons.  TheGutenberg revolution prevented it from simply remaining something chained to apulpit.  The Word of God can beself-administered as a sacrament,  or itcan be received from others.  It is notsomething that can or should be controlled by clergy, dispensing it out as theydeem appropriate.  No, the Word of Godhas been unleashed from clerical control, and there is no turning back now.

This brings me toa crucial point.  Every Christian needs amore sacramental, and sanctified life than they currently have, even if you arein a church that downplays the traditional sacraments.  There is one thing you can do about thatevery day–add more Word to your diet!   I promise it will be beneficial in manyways– among other things you’ll have more necessary moral fiber.