On July 7, 1643, Oliver Bowles preached for the convocation of what would become known as the Westminster Assembly. He was nearly seventy when the assembly convened, and he wrote in the preface to the sermon that he was chosen for the honor in order “that dayes and multitudes of years should speak” (quoted in Philip Ryken, “The Puritan Pastorate”). His sermon, later published as Zeale for God’s House Quickened; or, a Sermon . . . expressing the Eminency of Zeale required in Church-Reformers, in many ways framed the deliberations to follow. Bowles’s choice of topic was no coincidence. Ministerial concerns were at the heart of the assembly’s work. This concern for zeal in the pursuit of the aims of gospel ministry is on display in a number of ways, both in the discussions recorded in the minutes, and in the actual text of the Standards themselves.

In two chapters of the Westminster Confession, zeal for biblically regulated ministry led to the use of what attorneys might call a term of art—ordinary means. This is a term that many in Reformed ministry use today to describe a ministry centered on the Word of God preached and read and the sacraments of baptism and communion practiced under the authority of the Word. These ordinances are the means God blesses to the salvation of his people under a zealous ministry. But is this current understanding of the ordinary means what the pastors who formulated our confessional documents had in mind?

“Ordinary Means” in the Shorter Catechism

The clearest expression of what the divines meant by the term ordinary means is found in Question 88 of the Shorter Catechism:

What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption? The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are, his ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.

The Catechism’s use of the phrase fits with the Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28:19–20. There, the promise of the presence of Christ by the Spirit is given to those ordained to baptize and teach men and women. This pattern is worked out in the book of Acts and is the model of pastoral ministry in the pastoral epistles as well. The Catechism’s clear definition of ordinary means points directly to a role that only the church can play, since only the church can lawfully administer the ordinances of baptism and communion. The Confession provides further background. Chapter 27.1 begins: “Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ, and his benefits; and to confirm our interest in him.” In 28.1, baptism is, to the believing recipient, “to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life.” Similarly, the Lord’s Supper, is cited as a “seal” and a “bond” between believers and God, acting as a pledge of their communion with him and with each other.

“Ordinary Means” in the Confession

In the Confession, the term ordinary means is employed on two occasions, both of which seem to connect with the clearer (and later) definition given in the Shorter Catechism.

The first use comes in chapter 1, a chapter that addresses the clarity of the Bible and the proper means of interpreting Scripture. Paragraph 7 begins with an acknowledgment that not all passages of Scripture are equally clear. This is obvious to any reader of it, and a reminder of our need for humility and for careful study. But the paragraph goes on to assert that the things necessary for salvation are so clear that even the uneducated and untrained can understand them:

Those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

What a glorious truth! God has spoken so clearly in his Word about the matters of eternal life and the work of Christ that no special education is required. These are not arcane teachings for a special class of initiates.

But while holding out the prospect, and even the assurance, that things pertaining to salvation are accessible to the mind and heart of both uneducated readers and hearers, there is nonetheless a connection drawn between their understanding and the employment of “the ordinary means”—the same phrase used in Shorter Catechism Q/A 88.

How is this phrase to be understood in this context? The paragraph that follows is not an especially helpful guide. While it establishes the importance of reading and studying the original languages of Scripture—Hebrew and Greek—the study of these languages can hardly have been assumed to be a part of the equipment possessed by the “unlearned.” Knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, important as they are, surely were not part of ordinary means.

What other possibilities are there for understanding “ordinary means” in this paragraph? The Scripture references attached to 1.7 may provide a clue. Two are taken from Psalm 119, verses 105 and 130. Both point to the way in which Scripture itself is a light. Scripture itself illumines the path to all (119:105), and it gives understanding to the simple (119:130). In other words, the Bible provides understanding to those who read and hear it.

This fits well with the later definition of this phrase in the Shorter Catechism. After all, the outward and ordinary means that God uses by his Spirit to convert and change include, at their center, the reading and preaching of the Word of God. And the reading and hearing of God’s Word, according to WCF 1.7, is what makes clear the primary truths of salvation—even to the unlearned.

The second place in which the term ordinary means appears in the Confession is chapter 18.3, the chapter on assurance. In this chapter, “ordinary means” are contrasted with “extraordinary revelation.” This contrast is highly significant; no extraordinary revelation is necessary to come to assurance of salvation (a fact which the Council of Trent explicitly denied). But the Confession is saying more than that.

Indeed, another use of these key words comes in the chapter on saving faith. In chapter 14.1, we read that the grace of faith “is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.” One of the divines uses the same language in arguing that the ministry of the Word is, “the sure and ordinary way for conversion of men from their evil wayes” (Anthony Burgess, Spiritual Refining, 500).

The Shorter Catechism and the Larger Catechism include the element of prayer in the description of the ordinary means. We find this in the Confession as well. In the Confession, the focus is on public prayer led by a man ordained for such a work. This ministry—connected directly with preaching and administering the sacraments—was considered a vital element of God’s work in converting sinners and strengthening the faith of God’s children. In the Shorter and Larger Catechism, we can see this reference to prayer broadened to include family and private prayer, but all of this begins with the ministry of the Word lawfully exercised in a local church.

This is entirely consistent with what we see in chapter 1, and it gives us the key to unlocking the intent behind the use of the phrase “ordinary means” in chapter 18, the chapter on assurance. Just as the Bible was understood as it was read and preached—shedding light on itself—so the soul is meant to be assured through the ordinary means of grace, as a believer submits to the preached Word, prays in public and private worship, and observes the right employment of the sacraments of baptism and communion. These are the ordinary means of growing in assurance and of increasing in the confidence of personal salvation.

Our Confession of Faith was written in a pastoral context by ordained ministers of Word and sacrament. They understood and confessed that the ordinary means given by God—the Word, sacraments, and prayer—were provided so that men and women could learn from the Bible about the saving plan of God in Christ, and, having believed, could be confident in their right standing with God their Creator. These means, so profoundly articulated in our Confession, are of enduring importance for those who serve in Christ’s church today.     

The author is president of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. New Horizons, February 2022.