What are the ordinances?
Question 09057
The word “ordinance” is the term most Baptists and many other evangelicals use for what other traditions call “sacraments.” The distinction is not pedantic. It reflects a fundamentally different understanding of what baptism and the Lord’s Supper actually are and what they accomplish. The New Testament describes two practices that Christ commanded His church to observe, and understanding what these ordinances are, what they mean, and what they do not do is essential for any church that wants to practise them faithfully.
Ordinance or Sacrament?
The word sacrament, as used in Roman Catholic and much of Anglican theology, carries the idea of a means of grace: that the rite itself communicates saving or sanctifying grace to the recipient. In Catholic theology, baptism removes original sin and regenerates the soul. The Eucharist becomes, through transubstantiation, the literal body and blood of Christ. The sacraments are understood as channels through which God’s grace flows to the participant, and their proper administration is essential for salvation.
The word ordinance carries a different set of assumptions. An ordinance is something ordained or commanded by Christ, observed in obedience to His instruction, and laden with rich symbolic meaning, but it does not itself confer grace or effect spiritual change. The grace is in what the ordinance represents, not in the physical act itself. Baptism does not save; it publicly identifies the believer with Christ’s death and resurrection. The Lord’s Supper does not re-sacrifice Christ or transform the elements; it remembers and proclaims the sacrifice already made, once for all, at Calvary.
This distinction is rooted in the conviction that salvation is by grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9) and that no physical act, however meaningful, adds to or completes what Christ accomplished at the cross. The ordinances are acts of obedience, acts of testimony, and acts of worship. They are not vehicles of salvation.
Baptism
Baptism is the believer’s public identification with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Romans 6:3-4 provides the theological framework: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” The imagery is vivid and deliberate. Going under the water pictures death and burial. Coming up out of the water pictures resurrection and new life. Immersion captures this imagery in a way that other modes do not, which is one of the reasons Baptists hold to immersion as the normal practice.
Baptism is for believers. It follows faith; it does not precede or produce it. The consistent New Testament pattern is: hearing the gospel, believing, and then being baptised (Acts 2:41; 8:12; 8:36-38; 16:31-33; 18:8). Infant baptism, practised by Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Presbyterian, and other traditions, is based on a theology of covenant inclusion that Ian does not share. A baby cannot repent, believe, or make a public confession of faith. What is being baptised in infant baptism is not a disciple but a potential disciple, and the New Testament command is to baptise disciples (Matthew 28:19).
The Lord’s Supper
The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ on the night before His crucifixion (Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). It is a memorial that looks backward to the cross and forward to the return of Christ. Paul states its purpose with clarity: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The bread represents the body of Christ given for us. The cup represents the blood of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. They represent. They do not become.
Transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic doctrine that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ while retaining the appearance of bread and wine, has no exegetical support. Jesus said “this is my body” while His physical body was sitting at the table with the disciples, which strongly suggests metaphorical language rather than a literal transformation of the elements. Consubstantiation, the Lutheran view that Christ is “in, with, and under” the elements without the elements changing substance, is a more moderate position but still imports a physical presence into what the text presents as a symbolic act. The memorial view, held by Baptists and many other evangelicals, takes the language at its most natural: the elements are symbols, rich and powerful in their significance, that point to the reality of Christ’s sacrifice without themselves being that reality.
Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 are a sober warning about the seriousness with which the Supper should be approached. Eating and drinking in an unworthy manner, which in the Corinthian context meant treating the meal as an occasion for social division and gluttony, brings judgement. Self-examination is required. The Supper is not a casual routine; it is a solemn act of worship, remembrance, and proclamation that demands the participant take seriously what it represents.
So, now what?
The two ordinances Christ gave His church are simple, profound, and irreplaceable. Baptism marks the beginning of the public Christian life, identifying the believer with Christ and with His people. The Lord’s Supper sustains that life, regularly drawing the believer’s attention back to the cross, forward to the coming of Christ, and inward to the condition of their own heart before God. Neither saves. Both matter deeply. If you are a believer who has not been baptised, take seriously the command of Christ and the example of every believer in the New Testament. If you participate in the Lord’s Supper, do so with the reverence and self-examination that the apostle requires. These are not empty rituals. They are acts of obedience that declare, in visible and tangible form, the gospel on which everything depends.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26 (ESV)