What Is a Means of Grace?

Here’s an excerpt from What Is a Means of Grace?, Nicholas T. Batzig's contribution to the June issue of Tabletalk:

A brief survey of the top fifty best-selling Christian books reveals what subjects are of the greatest and least interest to the majority of professing Christians. Books on purpose, finances, personality, self-esteem, love languages, and relational boundaries dominate the list. Books on the triune God, Christ, sin, the gospel, Scripture, preaching, the sacraments, prayer, church discipline, and the local church are woefully wanting. Since Jesus Christ and His saving work form the foundation of our faith (1 Cor. 2:2; 3:11), we should be most concerned about knowing how to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18). Our growth in the grace of Christ will be commensurate with our use of the means God has appointed. Theologians refer to these as “means of grace” (media gratia).

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