What Is a Sacrament?

Which was better, the book or the movie? Sometimes that's the right question but not always. If the book and movie were both done well they accomplish the same goal of the storyteller, by use of two different media. For a simple understanding of the sacraments we might see them as the movie version of the written and spoken story of the gospel. Herman Bavinck puts it this way, "The Word signifies and seals Christ to us by the sense of hearing; the sacrament signifies and seals Christ to us by the sense of sight … The sacrament grants the same full Christ as the Word and in the same manner, that is a spiritual manner by faith, even though the means differ, one being audible and the other visible." If the sacraments present to us the whole Christ then we need to value them, and know how they work. Understanding the sacraments as a visible presentation of the gospel can help simplify what can be a complex subject.