☩ Ecclesiology & Worship · Sacramental Efficacy

Ex-Opere-Operato

Sacraments confer grace by the act performed, independent of faith — the Tridentine position rejected by XXVII.3.

This is a contested or rejected alternative.

The Westminster baseline on Sacramental Efficacy is Signs-And-Seals-Conferring-Grace-By-Spirit. Personas and schools listed below hold this alternative position instead — either because they argued for it at the Assembly (like the Erastians on polity) or because they represent a receiving tradition that departed from the Standards on this point.

Cruxes on this attribute

The Assembly navigated 1 crux that bear directly on Sacramental Efficacy.

Sacramental Efficacy: Signs and Seals 1646 How sacraments confer grace without operating ex opere operato or being bare memorials.

Other positions on Sacramental Efficacy

Signs-And-Seals-Conferring-Grace-By-Spirit WCF Sacraments are signs and seals of the covenant of grace, conferring the grace signified by the work of the Spirit and the word of institution upon worthy receivers (WCF XXVII.1–3; XXVIII.6; XXIX.7). Bare-Memorial Sacraments are merely memorial or instructive signs with no conferral of grace — the Zwinglian position softened by Westminster's seal language. Converting-Ordinance The Lord's Supper functions as a converting ordinance for the morally serious unconverted — Stoddard's later position, rejected by WCF XXIX.7.

Cite this position

Study Reformed, “Ex-Opere-Operato” (Position), Westminster Standards Atlas, version 79a5f9880ac1, https://studyreformed.com/atlas/cite/position/ecclesiology_worship/sacraments_efficacy/ex_opere_operato/.

Permalink · BibTeX · RIS

Ontology version 79a5f9880ac1 — the state of the Atlas you are reading, so a citation stays checkable when the ontology is revised.