A sacrament at its most basic level of meaning is “a sacred thing”, but when Lutherans use it, the best way to think about a sacrament is to think of it as a “means of grace”. It’s like a “grace delivery system” for God.
Lutherans believe that a sacrament has to have the following:
- It has to be expressly commanded by Jesus in the New Testament
- It has to join God’s Word and a physical element
- It has to offer, give, or seal God’s grace/forgiveness
Before Lutherans came around, there were seven sacraments. None of these things were bad, but they didn’t really fit with what it seemed like Jesus was really concerned with in the New Testament. So Lutherans decided that there were two sacraments and a bonus one.
The two sacraments are:
- Baptism
- Lord’s Supper (also called Communion, Eurcharist, etc)
The bonus one is Confession&Forgiveness – This one is added as a bonus because it is very much expressly commanded by Jesus and it offers God’s grace and forgiveness, but it doesn’t really have a physical element. So sometimes it shows up as a “third sacrament” for Lutherans and sometimes it doesn’t. Here’s the thing, we’re not as concerned with what a sacrament is as we are with what is important to Jesus.