When we say that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, we generally do well at not inserting any portion of the material creation in between Christ and the believing soul. We know that it is the Word preached or written that was the instrument of salvation, but we don’t attribute this power to the ink on the page, or to the leather binding of the Bible, or to the mystic quality of sound waves in the air. The gospel is mediated to the believing soul by means of matter, but we know that faith matters—the matter doesn’t matter. The fact that it does not matter simply means that it is not the active agent—rather, it is the carrier of God’s gracious purposes, received by faith.
In the proclamation of the gospel, grace is communicated to the believing soul by material means just as much as grace is communicated to us by means of the sacramental water, or the sacramental bread and wine. The organ of efficacious reception is always faith, nothing but faith, faith to the end of the world. But how does faith receive something to believe. Sound doesn’t travel in a vacuum, and neither does grace.
When a man is deaf, this is because there is something wrong with his ears, and not because he lives in a vacuum. When a man is not blessed in this Supper, it is because grace is blocked by his unbelief, and not because the grace is not extended. In this meal, Christ is offered to all. In a faithful observance of this Supper, Christ is received by the believer. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has a tongue to taste, let him taste.