• Ephesians 2:8–9: “⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
  “Works” here is comprehensive. Paul does not carve out an exception for ritual or sacramental works. Salvation is received through the instrument of faith; nothing else is added as a co-instrument.
• Romans 3:28: “²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
  The “works of the law” include the entire Mosaic system of circumcision, sacrifices, and purity rites—the closest Old Testament analogues to later sacramental systems. Paul insists justification stands apart from them.
• Galatians 2:16: “¹⁶ Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”
  Galatians was written precisely against the addition of a required religious ordinance (circumcision) to faith. Paul’s logic applies with equal force to any later claim that baptism, confirmation, penance, or the Eucharist are necessary instruments of justification.
• Romans 4:4–5: “⁴ Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. ⁵ But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
  Abraham was justified by faith while uncircumcised (Romans 4:9–11). The sign (circumcision) followed and sealed a righteousness already possessed; it did not produce it. The same pattern holds for New Testament signs.

2. Salvation occurs in Scripture without the sacraments

• The thief on the cross (Luke 23:42–43) is promised paradise that very day solely based on faith in Christ. He received no baptism, no Eucharist, no anointing, no penance. If the sacraments were necessary means of salvation, Jesus’ promise would be false.
• Abraham, David, and the Old Testament saints were justified by faith (Romans 4; Hebrews 11) centuries before any Christian sacrament existed.
• Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit and were declared clean before baptism (Acts 10:44–48; 11:15–18). Baptism followed as a public recognition of what God had already done.
• Zacchaeus the Tax Collector (Luke 19:1–10): After Zacchaeus repented and welcomed Jesus, Jesus declared, “This day is salvation come to this house…” (Luke 19:9). Zacchaeus was saved through his faith and turning of heart on the spot, before any Christian baptism or institutional sacrament.
• The Paralytic Lowered Through the Roof (Mark 2:1–12): When Jesus saw the faith of the men carrying the paralyzed man, He looked directly at the paralyzed man and said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.“ (Mark 2:5). His sins were remitted, and he was spiritually saved based on faith alone, before any physical rite could be administered.
• The Sinful Woman Who Anointed Jesus’ Feet (Luke 7:36–50): As a notorious sinner wept and anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, Jesus told her, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.“ (Luke 7:50). Her justification and salvation were granted based on faith, entirely outside the framework of Christian sacraments.
• The Publican (Tax Collector) in the Temple (Luke 18:9–14): In Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the tax collector stands afar off, beats his chest, and prays, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus declares that this man went down to his house justified rather than the religious man. His justification occurred entirely on the spot through a posture of faith and repentance, without any sacramental mediation.

These cases are not anomalies; they reveal the ordinary instrumentality of faith.

• Baptism is commanded (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38), yet the New Testament consistently treats it as the outward response to, or public identification with, a salvation already received by faith.
  1 Peter 3:21 carefully qualifies: “²¹ The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” The saving reality is the appeal of faith, not the water. Paul can say he was not sent to baptize but to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17), an inexplicable statement if baptism were a necessary means of salvation.

• What about John 3:5? It is claimed that “water” refers to Christian water baptism, making it an absolute requirement for entering the kingdom of God. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a master teacher of Israel, using Old Testament imagery. Jesus rebukes him: “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?“ (John 3:10). What Old Testament passage should Nicodemus have known? Ezekiel 36:25–27, where God promises: “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness… A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you… And I will put my spirit within you…“ In Ezekiel, the “water and the Spirit” are a prophetic idiom for spiritual cleansing and regeneration by God, not a mandate for a church ritual. Furthermore, John the Baptist frequently contrasted his ministry (“water baptism”) with Christ’s upcoming ministry (“baptism with the Holy Spirit”) (John 1:33). Being “born of water and the Spirit” refers to the total spiritual cleansing of the inner man effected by God, rather than a physical plumbing procedure.

• The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance and proclamation of Christ’s death (1 Cor. 11:24–26). It assumes prior faith (“But let a man examine himself,” 1 Cor. 11:28); it does not create it. Examination presupposes the capacity for self-assessment that only faith enables. The Supper occurred during the Passover meal, which was itself rich in symbolism (lamb, bread, wine recalling deliverance from Egypt). Jesus reinterprets the elements around Himself as the true Passover Lamb whose body would be broken and blood shed. Jesus’ words in John 6 about eating His flesh and drinking His blood are interpreted by the Gospel itself as believing (John 6:35, 40, 47). Verse 63 seals the point: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” If Jesus meant that eating His physical, substantial flesh was the actual mechanism that grants eternal life, then declaring that “the flesh profiteth nothing” would be a direct contradiction. Jesus frequently used vivid metaphorical language (“I am the door,” “I am the vine,” “I am the bread of life,” “living water”). “Eating” and “drinking” Him fit the same pattern: appropriating Him by faith. In verse 28, the crowd asks: “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Jesus does not say, “You must perform a ritual and eat a piece of bread.” He answers: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.“ (John 6:29).

No Scripture states that the physical act of receiving bread and wine, or water, effects the forgiveness of sins or the infusion of justifying grace. The Gospels portray salvation by faith/grace (e.g., John 3:16, 5:24; the thief on the cross). Eternal life comes from believing in Jesus’ person and work, not a specific ritual consumption. Jesus’ ministry repeatedly critiques external/ritualistic religion in favor of the heart and faith.

• Galatians 5:2–4: “² Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. ³ For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. ⁴ Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
• Colossians 2:16–17, 20–23 warns against being judged by food, drink, festivals, or ascetic regulations that have “an appearance of wisdom” but are “of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”

Any system that makes seven (or even two) ritual acts necessary instruments of salvation falls under the same apostolic critique: it shifts confidence from Christ’s finished work, received by faith, to the human performance of religious rites.