What are the two ordinances of the church?

An ordinance, in this context, is a practice Jesus Himself commanded His church to observe, one with a clear institution in Scripture, a specific symbolic meaning, and a mandate to continue it until He returns. Many church traditions and customs are helpful, but only two practices meet this description in the New Testament: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Most evangelical and Baptist traditions use the word ordinance rather than sacrament to emphasize that these are acts of obedience commanded by Christ, symbols that point to spiritual realities, rather than rituals that themselves confer saving grace.

The word ordinance itself comes from ordain, to establish or command. It highlights that the authority behind these two practices does not rest in church tradition or denominational preference, but in the direct, personal command of Jesus Christ Himself, given during His earthly ministry to be carried out by His followers until He returns.

Jesus commanded His disciples to baptize new believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Baptism marks the beginning of a believer's public identification with Christ, symbolizing union with His death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). It happens once, at the outset of the Christian life, following genuine faith.

It is a picture, not a payment. Baptism does not wash away sin in a literal sense, salvation comes through faith in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9), but it visibly and publicly declares the inward reality that has already taken place.

Peter draws this connection explicitly, describing baptism as an appeal to God for a good conscience, not the removal of dirt from the body (1 Peter 3:21). This one verse alone shows the New Testament's careful balance, taking baptism seriously as a commanded, meaningful act while refusing to let it become a substitute for genuine, personal faith.

The night before His death, Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, taking bread and the cup and instructing His disciples, do this in remembrance of me (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). Unlike baptism, this ordinance is meant to be repeated regularly throughout a believer's life, continually pointing back to the cross and forward to Christ's return (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Where baptism marks the beginning of the Christian life, communion sustains and renews it, a recurring, tangible reminder of the gospel that first saved you and continues to keep you.

This is also why communion is described as proclamation, not merely private reflection. Every time a congregation gathers around the bread and cup, they are together preaching the gospel to themselves and to one another without saying a word, a wordless sermon repeated as often as the church obeys Christ's instruction to do this in remembrance of Him (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Catholic and Orthodox traditions recognize additional sacraments, such as confirmation, penance, marriage, ordination, and anointing of the sick, believing these convey grace through the church's ministry. Protestant and evangelical churches generally hold that only baptism and the Lord's Supper were directly instituted by Christ Himself as ongoing practices for the whole church, with a clear command, a clear symbol, and a clear connection to the gospel.

This is not a dismissal of marriage or ordination as unimportant. It is a recognition that Scripture reserves the specific pattern of dominical institution, given directly by the Lord, for these two acts alone.

It is worth noting that marriage, for instance, is genuinely instituted by God, but at creation, for the entire human race, not specifically for the church as a distinguishing rite of Christian identity in the way baptism and the Lord's Supper are (Genesis 2:24). This distinction helps explain why Protestants can honor marriage deeply, even calling it a picture of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31-32), without classifying it alongside baptism and communion as a church ordinance.

Together, baptism and the Lord's Supper form bookends around the Christian life, one marking its beginning, the other sustaining it along the way. Both point away from themselves and toward Christ crucified and risen, refusing to let a believer's faith rest on anything but Him.

If you have never been baptized, do not delay. If your church rarely mentions the Lord's Supper's meaning before observing it, ask your leaders to explain it more fully. These two simple, physical acts carry the whole gospel inside them.