OP here again...
Thank you for your wonderful answers.
I, too, would like to know where in scripture, tradition, or from whom the idea a Sacrament is only about conferring forgiveness?
Example: when Jesus healed the man lowered from the ceiling by his freinds, wasn’t a sacrament (Healing of the Sick) performed? Didn’t Jesus ask him about having faith (i.e. acknowledging sinful nature that only Christ could heal) before healing him physically?
Just another question .... wouldn’t this satisfy all 3 ‘points’ brought up by the Lutheran posters?
From Jesus. The chief benefit of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion is the forgiveness of sins. Likewise of course with Holy Absolution.
Keep in mind, there is Holy Baptism, there is Holy Communion, there is Holy Absolution. Each has its own proprium, and they all have features in common. It is what these have in common that leads us to group them in a category we call "sacrament/-s" (cf. mysteri-on/-a in the Greek NT and sacrament-um/-a in the Latin.
BTW, notice how St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10, intimates the understanding of two main sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, by seeing their "types" in Old Testament Israel.