Great question from the Men's Bible Study today, Gal. 2:11-14.
HECK NO! Welcomed into the community of faith, yes. Given all they will need for the abundant life in Christ, yes. Spiffed up to look like little angels for family and friends, yes. But unless each child at some point in their life personally accepts the gift of God's grace by faith, they remain unregenerate (unsaved). "They that receive Baptism rightly..." Article XXVII, BCP 873, NOT, "they who have had water poured on them three times."
How sad the Episcopal Church has recently bought hook-line-and-sinker into the idea that all you need is baptism (without even a passing nod to personal faith). It's a pernicious heresy not found in Scripture. Not that baptism is just a sign/symbol; it's far more than that. In baptism God gives us His grace in full (as we pray for). But unless we receive it and "live into" our baptisms, be remain in spiritual darkness (dead in our trespasses and sins).
Roman Catholic: Justification is the process by which a person is supposedly "made" righteous. A baptized person is cleansed from all sins (original and actual) and is simultaneously infused with new/supernatural righteousness; so that God looks at the inherent righteousness and declares them forgiven and saved because they ARE righteous (at least for the moment). They are in and out of righteousness throughout their lives depending on their adherence to the sacraments, but have no "assurance" of salvation - they hope they will be in a state of righteous when they die, but who knows...
Anglican: Justification is a legal pronouncement, not a moral change. We are saved, yet sinners, based on God's complete work of salvation on the cross. The gradual life-long process where a person is actually made to be righteous is called “sanctification.” Our sins are forgiven and we are accepted and accounted righteous because of what our Savior has done; based not on what Christ already sees in us or what He does in us, but solely on the basis of His imputed righteousness. Therefore we can have full assurance of salvation because it's based on God's faithfulness, not ours.
Infants are cute as peaches, but, in terms of eternity, they will need to learn that faithful appropriation of the grace given to them in baptism is the beginning of life in God. That's where parents and godparents need to be clear about what salvation is and how it relates to baptism so that they can help lead their children to Christ, based on His full and complete work on the cross for our sins.
"We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies..."
Recommended reading: Michael Green's Baptism
Good word. Thanks Chuck! Welcome to the blogosphere!
ReplyDeleteCould someone who "at some point in their life personally accepts the gift of God's grace by faith" go back to "spiritual darkness"? I once met a doctor, faithful member of a local church, who claimed to be "prayerfully pro-choice" and referred many women to an abortion mill. If he never repented from this blatant ignorance of God's law, should this person remain assured of his salvation based on Christ death for his sin?
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Catechism of The Catholic Church teaches: ”For all the baptized, children or adults, faith must grow after baptism.(…) For the grace of baptism to unfold, the parent’s help is important. So too is the role of the godfather and godmother who must be firm believers (…)” and in a chaapter about the need for confession “the new life received in Christian initiation (baptism, gift of the Holy Spirit, Communion) has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin (…), which remains in the baptized such that WITH THE HELP OF THE GRACE OF CHRIST they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life”
Gerard your comments are provocative, as usual. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteRE your first question, did the thief on the cross who repented (but who may have led an otherwise despicable life in every way) really go to be with Jesus to Paradise? What sins will keep us out of heaven? What level of innate righteousness will guarantee our entrance? I think we can trust that God will bring conviction to (us) sinners once we repent and trust Him for salvation. Thus, salvation is all God's doing, not us cooperating with Him (semi-Pelagian).
Also, where in Scripture is the idea of "growing" faith. I see faith as a gift and faith as a mustard seed lauded. It not how much faith we have, but where we place the faith we have. God is absolutely faithful, not us. If we trust in our faithfulness, we lose every time (Romans 7). Our righteousness is as filthy rags. "We do not presume to come to this thy holy table trusting in our own righteousness..."
I believed we are saved by grace alone, which begins the life-long process of sanctification to gradually conform us to the image of Christ while we live with the blessing and peace of assurance of salvation (based on God's faithfulness).
Girard, we don't have to worry about people getting away with something - antinomianism - because if we are really born again, God will bring to completion what He has begun. Our works will eventually over time show the change in heart God has done.
And your answers are always thoughtful, educated and kind (or semi-kind: you called me a semi-heretic after all :).
ReplyDeleteOn the first point, I have no doubt that a repenting heart, no matter what atrocious deeds they have accomplished, can be saved, and especially the doctor who I mention above (we DO need to pray whole heartedly for abortion providers, read Unplanned). However, can someone in relationship with Christ at a given time reject Him to his or her doom? Judas seems to offer us the first example of this singular occurrence, who after three years with Him betrayed Him and was never able to repent from it. Hearts who do not fully open to and cultivate this relationship do harden.
Can faith grow? Great question..on my next comment.
Can faith grow?
ReplyDeleteIs my persisting disease because my faith hasn't grown to a point where I can get God's healing?
Is it my faith or God's faithfulness that heals me?
Do we need big faith or (little or big faith in) a big God?
I don’t think God’s faithfulness which we desperately need, is mutually exclusive with our own, which is required to enter and remain in full relationship with Him (which means to embrace his death for our sins). Faith is God’s gift and a human act, an act of assent to the promises God has made. While faith is “an entirely free gift that God makes to man, we can lose this priceless gift, as St.Paul indicated to St. Timothy: ‘By rejecting conscience, certain person have made shipwreck of their faith.’ 1Tim 1:19” (from the CCC #162). Moreover, several passages support the idea of a growth in faith: Mk 9:24: “I do believe, help my unbelief.” Lk17:5: “And the apostles said to the Lord: increase our faith.” Lk 22:32: “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.”
ReplyDeleteIs there not a difference between the faith of Peter who even after 3 years of relationship with Christ, denies him, and the Peter who addresses the crowd, heals the beggar at the gate of the temple, and finally dies for Christ a martyr? Faith is a very practical matter: it is an act of obedience enlightened by reason. It is faith to obey what God commands, to embrace the fullness of the Church’s gifts, to submit to God’s will through the prompting of the Holy Spirit.