Book IX, Chapter 1, §7
Remission and justification. By
consecrating us to God in Christ, and by making us sharers in the purifying
life of Christ’s Body, Baptism initiates our enjoyment of sanctifying grace, of
remission and cleansing, and of the whole series of graces which the
Church’s sacraments provide and which regeneration enables us to receive. By
Baptism itself our sins are emitted, that is, if and when we fulfil the
conditions of faith and repentance. This is so because we are baptized “into
Christ’s death,” that “Like as He was raised from the dead, we also might walk
in newness of life,” our “old man” being “crucified with Him,” “that the body
of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin” (Rom.
6:3-6; cf. Col. 2:11-13). Baptism is the “fountain” which Zechariah
predicted would be opened for sin and uncleanness in the day of the Messiah (Zech.
13:1; cf. Ezek. 36:25). And the fact that it is prescribed by Christ as a
means of salvation (Mark 16:16; cf. Acts 2:40-41, 47; 16:30, 33; Tit. 3:5; 1
Pet. 3:21), which can mean nothing else than salvation from sin, implies
that it is a means of remission. The direct teaching of the New Testament on
this point is clear. St. Peter exhorted his listeners on the day of Pentecost
to be baptized unto the remission of their sins (Acts 2:38), and Ananias
said to be converted persecutor, Saul, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away
thy sins” (22:16) St. Paul himself tells the baptized Corinthians, “And
such” (sinners) “were some of you, but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified,
but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit
of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). In whatever sense we inherit Adam’s guilt,
and are “by nature children of wrath,” in this same sense, original as well as
actual sin is necessarily remitted, for God, “even when we were dead through
our trespasses, quickened us in Christ (by grace have ye been saved) and raised
us up with Him” (Eph. 2:3-6). In a passage quoted a few lines above (1 Cor.
6:11; cf. Rom. 5:18-21; 8:1, 29-30; Tit. 3:5-7), St. Paul couples justification
with baptismal washing and sanctification, as involved in them, and Baptism
is described in Catholic theology as the instrumental cause of
justification. This is not all inconsistent with our being justified by faith,
for, in any case, it is by the grace of life, and a faith which does not
involve Baptism is not the faith which St. Paul declares to be justifying.
Baptism is the sacrament of faith. By Baptism we become children of God,
and it is as children of grace that we are reckoned as righteous (Rom. 3:24;
4:16; 5:1-2; 6:1-7; Gal. 5:4; Tit. 3:7)—that is, Baptism provides the grace
which makes justifying faith the inception of growth in righteousness. And God
estimates us morally and spiritually at the value of the Christ-like man which
begins to grow in us when we are “born anew of water and the Spirit” [John
3:5]. We are given a new footing. And that which our regeneration makes
potential and incipient in us is reckoned from the outset—and as long as we
continue in grace—as if fully actualized, for it will be thus actualized when
our growth in grace is completed. The child is reckoned at the value of the man
that is to be. Our regeneration is accomplished by Baptism ex opere operato,
and the character of sons of God thereby obtained is indelible. Accordingly, if
we “fall from grace” [cf. Gal. 5:4], our repentance and restoration
neither require nor permit this sacrament to be repeated. BUT the moral
benefits of Baptism which we are considering […] depend upon subjective
conditions of faith and repentance in all who have attained the years of moral
discretion. In other words, like other sacraments, Baptism is a moral
instrument, and its remissive, justifying, and morally-enabling beenfits are
morally conditioned—conditioned by our dutiful response to grace and
cooperation with it. If this response is sinfully interrupted, these benefits
are suspected. We are “fallen from grace,” or—when Baptism is unworthily
received—we cannot begin to enjoy its benefits until we repent. Baptism is a sacrament
of responsibility for the proper reception of—and preserving cooperation
with—the grace which it conveys. (Francis J. Hall, Anglican Dogmatics,
ed. John A. Porter, 2 vols. [Nashotah, Wis.: Nashotah House Press, 2021],
2:430-31)
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