Baptism as a Means of Grace

As we’ve recently celebrated baptisms in our congregation, I thought I’d take this as an opportunity to write about what is meant when the Christian tradition refers to baptism as a “means of grace.”

We use this phrase because God uses baptism as a tangible way to impart his grace to the believer. He could choose, if he wanted, to save a person simply with the wave of his hand; but instead, he wants to get down onto our level, to meet us in our embodiment, so that we can have a physical touchstone for our faith. This physical component is the “outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace” (as the Catechism puts it). He could have just given us the inward and spiritual grace if he wanted, but instead, he chose to give us an outward sign through which that grace is imparted, so that our faith might be strengthened.

St. Peter sees baptism instrumentally like this, as a means of grace, when he writes about it in his first epistle. He says that it’s similar to how God used the ark to save Noah and his family. He writes, “God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

I think when we read about the Church’s teaching about the sacraments, it’s easy to assume that they work just like magic. But baptism isn’t efficacious because of any reason other than its ability to unite us with Jesus Christ, who uses the water as his instrument. That’s the difference between “magic” and the sacraments. The sacraments are not powerful because they are water or bread and wine but because they are used by Christ to unite us to himself.

In the same way that the Holy Spirit was present in Jesus’s baptism, descending upon him like a dove, so he is present in our baptisms as well. He is present to unite us to Christ, and thereby grant us new life and an adoption as God’s sons and daughters. We become his children by being united in baptism to him who is his Only-Begotten. Because of this union with Christ, our sins are washed away; just as we confess in the Creed: “I believe in one baptism for the remission of sins.”

In baptism, he gives us a new life in him. This is why we speak of being “born again.” This phrase is taken from Jesus’s discourse with Nicodemus, where he tells him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above… without being born of water and the Spirit.” When the Church speaks of “baptismal regeneration,” this is what they’re describing: the rebirth which is the sacramental work of water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. So if you are baptized, you are born again. The key now is to start thinking and living like it—“living into” this new life in Christ.

Baptism is an incredible gift, but it is no substitute for living the Christian life—it is only the beginning, the initiation into life as a Christian. Yes, it is a means of God’s grace in our lives, but we are called to cooperate with that grace and mature in this new life into spiritual adulthood. Someone who is baptized and then does not live into that salvation freely given them would be missing out on what it really means to have the “life abundantly” which the Lord says he came to bring and so, in a very real sense, miss out on that salvation. So it is important for all of us to live into what it means to be a baptized people, to live as those who have received the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and the adoption as God’s children—all through our baptismal union with Jesus Christ. To quote St. Paul: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

Almighty God, by our baptism into the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, you turn us from the old life of sin: Grant that we, being reborn to new life in him, may live in righteousness and holiness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.