Salvation, Sin and Grace
The Christian call is hard and, quite frankly, impossible without the grace of God. There may be things to which the Christian is called that the rest of the world thinks is downright impossible. But in and through and even beyond all of them, the grace of God endows the Christian with a true sense of peace in accomplishing the Lord’s will. While remaining in the grace of God, this peace and even joy can never be taken away. On that note, let us look at how we are to be saved.
In Scripture, salvation refers to a spectrum of realities grounded in the idea of liberation from one’s obstacles or enemies. More than anything else though, salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit to deliver us from sin, death, and the devil. Within the context of this lesson, we’ll talk about salvation in this last way.
How, then, are we saved from sin, death and the devil? Our salvation begins at our baptism. In the Sacrament of Baptism, you and I have died with Christ; and if we have faith, then we shall also live with Him, because when Christ rose from the dead, He conquered the power of death for us as well. Death no longer has dominion over us and so you and I must consider ourselves as dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus saves us for eternal happiness. But why is this even necessary? What’s the problem?
The father and mother of the human race, Adam and Eve, were created in friendship with God. In theological terms, we say that they enjoyed the gift of God’s grace. Grace is the free and unmerited gift of God’s life within us. In grace, we become children of God, partakers of his divine nature, so that we may enjoy the gift of eternal life.
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve sinned against God by disobeying Him. Their sin, the “Original Sin”, robbed all mankind of the potential to enjoy eternal life in heaven. Original sin brought about corruption in our nature, and put us under the dominion of sin, death, and the devil. To put it simply, we fell away from God’s grace.
The corruption and slavery of Original Sin means that you and I can no longer go before the all just, all merciful, all loving, all-holy God, without some means of reparation, and a “new divine initiative” of grace. The cross and resurrection of Jesus is this means of reparation, and it is the “new divine initiative” that we need.
The Council of Trent describes the process of salvation from sin with great detail. It begins with the grace of God. God’s grace touches the sinner’s heart and calls it to repentance. This grace cannot be earned, it cannot be merited, and it is given as a gratuitous gift from God. Then, man’s free will either receives or rejects this inspiration. In receiving or rejecting this inspiration, Man either turns to God and is established in grace, or turns away from God and remains in sin.
By his grace, God draws us to Himself, and yet He does not tamper with or coerce our free will. As soon as we are disposed, in grace, to receive salvation, we are called to make an assent of our intellect and will to believe in the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the promises that God has made in and through his prophets and His Son Jesus.
Believing in God’s revelation, we are aware of our sins and the need to fear God’s justice, and yet we know that we can hope in His mercy. In this, we are called to have a sense of trustful abandonment to the goodness of God our Father, that He will continue to work out our salvation within us. Knowing that we come from Him, we are called to love God as the source and summit of our very life. As a result, we are called to hate and detest all that God hates and detests, namely our sins. This is the process of “justification” and “sanctification.”
“Justification” is not the mere forgiveness of sins, but it is the renewal of the inner man, by means of voluntary reception of God’s grace, gifts, and love. Through justification, man is initiated into the process of growing into sainthood – that is, of “sanctification” — and is no longer merely a creature. A just man is a friend of God and, as a friend of God, now possesses the hope of eternal life. This hope grows continually through small and great acts of charity. Here, man makes the conscious effort to grow deeper in love with Christ and his Church, for the greater glory of God
The deeper meaning of initial justification, and of the journey of sanctification is “deification.” What is deification? It is the process of being elevated from our natural state, by divine grace, to become true partakers (or participants) of God’s own divine nature. It is also known as “divinization,” and “theosis.”
Sacred Scripture attests to this reality. St. Peter writes of it in his second letter: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, … by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.””
Deification makes us like God and finally capable of beholding His face, which is the highest desire of the human soul that loves God. This vision of God’s face (or his essence) is called the beatific vision. St. John, aware of this, spoke of it in his first epistle, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Deification means being reconciled to God the Father in Christ, being grafted to Christ, putting away the old ways of life that were displeasing to God, living as a new creation, and being brought from grace to grace, glory to glory, while being transformed into the Image of the Son of God. The grace of Baptism achieves all of this as an initial grace, with the goal of being further elevated in the order of grace, that we will one day enjoy heavenly glory. It is this hope that compels the early Church Father, St. Athanasius, to write, “For the Son of God was made man so that we might be made gods.” This is the heart of the Catholic doctrine of deification – but also of salvation.