Baptism of the Lord

What is baptism? What does the Bible say? Let’s start with Ezekiel 36:25-27 which states:

I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. …I will put my spirit within you .

“I will sprinkle clean water” and He “will put [His] spirit within you” – And so with this outward sign using water we see that God gives us His spirit and that through this sprinkling we will be cleansed of all our impurities. Is this prophecy truly made alive in the New Testament through the sacrament of Baptism? Let’s compare what God said through Ezekiel to what God said through Peter at Pentecost.

Peter (said) to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38).

Ezekiel said: “I will sprinkle clean water”

Peter said: “be baptized”

Ezekiel said: “[I will] cleanse you from all your impurities”

Peter said: “for the forgiveness of your sins”

Ezekiel said: “I will put my spirit within you”

Peter said: “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”

It seems quite undeniable that Ezekiel’s prophecy is perfectly fulfilled in the sacrament of Baptism. Because of His promise from Ezekiel we now know that the Grace of God comes during the sacrament of Baptism but what else does baptism do?

We know through Scripture that baptism makes us members of the Body of Christ. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:13)

Baptism brings us in communion with each other by becoming members of the One Body of Christ.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Gal 3:27)

We are brought into the Body of Christ, the Church.

And he is the head of the body, the church (Col 1:18)

Since we are baptized into the one body of Christ and we now know that Christ’s Body is the Church means that baptism brings us into the Church. And this is why there is no salvation outside the Church because there is no salvation outside of Christ.

And so we see that baptism brings Graces from God (Acts 2:38), washes away sins (Acts 2:38), we become Christians through baptism (1 Cor 12:13) by becoming members of the Church as through a door (Eph 4:4). And baptism is instituted by Jesus Christ when He sent out the Apostles to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Mat 28:19)

God Bless

Nathan

Outside the Church

There is no salvation outside the Church.  While Aquinas stressed the necessity of Church membership for entrance into eternal life, he also saw the possibility of people who where unable to be baptized into the faith, “who nonetheless had a desire either to be baptized or at least to be saved and were essentially willing to do whatever God wanted them to do for salvation.”  But being taught a certain truth all their lives, they are unable to see the falsehood of that teaching.  The possibility of salvation for those individuals was called by Aquinas to be through ‘baptism of desire’.

He says that such a one ‘can obtain salvation without being actually baptized, on account of the person’s desire for baptism, which desire is the outcome of faith that works through charity, whereby God, Whose power is not tied to visible sacraments, sanctifies a person inwardly’ (Summa Theologiae III, q.68, a.2).

God is not bound to the sacraments.  He Who made sacraments is likewise free to bestow His grace in other ways.

Pope Pius IX making this most nuanced statement in Singulari Quadam: “It is known to Us and to you that those who labor in invincible ignorance concerning our most holy religion and who, assiduously observing the natural law and its precepts which God has inscribed in the hearts of all, and being ready to obey God, live an honest and upright life can, through the working of the divine light and grace, attain eternal life.”

And finally in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris Missio, our Vicar of Christ states also that: “Salvation in Christ is offered to all.  The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church.  Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all.  But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church…For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of grace, which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation.  This grace comes from Christ…”

As you well know, a doctrine has growth as our understanding grows and deepens. Although early on our Church Fathers damned people to hell for not being baptized (ie visibly part of our Church), the line where someone can be part of the Church is found to include a much larger group of people than originally thought because Jesus Himself said that an individual will be judged by what he knows and not blame him for his honest ignorance (John 15:22).  Some may not be formally part of it but still inside the Church.

PS
Please read paragraphs 1260 and 1281 of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church for more info.