Grace and Baptism

THEOLOGICAL DEFINITION: Grace

Grace is what God gives of Himself or His gifts ‘gratis,’ that is, ‘freely’ - quite apart from any consideration of what we deserve.

GOOD QUESTION:
Why are some priests hesitant to baptize children if their parents do not worship regularly?

Presumably out of a proper and good concern to make sure that the child will be brought up to live a Christian life. If so, it is worth thinking about more closely. The concern about how a child is brought up is a concern about sanctification -- about that growth in holiness which is made possible by God’s gifts of grace. But Baptism would seem to be above all about justification -- about grace freely given apart from all considerations about what anyone does or does not deserve. This grace is the foundation of the Christian life, of all ‘sanctification,’ of all growth in holiness. All such growth and, indeed, the whole Christian life, begins and ends in God’s love for us. ‘In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (I John 4:10). That is why we are baptized only once. We change, but the intention God had when he made us ‘members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven’ apart from anything we have done or failed to do does not change. Whenever clergy hesitate or refuse to baptize children, the impression parents invariably receive is that one must measure up to a certain standard in order for one’s children to merit the grace of baptism. The Gospel of grace is implicitly denied.