Salvation, Hope and the Sacramental Economy

Very importantly, in common conversation many well-meaning people confuse the concept 'once saved, always saved' with the theological virtue of hope. Although we are always free to sin and deliberately reject God's free and unmerited grace, God has promised that when we are baptised and brought into supernatural communion with Him we are given hope, a grace that surely fixes us on confidence in God, a sure trust in God's reliability, faithfulness and trustworthiness, a certain true anchor in Who God is and what He has promised for us, a grace that can lead us to heaven. Hope leads us to heaven and provides us with the assurance that God will never leave us nor forsake us: God is dependable and always keeps His promises. He shall work in us to achieve that which is His good pleasure, the holy, perfect and acceptable Will of God. Although God will never force us to be saved, and therefore does not and will not save us against our own will, he provides the grace we need to rely on Him in order to be saved. The process of salvation depends totally upon God's initiative and sustenance, before, during and after, from Baptism all the way to glory.

It should also be said that the sacramental order does not limit or restrict God's grace in any way, a common concern of the evangelically-minded. God is not limited or bound to the sacraments, but the Church is, because God has so established the sacramental economy. God is not bound to the sacraments, but we are. God is free in His sovereign power and grace to act upon any person at any time, as pleases His holy and perfect will. He can save and forgive and redeem and transform freely as He wills. The sacraments are covenanted means of grace, covenants of God's love and mercy, by which He has promised that whenever and wherever the sacraments are administered according to His institution, He always gives His grace. We can never say where the grace of God is not - the sacraments tell us where we know for certain His grace is.

The sacraments are guarantees of grace, assurances of grace that always confer grace because God has promised He will do so in them. For this reason Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us Baptism and Holy Communion as the two dominical and Gospel sacraments 'generally necessary for salvation' (BCP 292, St John 3.5, St John 6.53-58). We cannot and should not limit God, and the Church does not do so. But when we receive the sacraments we have God's seal of approval, God's unbreakable covenant, that the grace of the Incarnate Word will be given to us in a way that corresponds perfectly to our human nature. 'God became man so that man may become God.' The Incarnate Lord incarnates Himself in His sacraments so that we may become incarnations of His life and grace. We do not judge where God works outside the Church and the sacramental economy, but we know from Scripture, Tradition and experience that He does work within the Church and the sacramental order. This is the heart of the Catholic Faith of the Catholic Sacraments.