From Death to Divine Life: What Really Happens at Baptism?

More than a symbol, the Sacrament of Baptism is the moment when God claims us as his own, recreates our nature and draws us into the life of Christ.

(Photo by Ashley Ortiz)

By Father Daniel Eusterman

Vice Rector

St. John Vianney Seminary, Denver

Imagine standing next to a grave, freshly covered in earth.

You call out to the one buried; he does not answer.

Ask him to walk, and there is no movement.

Ask him to listen, and his ears cannot hear.

Ask him to speak praise, and his lips cannot speak beneath the dirt.

Here is a startling assertion of our Christian faith: when born into this world, we begin in a spiritual state like this: though alive in the flesh, we are spiritually dead. Due to original sin, every human person is born separated from the eternal life of God.

Yet… “Do not be afraid!” More extraordinary than death is the new life in Jesus Christ, his divine life. By his Passion, Death and Resurrection, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the mute speak and the dead rise. St. Paul teaches us:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by Baptism into death, in order that … we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4

When you were immersed in the water of the baptismal font, you descended into the tomb with him. When you rose, his new life became real in you.

Incredibly, Baptism does even more than bring your dead soul to life; it gives grace to live and act from his power so you can live the Christian life, worship and love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (see Mark 12:30).

The Catechism lists many supernatural graces given in Baptism (see 1262-1274). However, the description can feel like a parish potluck: many gifts, no clear order. It is helpful to see how these gifts play a part in God’s “re-creating” of our humanity across four successive levels: new belonging, new nature, new inclinations and new actions.

New Belonging: Whose Am I?

Through the water and the words of Baptism, God used this external ritual to cause powerful spiritual effects within. When celebrated as the Church intends, God himself guarantees a seal placed on your soul to claim you “for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9). This sacramental character is not only a mark of belonging, but also a spiritual power that makes you capable of being like Jesus, being a member of his Body and worshipping through his priesthood.

However, though you are a member of his Body by the character, it doesn’t mean you are automatically a living member. For the sacraments to be fully fruitful, there must be no obstacles to the flow of his grace.

Think of this as the Father stamping the image of the Sacred Heart onto your very soul so that his life-giving blood can pour into your life. This stamp can never be removed. However, two obstacles can stop this flow: a lack of right faith and a lack of repentance for sin. Thankfully, if you were baptized as an infant, you could not erect either of these obstacles: you had no personal sin, and the Church provided the faith for Baptism. Conversely, if someone is baptized as an adult, a lack of faith or repentance would allow the character to be imprinted forever. Still, that obstacle would block all subsequent graces until faith and repentance are found in a good Confession.

Thus, through the baptismal character, God permanently claims you as his own and places the conduit of his life in you. You can answer “Whose am I?” with the response, “I belong to Christ, I am a member of his Body.”

New Nature: What Do I Become?

Consider if you were born without functioning legs; in a sense, they are dead. Then, one day, as a child, you encounter an unknown healer who performs an impossible feat: he does not give you prosthetic legs; instead, he takes your own legs in his hands, and he recreates them. They are not just healed; there is a new life in them, making them capable of something humanly unthinkable: the life in your legs makes you capable of walking on water.

This is like what God did to your nature in Baptism, gifting you with sanctifying grace. God did not merely make you look externally redeemed. No, grace works at the depths of your soul, changing you and making you something new. Rather than continuing as a dead child of Adam, you are alive and participate in the life of the Son of God, becoming “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Your “old nature” is not destroyed nor replaced; it is healed by the forgiveness of sin and elevated to new life in the Holy Spirit. The Church Fathers call this divinization, becoming like God. Thus, being a “son in the Son,” you receive a share of how he lives and how he loves the Father (see Romans 8:15-17).

From Baptism, the answer to the question “What do I become?” is that you become a divinized human, a son or daughter of the Father, in Jesus the Son, establishing the foundation of your Christian life.

New Inclinations: What Do I Love?

With recreated legs, you can now walk, but where do you go? Given in Baptism, God’s theological virtues flow forth from his sanctifying grace. Faith, hope and charity act as your new GPS, helping to identify the goal towards which you must walk: God himself. Without the theological virtues, your intellect cannot see God, and your will cannot choose God as your final good. Simply put, faith inclines your intellect to know God, and hope and charity incline your will to love God.

In a sense, the theological virtues act as a new center of gravity. Due to original sin, your center of gravity shifted inward, focusing first and foremost on “me.” You became your own god and did “what was right in [your] own eyes” (Judges 21:25). In Baptism, God infuses your soul with faith, hope and charity, shifting your center of gravity back to him. When you make acts of faith, hope and love, your new life pulls you to where you must go. Thus, when asked, “What do I love?” Baptism allows you to answer clearly: “I am interiorly directed to God by faith, hope and charity; knowing him, trusting him and loving him above all else.”

However, there is still a problem: you need even more help because, though you have a new nature and new inclinations, you do not have the strength to move or act rightly on your own; you need new actions.

New Actions: What Can I Do?

You are a child in the family kitchen. Standing on your own two legs, you feel a tug from within towards the cookie jar atop the refrigerator, but you are too small to reach it. Knowing the cookies are good and loving them, you stretch your arm towards the heights, hoping to get them. As soon as your arm extends, you are swept into the air. Your father has suddenly held you aloft, and you reach into the jar and claim the treat.

For new actions, God pours three more gifts into your life: the infused moral virtues, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

When God gave the infused moral virtues at Baptism — supernatural prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude — he elevated your natural habits, helping you to act towards union with Christ. However, when you act from the supernatural virtues, you are the driver of this action. This is like rowing the oars of a boat: your effort is aided by grace. To help you easily act towards union, God gifts you with the greatest grace: himself.

At your Baptism, when you received the theological virtue of charity, you also received the presence of God himself. Charity in your soul makes you a temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Further, with the Holy Spirit, the Giver, come his gifts. These are the gifts that enable you to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Like the Father lifting his child, or like the wind that fills the sails of the boat, the Holy Spirit propels you to move with new supernatural ease. Acting from the gifts, you aren’t the driver, moving by your effort and reason; rather, you cooperate by allowing yourself to be moved directly by the Holy Spirit.

Thus, to the question, “What can I do?” after Baptism, you can answer, “I can act supernaturally by the virtues, presence and gifts of the Holy Spirit.”

A New Life in Christ

If you return to the site of the grave, you can see the astonishing generosity of God’s grace. He didn’t merely reanimate a body; he resurrected and elevated the whole life from death. So too, through Baptism, you were completely re-created into a divinized human, able to live and act with Jesus; “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

“How do I live this and keep it alive?” The grace given in Baptism is just the beginning; we are infants in the Christian life. There are three primary ways to grow in this grace and reach Heaven: practicing the virtues, petitionary prayer and the sacraments. For simplicity, we consider the sacramental life. Through the other six sacraments, you cooperate with, increase and restore baptismal graces. All the sacraments increase and deepen sanctifying grace when you receive them fruitfully, drawing you deeper and more solidly into every further level of grace.

In particular, the Eucharist and Confession play essential roles in feeding and restoring your divinized life. When you actively participate in Mass, offering yourself to the Father with the sacrifice of Jesus, and when you fruitfully receive the Eucharist, your identity and your union with Christ’s Body are strengthened. Nourished by his Body and Blood, you become more of who you became in your Baptism.

When you sin mortally, freely and knowingly separating yourself from God with a grave sin, the only gift that remains is the character. Losing all the other graces, you return to the grave, spiritually dead. Through Confession, God brings you through a “second Baptism,” resurrecting you again and restoring sanctifying grace and all the gifts of Baptism.

“Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4). This is your baptismal life. Next time you enter the Church, and you dip your fingers in the holy water font, crossing yourself with the sign of your salvation, call this to mind. You know whose you are, what you have become, what you love and what you can do through the graces given to you at the moment of your Baptism into Christ Jesus the Lord. To him be glory forever.