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[quote:beou42qz]The only thing I disagree with is: “one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” Ephesians 2:8-9[/quote:beou42qz]
The sacraments are the works of God, not of man. God freely gives His grace to us through them (though not exclusively through them). They are, therefore, perfectly in line with Ephesians 2.
[u:beou42qz]Whereunto baptism, being of the like form, now saveth you also[/u:beou42qz]: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but, the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:21
But Peter said to them: Do penance: and [u:beou42qz]be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins[/u:beou42qz]. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, whomsoever the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:38-39
And the Old Testament foreshadow of Acts 2, in which we see that it is God who works in baptism:
[u:beou42qz]And [b:beou42qz]I[/b:beou42qz] will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols[/u:beou42qz]. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:25-28
And the writings of the early Church Fathers. St. Justin Martyr was one of the first and greatest Christian apologists in the immediate post-Apostolic age. St. Irenaeus was a second-generation disciple of St. John the Apostle, by way of St. Polycarp of Smyrna:
As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly … [u:beou42qz]are brought by us where there is water and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated[/u:beou42qz]. For, in the name of God, the Father … and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, “Unless you are born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (St. Justin Martyr, First Apology 61).
“And [Naaman] dipped himself . . . seven times in the Jordan” [2 Kings 5:14]. It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but as an indication to us. [u:beou42qz]For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions, being spiritually regenerated as newborn babes[/u:beou42qz], even as the Lord has declared: ‘Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'” (St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Fragment 34).
[quote:beou42qz]Okay, what’s a “grace?”[/quote:beou42qz]
Used in the context of “[b:beou42qz]a[/b:beou42qz] grace”, it refers to any particular blessing or gift of the Holy Spirit. In Catholicism, it is typically called a charism (from the Greek word for grace, [i:beou42qz]charis[/i:beou42qz]).