my Articulate Heart

Can an unbaptised remain in his religion and still enter heaven when he dies if he lives well and does good to the best of his abilities? Who could fathom the mind of God? Yet when we think about it, we know what baptism does to a person and how it helps us grow in love and makes us capable of doing good in the divine sense. Left to himself man of concupiscence is limited and his best is not best enough. He reaches his true potential only in relationship with God. We need divine grace for supernatural love, courage and goodness. Baptism begets us the merits of Jesus's passion, death and resurrection. We are purchased for a ransom (God's own life - substitution) and freed from the dominion of sin and death. Jesus reminds us that unless the Son of man sets you free you are not free. Salvation is not merely saving us from falling into hell but healing us from the tyranny of sin (from a state of eternal separation to eternal union with God) so that we become truly free and live lif