When Adam and Eve sinned, they (and their descendents a.k.a. ‘us’) became unworthy of anything beyond the ordinary natural gifts pertaining to human nature. But Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross, earned for us the grace, which Adam had so lightly tossed away. Jesus restored back to the human race the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace, which God so generously intended for humanity from the beginning. We each receive this gift sanctifying grace at Baptism.
What exactly is sanctifying grace?
It is that power that would make it possible for whoever possesses it to live in close (albeit invisible) union with God in this life. God imparted this power by the indwelling of himself in our souls. Isn’t that marvelous? This is what makes Christianity different from other religions—that God Almighty would ‘take up residence’ in our human souls.
When we are baptized, we received sanctifying grace for the first time. God (the Holy Spirit by ‘appropriation’) takes up his abode within us. By his presence he imparts to our souls that supernatural quality which makes it possible for God, in a grand and mysterious manner, to see himself in us and therefore love us. And because this supernatural gift was purchased for us by Christ, we are bound by it to Christ, we share it with Christ—and God consequently sees us as he sees his son—and we become, each of us, a child of God.
“But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God” John 1:12
Ref: The Faith Explained by Leo J. Trese
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