This potential is given to all men. It is a re-creation of the human nature. . . .
This new potential may be seen, I think, as our faith. . . This potentiality is brought into actuality by baptism." [1]
"The above passage is rich with both philosophical depth and theological significance. It explores central Christian thought regarding human nature, freedom, grace, and the transformative power of faith and baptism.
Redemption as "new potential" in human nature
Jansen reframes redemption not merely as forgiveness of sins, but as a real transformation of what it means to be human.
Philosophically, this resonates with the concept of potentiality and actuality, rooted in Aristotle [2] and Aquinas [4].
Aristotle emphasizes the foundational distinction between δύναμις (potentiality), and ἐνέργεια (actuality). [3] Human capacities become real through actualization. [3] Aquinas develops Aristotelian thought within Christian theology. Aquinas explains how grace perfects nature, rather than destroying it. [4] Human beings possess potentials (capabilities), which can either remain dormant or be brought into fullness.
Prior to redemption, humankind is wounded, constrained by what theology calls Original Sin. Post-redemption, a new capacity is introduced into human nature itself. This capacity is not just moral improvement, it is ontological renewal (a change in being). Theologically, this echoes the second Epistle to the Corinthians 5:17. "If anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. The old has gone, the new is here!"
Freedom: liberation and empowerment
Jansen emphasizes two dimensions of this "new freedom": firstly, liberation from slavery to sin, secondly freedom for relationship with God.
Freedom from slavery to sin
The concept of freedom from slavery to sin, reflects the classical Christian teaching that sin enslaves the will. As St Augustine of Hippo argued, fallen humankind suffers from a will that is curved (turned) in on itself (incurvates in se). Incurvates in se is a theological phrase describing a life lived inward for oneself, rather than outward for God and others. Romans 5:8 tells us, "God proves His Love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us."
Augustine explains that the will is weakened and inclined towards sin. Further, he expresses that true freedom is restored through grace. [5]
Sin as bondage, and freedom as restoration
Redemption breaks this bondage, not by destroying freedom, but by restoring it. Jansen emphasizes that redemption is a new freedom which includes liberation from the slavery of sin. This emphasis resonates with John 8:34-36, "Everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin ... if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
Freedom for relationship with God
According to Jansen, freedom becomes the capacity to respond to God. Here Jansen is deeply personalist. The encounter with God is neither mechanical nor purely legal, but a person-to-person relationship with God. This aligns with the thought of Martin Buber, particularly the concept of the I-Thou relationship, where true personhood emerges in encounter. [6] Thus relationship is not just rescue; it is relational awakening.
Person-to-person encounter with God
Jansen's concept of person-to-person encounter with God also aligns with the thought of Rahner, who consistently defines grace as a personal self-communication of God. [7] Human beings are oriented towards God at their deepest level. Jansen's concept of "person-to-person encounter" with God [1] stands at the heart of his theology of redemption. Jansen moves beyond abstract notions of grace or law and places salvation within the living, relational space between God and the human person. To explain this theologically, we need to hold together three key truths: God as personal, the human person as capable of response, and grace as enabling that response.
God is revealed in the Person of Christ
Jansen's language assumes a fundamental Christian claim: God is not an impersonal force, but a personal, Self-revealing Being. This claim is rooted in Scriptur. In the gospel of St John, God is revealed in the Person of Christ, Who speaks, calls and loves. Further, God addresses humankind not as objects, but as "thou", to use the language of Martin Buber. Theologically, this means that revelation is not merely information, it is self-communication. As Karl Rahner explains, grace is God giving Himself, not just His gifts. Therefore, encounter as posited by Jansen is possible, if not inevitable, because God freely initiates relationship.
Human capacity to turn towards God
Jansen's crucial insight is that redemption restores in the human person a capacity to respond, a freedom to "turn to God." [1] This "turning" is central to Christian anthropology: Augustine's description of sin shows the soul turned inward (incurvatus in se), while grace re-orients the person outward toward God. The human being is created Imago Dei (in the Image of God), which includes the capacity for relationship.
However, after the Fall, this capacity was wounded, not destroyed. The will was weakened, tending toward self rather than God. Redemption, then, does not replace human freedom; it heals and elevates it. Thus, when Jansen says the person has the power within himself to turn to God, he does not mean autonomous self-sufficiency, but a grace-enabled freedom, a restored ability to respond to God's initiative.
Encounter as mutual presence; not mechanical, but relational
A "person-to-person encounter" implied reciprocity: God calls, the human person responds. This is not a legal transaction, nor a purely internal feeling. Rather, it is a real meeting of persons. Here Jansen aligns with personalist philosophy: in Buber's I-Thou, the human person becomes fully personal only in encounter. Similarly, the human person becomes most fully alive in encounter with God. Theologically, this encounter includes: knowledge (recognizing God), love (responding to God) and freedom (choosing God). It is, in essence, communion.
Grace and freedom: how the turning happens
A key theological tension lies here; if God initiates, how can the human person truly "turn"? Jansen's answer reflects the classical synthesis found in Thomas Aquinas: grace does not override freedom, it enables freedom that God moves the will "according to its nature," meaning that the human person freely chooses, yet that freedom is interiorly moved by grace. So the "turning to God" is: fully human ( a real decision), as well as fully graced (made possible by God). This avoids two extremes, Determinism (no real freedom), and Pelagianism (self-sufficient effort).
Grace as universal gift given to all humankind
Jansen insists, "this potentiality is given to all men." [1] This reflects a universal dimension of grace: Christ's redemptive act is objective and universal, even if the full realization thereof depends upon personal response. This concept resonates with Rahner, who spoke of a "supernatural existential" [8] - a grace already present as a condition of human existence. Rahner's concept suggests that every person has an innate desire for a relationship with the Divine.
Faith as the act of encounter
For Jansen, this encounter becomes concrete in faith. Faith is not merely belief in propositions, but a personal entrustment, a "yes" to God's Presence. As described in Epistle to the Hebrews 11:6, "Whoever would draw near to God must believe in Him ..." Faith therefore is the actualization of the potential for encounter, and the moment when the person truly turns towards God.
Re-creation of human nature
Jansen goes even further: redemption is a re-creation. This concept is profoundly biblical, in a cycle from creation, to Fall, to redemption, from thence to new creation. In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of being "born again". In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that being "born again" (or "from above") is a necessary spiritual transformation - not a physical rebirth - required to enter the kingdom of God. It involves being born "of water and the Spirit", representing a purification and a new heart created by the Holy Spirit, enabling a believer to live for God.
Theologically, this suggests that humankind is not merely repaired, it is re-made. The early Church Fathers often described this as divinization (theosis). St Athanasius makes a connection between deification and the Incarnation, "God became man so that man might become god" (in participation, not identity). Deification (theosis) describes the saving effects of the Incarnation. God became human in order to brings human back into communion with God.
Faith as the actualization of potential
Jansen identified this new potential with faith. Philosophically, potential is the capacity to believe and respond, while actuality is the lived act of faith. Faith is not just intellectual assent, it is a movement of the whole person, and a response to God's personal call. In this sense, faith is both a gift and an act: both grace-enabled and freely embraced.
Salvation is interior, relational and dynamic
Jansen's vision can be summarized as a dynamic movement: Christ redeems humanity, thus introducing a new potential into human nature. This potential is universal, offered to all. It consists in a new freedom and relational capacity towards God. This potential is identified with faith, the human response to Divine encounter. The potential is actualized through baptism, where new life truly begins. What is especially powerful in Jansen's thought is that salvation is not presented as something external or imposed. Instead, it is interior (within human nature), relational (person-to-person with God) and dynamic (potential becoming actuality).
Baptism: from potential to reality
Jansen states, "this potentiality is brought into actuality by baptism." [1] Here we reach the sacramental heart of the passage. In Christian theology, particularly in traditions such as Catholicism and Orthodoxy, baptism is not symbolic only, it is efficacious - it truly effects change. Baptism incorporates the person into Christ, washes away sin, infuses grace and activates the new life within.
Thus redemption give the capacity, baptism awakens and initiates that capacity into lived reality.
Baptism is the beginning of personal communion
Jansen connects this encounter with baptism, where the relationship is sacramentally initiated. In baptism, not only is the person incorporated into Christ, but the capacity for encounter becomes a living reality. As Epistle to the Romans 6 teaches, the baptized person shares in Christ's Life, and is enabled to walk in newness of life. Thus, the encounter is not momentary; it becomes a state of being in relationship.
Conclusion
In the article "Baptism and Co-Existence," Jansen's concept can be expressed as a dynamic movement: God freely offers Himself in love, while human nature (re-created by redemption), is given the capacity to respond. The person, moved by grace, turns toward God in freedom. This turning becomes a personal encounter, realized in faith; and sacramentally, grounded in baptism.
At its deepest level, Jansen's insight is profoundly simple yet transformative. Salvation is not merely about being forgiven or improved; it is about meeting God as a Person. In that meeting, the human person does not lose freedom, but finds it fulfilled. To "turn to God" is therefore not an external act of obligation, but the awakening of the deepest truth of the human person: that we are created for relationship, and finally become ourselves only when we freely answer "yes" to the God Who first says "yes" to us.
Thus, Jansen has expressed that redemption is not merely about escaping sin: it is about becoming fully human in communion with God."
Where heaven bends to touch the soul
To river Jordan, still and wide,
Jesus walked with humble stride.
John the Baptist, hands aspace,
Poured water upon Living Grace.
Waters stir, heavens sigh,
Holy Spirit as dove draws nigh:
God's Voice declares from realms above,
This is God's Son, Whom all must love.
Yet more than this the moment gave,
Not only Christ, the world to save.
For in that stream, so pure, so deep;
Our hidden souls were stirred from sleep.
For there began a mystery bright,
Re-creation bathed in light;
A seed was sown in human frame,
Holy spark, a living flame.
A new potential, softly laid,
Within hearts that sin had swayed.
New freedom born post Fall so grim,
Now drawing souls to turn to Him.
No longer bound by shadowed chain,
Nor captive to old weight of stain,
The will once bent and turned aside,
Finds strength to face the healing tide.
For grace does not the soul compel,
But teaches where true freedoms dwell.
It lifts the gaze, it clears the sight,
To meet our God in living light.
A person meets the Person true,
No distant law, but Love in view;
And deep within, a quiet flame
Wakens to call God by Name.
This gift is not for some alone,
Nor locked behind a guarded throne;
To every heart the grace is given,
Path renewed, a door to heaven.
And faith - O faith! - that sacred fire,
The soul's response, the heart's desire,
Takes what is hidden, still, unknown,
And makes the seed of life full-grown.
Then through the waters, pure and mild,
Each soul is born a living child;
In Baptism grace descends anew,
And makes the ancient promise true.
What lay as gift becomes our breath,
A rising life from sin and death;
The turning heart, the opened eye,
Now meets our God, no longer shy.
On Jordan's stream, still speaks today,
Of freedom found in mercy's way -
Where Christ first stood, we too may stand,
Re-made by Love's eternal Hand.
[1] Fr G.M.A. Jansen. (Norbert Jansen OP). p 13, Pro Veritate Vol V No. 12. Baptism and Co-existence. 15 April 1967
https://sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files/PvApr67.pdf
[2] IAS Express. Actuality and Potentiality in Aristotle's Philosophy. Accessed 10/04 2026.
https://www.iasexpress.net/modules/1-7-actuality-and-potentiality-in-aristotles-philosophy/
[3] Aristotle. Metaphysics, Book IX (Theta)
[4] Aquinas, St Thomas. Summa Theologiae. I-II, q.109-114
[5] Augustine of Hippo, St. Confessions, Book VIII. On Nature and Grace
[6] Buber, Martin. I and Thou. Edinburgh. T & T Clarke
https://www.maximusveritas.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/iandthou.pdf
[7] Rahner, Karl. Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity (Accessed 10/04/2026)
https://archive.org/details/foundationsofchr0000rahn/page/n3/mode/2up
and
Vandervelde, George. Theological Studies 49. The Grammar of Grace: Karl Rahner as a watershed in contemporary theology. Page 446. Institute of Christian Studies, Toronto: 1988. (Accessed 10/04/2026)
https://theologicalstudies.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/49.3.3.pdf
[8] Eberhard, K. Karl Rahner and the Supernatural Existential. Thought: Fordham University Quarterly 46 (4): 537-561 (1971) (Accessed 10/04/2026)
https://philpapers.org/rec/EBEKRA
[9] Nassif B. 2021. Athanasius A C.S. Lewis of the Early Church. Cristian Research Institute. 2021 (Athanasius, On the Incarnation, paragraph 54) (Accessed 10/04/2026)
https://www.equip.org/articles/athanasius-a-c-s-lewis-of-the-early-church/
With thanks to sahistory.org.za, insexpress.net, iasexpress, maximusveritas.com, archive.org, theologicalstudies,net, philpapers.org and equip.org
Image courtesy of Chatgpt and CN Whittle, "Jesus is baptised in the River Jordan"
